Ratas increasingly popular, Kallas losing ground among Reform voters
Prime Minister Jüri Ratas (Centre) currently enjoys greater support among voters than his party does. The leader of the opposition Reform Party, Kaja Kallas, is lagging behind: a new survey commissioned by daily Eesti Päevaleht shows Ratas at 32%, far ahead of Kallas' 17. Kallas has also lost some 10% of support with her own party's voters.
The paper's survey was carried out by Turu-uuringute AS, the same pollster that also did ERR's party ratings survey published on Thursday. The Centre Party scored 30% this month, ahead of the Reform Party's 28%.
With Ratas' personal approval rating at 32%, this puts the prime minister ahead of his party. The opposite is true for the leader of the largest opposition party, with Kallas falling a full 11% behind Reform.
Kallas started out strong in 2018, with her approval as the potential leader of Reform and the party's candidate for head of government lifting up her popularity. For example, a month before she took over Reform her public approval stood at 28%, compared to Ratas' 21%.
Following Kallas' taking over the party, there were several unendearing episodes on the way to neutralising her predecessor, Hanno Pevkur and his team. Along with the Reform Party's apparent difficulties finding a course for the coming election campaign, this contributed to ratings slipping. Especially since August, support for Ratas and Centre has been on the rise again, negatively affecting the opposition.
Kallas losing support within Reform Party voter base
Kallas' approval has lately shown a decreasing trend within her own voter base as well. While still in August 62% of Reform Party voters supported her as the country's next prime minister, this share has now shrunk to just 51%.
According to Päevaleht's survey, at the same time the share of Ratas supporters among the Reform Party's voters is on the rise, recently increasing from 13% to 18%.
Ratas is also the most popular candidate across all age groups. The only demographic where Kallas still beats Ratas is among the country's richest residents, who traditionally also tend to vote for Reform.
Other parties' candidates for prime minister meanwhile are far behind, with chairman of the Conservative People's Party of Estonia (EKRE), Mart Helme making it to 9% (compared to EKRE's 17%), and the Social Democrats' Jevgeni Ossinovski to 3% (compared to his party's 12%).
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Editor: Dario Cavegn
