- Title: ESTONIA-ELECTION/REAX Estonia's ruling, pro-NATO center-right claims election win
- Date: 2nd March 2015
- Summary: TALLINN, ESTONIA (MARCH 1, 2015) (REUTERS) ****WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** VARIOUS OF REPRESENTATIVES OF REFORM PARTY APPLAUDING REPRESENTATIVES OF REFORM PARTY SHOUTING: "TAAVI, TAAVI" ESTONIAN PRIME MINISTER TAAVI ROIVAS GIVING SPEECH (SOUNDBITE) (Estonian) ESTONIAN PRIME MINISTER, TAAVI ROIVAS, SAYING: "The Reform Party is the winner of the 2015 parliamentary
- Embargoed: 17th March 2015 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Estonia
- Country: Estonia
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVAEK0I4N0N9A2ZWR41JLQCWX6N0
- Story Text: Estonia's centre-right prime minister claimed victory in an election on Sunday (March 1), cementing pro-NATO policies after a campaign dominated by fears of interference by neighbouring Russia following Moscow's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region.
Prime Minister Taavi Roivas' Reform Party won with 27.7 percent of the votes and 30 of the 101 parliamentary seats, down from the 28.6 percent it won in the last parliamentary election in 2011.
"The Reform Party is the winner of the 2015 parliamentary elections," Roivas announced.
It was only barely a victory as the current coalition lost seven seats while its main challenger gained one. The opposition centre-left Centre Party, which favours closer ties with Moscow to ensure security for the small Baltic state, was second on 24.8 percent and 27 seats, up from 23.3 percent in 2011.
Centre Party leader and mayor of Tallinn, Edgars Savisars, received the most individual votes - 24,848 Estonia ticked his name, an all-time record number.
Reform's coalition partners, the reformist Social Democrats, were down in third place with 15.2% of the votes and 15 seats, while the opposition union between "Pro Patria" and "Res Publica" (IRL) did almost as well with 13.7% votes and 14 seats.
In order to form a new government, Reform Party will need to bring a third party into the coalition.
Local media report that it might be the Estonian Free Party, an economically liberal newcomer which gained 8 seats.
Also possible is another new party, the anti-immigration Conservative People's Party of Estonia, which received 8.1% of the votes and 7 seats.
A political scientist at the University of Tartu, Rein Toomla, said a new coalition partner may bring greater instability and so predicted the new government would not last long.
"It will be a great problem because if we know that the former coalition, two parties, and they cannot work during all there, all these four years and if the next coalition will consist of three parties... then, you know, how many years? Maybe two years, not more," Toomla said.
Despite the uncertainty over the coalition, some residents of Tallinn said they were happy with the result.
"I hope everything will go on as well as it did before, so I am very satisfied," local resident Piret Narvik said.
Another resident called for "some innovations, on social matters".
Opinions differed on the preferred new coalition partner.
"I hope that the Reform Party and the Social Democratic Party will continue in the coalition and take on a third smaller brother, who should not be the conservatives," pensioner Eduard Odinets said.
Tallinn resident Heino Veldi, on the other hand, favoured the Estonian Free Party.
"I am hoping that the new coalition will be businesslike, so that the promises that have been made will be ... (fulfilled). First of all, I am counting on the Free Party," he said.
Other major parties have ruled out cooperating in government with the Centre Party, which signed a 2004 cooperation deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin's United Russia Party.
Asked if he would work with the Centre Party, Roivas said: "definitely not".
It is unclear if the assassination of Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov in Moscow on Friday (February 27), by an unknown attacker, affected the vote.
Among causes of tension, Tallinn has accused Russian security service of abducting an Estonian anti-smuggling security officer from the border last year. Russia says the officer, now in jail in Moscow, was detained as a suspected spy.
Under Reform-led coalition governments, Estonia has been one of few NATO members to keep defence spending at a NATO goal of 2 percent of gross domestic product.
Estonia's economic policy has also been consistently conservative since 1992 with a flat income tax and fiscal policy that eschews issuing government debt and aims for a balanced budget.
Its public sector debts for 2014 are projected at just 9.6 percent of GDP, against 175 percent for Greece.
Unemployment was 7.4 percent in 2014, down from 16.7 percent in 2010 when the country was in recession. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None