War in Ukraine at the heart of Estonian elections
In Estonia, centre-right Prime Minister Kaja Kallas’ Reform Party won Sunday’s parliamentary elections against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine and the economic crisis ahead of the far-right EKRE party.
The war in Ukraine played a prominent role in these elections. Estonia, a country of 1.3 million people bordering Russia and a member of the European Union and NATO, took the lead last year in international calls for more military aid to Ukraine in the face of the Russian invasion.
Estonian military aid to Ukraine currently exceeds 1% of its GDP, the largest contribution of any country relative to the size of its economy.
“I don’t think that will change with such a strong mandate,” said Kaja Kallas on Sunday. “The other parties, with the exception of EKRE and maybe the center, are on the same line. So I think we can find common ground here,” she added.
During the election campaign, EKRE for its part pleaded against the additional arms deliveries to Kiev and asserted that Estonia should not harm Moscow in its relations. He also campaigned for the “protection” of Estonian workers from the influx of Ukrainian refugees and other migrants.