Estonia's Eesti 200 to Decide on Joint Election Run With Greens

Kristina Kallas, chair of Estonia's governing party Eesti 200 and the country's education minister, will propose at the party's board meeting on Sunday that it contest the March 2027 Riigikogu (Estonian parliament) election together with the Greens (Rohelised). The Greens will discuss a merger at their own general assembly at the end of October. Both parties are polling well below the 5 percent threshold needed to win seats.

Kallas told broadcaster ERR she would make the proposal but declined to comment further on the merger or her own political plans. Media reports that the two parties were weighing a joint effort emerged late last month.

Greens: change is needed

Rasmus Lahtvee, one of the Greens' leaders, said talks with Eesti 200 are under way and that the parties have been exploring options and what they have in common. He said something has to change in Estonia's political landscape. The decision must be taken by the general meeting, whose exact date has not yet been set. According to him, clarity is needed soon, because the president must declare the election by December 6. Polling day is March 7, 2027.

Low ratings

A Norstat poll published this week put Eesti 200 at 1.2 percent and the Greens at 0.7 percent. An ERR-commissioned Emor poll in September gave 1.9 and 1.1 percent respectively.

Eesti 200 was founded in 2018 and won 14 Riigikogu seats in 2023, forming a government with Reform and, until spring last year, the Social Democrats. Its rating began to collapse soon after the election, when a scandal over donations to Ukraine engulfed a former MP. This summer MP Kalev Stoicescu left the party, leaving the coalition as a minority government.

Eesti 200 has previously approached the Social Democrats and the Free Party about mergers without success. The Greens have more members, 705 against 579, but many of their candidates cannot afford the €946 election deposit, which Eesti 200 could help provide.