Estonian President Alar Karis will announce whether he plans to run for a second term in office just after Midsummer Day, which is on 24 June 2026, ERR reports. Urmas Reinsalu, chairman of the national-conservative opposition party, Fatherland, said that the leadership council of the Estonian parliament, the Riigikogu, would not move forward with any…
The Lithuanian Social Democratic Party (LSDP) will decide in early June 2026 whether to continue in the current ruling coalition, the party’s chairman, Mindaugas Sinkevicius, announced, BNS reported. Besides LSDP, the coalition includes the far-right populist Dawn of Nemunas (PPNA), the Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union (LVZS), and the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania…
The Latvian parliament, the Saeima, has approved a new four-party coalition government led by Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs of the United List, LSM reports. Altogether 66 MPs voted for and 25 against the new right-of-centre government. Besides the United List, the new ruling coalition includes the National Alliance, New Unity, and the Union of Greens…
Estonia’s GDP totalled EUR 10.2bn at current prices in the first quarter of 2026, which was up 2.4% from the same period of 2025, according to Statistics Estonia, ERR reported. This was the fourth consecutive quarter of GDP growth and the first time that economic growth exceeded 2% since the first quarter of 2022. Value…
Baltic transport ministers have discussed Lithuania’s proposal to stop seasonal time changes, LSM reports. Latvia’s outgoing Transport Minister, Atis Svinka, said that the Baltic ministers conceptually supported a transition to permanent summer time. He stressed that the Baltic States needed to have a unified position on the question, pointing to the example of the Estonian-Latvian…
Hostile states were probably responsible for a massive data leak at Lithuania’s Centre of Registers (VIRC), President Gitanas Nauseda announced, BNS reported. He said that the theft of over 600,000 records from VIRC’s real estate register was a matter of national security. Nauseda slammed the government for not disclosing the data breach until one or…
The number of unemployed people in Latvia totalled 66,400 in the first quarter of 2026, which was 3,100 (4.5%) fewer than in the same period of 2025, the Central Statistical Bureau (CSP) reported. Compared to the fourth quarter of 2025, the number of unemployed rose by 2,600 (4.0%), however. The country’s unemployment rate stood at…
Estonia’s Finance Minister, Jürgen Ligi, vowed to defend budget discipline and push back against populist spending proposals ahead of the parliamentary elections in March 2027, ERR reported. Ligi said that the country’s political culture had deteriorated badly, and acknowledged that populism had crept into his own Estonian Reform Party as well. He insisted on the…
Recent drone incidents in the Baltic States are part of Russia’s strategy to destabilise democratic societies in the region, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stated, BNS reports. Speaking after a meeting with Baltic presidents in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, von der Leyen stressed the need for EU unity in support of the three…