Estonia’s Chancellor of Justice, Ülle Madise, has confirmed that she is ready to run for president if there is sufficient support in the Estonian parliament, the Riigikogu, for her candidacy, parliamentary speaker Lauri Hussar announced, ERR reports. Speaking after a meeting of the parliament’s council of elders, Hussar said that parties would now begin collecting…
Estonia’s Chancellor of Justice, Ülle Madise, said that she would “seriously consider” running for president if there was sufficient support for her candidacy in parliament, ERR reports. Madise noted that as head of an independent constitutional institution, she cannot put herself forward as a candidate. The chancellor of justice “does not and cannot associate herself…
Estonia’s newly appointed ambassador to the US, Hannes Hanso, has announced that he would be ready to run for president, ERR reports. Previously, Hanso has served as Estonia’s ambassador to China, defence minister, mayor of Kuressaare, MP, and MEP. He was a member of the Social Democratic Party (SDE) from 2009 to 2019. Speaking in…
Estonia’s Chancellor of Justice, Ülle Madise, is currently the strongest candidate to become the country’s next president, according to experts, ERR reports. Another possible candidate often mentioned is longtime diplomat Jonatan Vseviov, current secretary general of the Estonian Foreign Ministry. Political scientist Tõnis Leht of the Liberal Citizen Foundation (SALK) suggested that both Madise and…
Estonia’s opposition Social Democratic Party (SDE) has proposed the country’s Chancellor of Justice, Ülle Madise, as a candidate for president, ERR reports. SDE’s deputy chairman, Tanel Kiik, argued that Madise had the potential to secure a two-thirds majority needed to be elected in the Estonian parliament, the Riigikogu. He said that SDE had discussed Madise’s…
Every major party in Estonia has added to the state’s debt burden, according to Kaspar Oja, senior economist at the Bank of Estonia, ERR reported. While the biggest budget deficits emerged during the coronavirus pandemic, Estonia has had structural deficits every year since 2017, Oja noted. His analysis found that when in government, the Conservative…
Estonia’s national-conservative opposition party, Fatherland, remained the most popular political party in June 2026 with 23.5% support, which was largely unchanged from 24% in May 2026, according to Emor’s latest poll, ERR reported. The Estonian Centre Party came in second with 21.5% (21%) support, followed by the Social Democratic Party (SDE) with 16.2% (17%) and…
Estonia’s most popular choice for prime minister is Urmas Reinsalu, chairman of the national-conservative opposition party, Fatherland, according to a new Norstat poll for the Institute for Societal Research (YI), ERR reports. In the survey, 27% of respondents preferred Reinsalu for prime minister in June 2026, followed by Mihhail Kõlvart, chairman of the opposition Estonian…
The Estonian parliament, the Riigikogu, will convene for an extraordinary session on 2 September 2026 to elect the country’s next president, ERR reports. The only candidate named so far is former interior minister Mart Helme, who was nominated by the opposition Conservative People’s Party of Estonia (EKRE). Incumbent President Alar Karis has not yet announced…
