Estonia’s northeastern border city of Narva now has two rival city council chairmen and two rival mayors, ERR reports. Earlier, the opposition Estonian Centre Party and populist Plan B movement gained a majority in the city council and decided to convene a city council meeting on their own, given that the incumbent chairman, Mihhail Stalnuhhin,…
The overwhelming majority, or 81%, of Estonians believe that their country should always offer armed resistance if attacked by another state, according to an Emor survey for the Ministry of Defence, ERR reports. Around 50% of residents believe that Estonia can defend itself until allied assistance arrives. Also, 62% of residents are willing to take…
Latvians and Lithuanians work longer hours than Estonians, according to Eurostat data, LSM reports. The average working hours for employed persons in both Latvia and Lithuania stood at 38.3 hours per week in 2024, compared to just 36.5 hours in Estonia. The EU average was 36.0 hours. For employees, average working hours were 38.6 hours…
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…
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…
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…
Estonia’s national-conservative opposition party, Fatherland, had 26.7% support in Norstat’s poll conducted in May 2026, ERR reports. The opposition Estonian Centre Party came in second with 21.7%, followed by two other opposition parties — the Social Democratic Party with 14.3% and the Conservative People’s Party of Estonia with 13.7%. Support for the ruling Estonian Reform…