A group of 30 public figures in Estonia have nominated Indrek Laul, CEO of Estonia Piano Factory, for president, ERR reports. The group behind Laul’s candidacy, which includes prominent entrepreneurs, academics, and cultural figures, stressed the need to bring together “knowledge, culture, and entrepreneurship.” Laul said that he would seek to unite “different worldviews, different…
Lithuania’s Court of Appeal has found MP Remigijus Zemaitaitis, leader of the far-right populist party, Dawn of Nemunas (PPNA), guilty of antisemitism, BNS reports. The court found that Zemaitaitis had incited hatred against Jews and grossly trivialised the Holocaust, systematically distorting historical facts and making “dehumanising comparisons.” The court ordered the MP to pay a…
Altogether 14 political groups have submitted lists of candidates for Latvia’s upcoming parliamentary elections in October 2026, according to the Central Election Commission (CVK), LETA reports. The number of candidates registered totals 1,434. In the previous parliamentary elections in 2022, there were 19 lists with 1,829 candidates. Only 33.1% of all candidates running in 2026…
Lithuania’s new government is not expected to make any major changes in foreign policy, LRT reports. Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevicius named regional security, Baltic cooperation, and strengthening ties with the US as his priorities, BNS and The Baltic Times reported. The government calls for a more united Europe, while maintaining strategic partnerships with Germany, Poland,…
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…
The Lithuanian parliament, the Seimas, has approved the programme of incoming Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevicius’s coalition government, BNS reported. Altogether 72 MPs voted for, 29 against, and 4 abstained. After the vote, the government’s ministers were officially sworn in to their posts. The new coalition includes Sinkevicius’s Social Democratic Party of Lithuania, the Union of…
A majority of members of the Estonian parliament, the Riigikogu, have signed a letter of protest against China’s new “law on ethnic unity,” BNS reported. In the letter sent to the Chinese embassy in Tallinn, the MPs noted that the law was aimed at assimilating ethnic minorities living in China, including Mongols, Tibetans, and Uyghurs….
Russia may be planning provocations against the Baltic States or Poland to test NATO unity, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda and Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics warned, BNS and LETA reported. Nauseda said that intelligence indicated that Russia could be preparing “targeted kinetic operations” against critical infrastructure in the region. Rinkevics said that the intelligence reports pointed…
China appears open to talks on normalising diplomatic relations with Lithuania, the chairman of the foreign affairs committee of the Lithuanian parliament, Remigijus Motuzas of the ruling Lithuanian Social Democratic Party (LSDP), stated, BNS reports. Speaking after a briefing by Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys, Motuzas said that China was “inclined to meet, communicate, and negotiate”…
