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…
The party congress of Lithuania’s governing coalition member, the Union of Democrats for Lithuania (DSVL), has elected MEP Virginijus Sinkevicius as the party chairman for a four-year term, BNS reports. Sinkevicius defeated Health Minister Linas Kukuraitis soundly in the leadership vote. Sinkevicius has served as DSVL’s interim chairman since April 2026, following the resignation of…
The city council of Estonia’s mostly Russian-speaking northeastern border town of Narva has elected the Estonian Centre Party’s Jaan Toots as the city’s new mayor, ERR reports. Toots replaced Katri Raik, who was ousted in a no-confidence vote after one city councillor defected from Raik’s Respect alliance to the Centre Party’s coalition partner, Plan B,…
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…
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…
Latvia’s ruling United List alliance and the populist opposition party, Latvia First (LPV), were the country’s most popular political parties in June 2026, according to a new SKDS poll for LTV, LSM reports. United List’s support stood at 9.8%, which was up sharply from 6.8% in April-May 2026. Support for LPV was 9.8% as well,…
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…
