Latvia’s United List alliance has become the country’s most popular political group, according to a new SKDS poll for LTV conducted in July 2026, LSM reports. Support for United List stood at 12.2%, which was up from 9.8% in the previous poll in June 2026. The non-parliamentary electoral alliance of Sovereign Power and Alliance of…
The council of elders of the Estonian parliament, the Riigikogu, will meet in early August 2026 to discuss the election of the country’s next president, ERR reports. Parliamentary speaker Lauri Hussar said that the council would meet within the next two weeks. He hoped that all parliamentary parties would come to the meeting with a…
European Commission official Maive Rute has announced that she is willing to run for president of Estonia, ERR reports. Currently, Rute serves as deputy director-general of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, and Entrepreneurship (DG GROW). Her name was first mentioned as a possible presidential candidate by former president Toomas Hendrik Ilves in…
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…
