Estonian Parliamentary Election, 2015

[Dhomland]

If I were Estonian, I'd probably vote for Pro Patria and Res Publica or maybe Reform Party.

[Teemant]

Debate in Postimees was quite nice actually between Reform party and IRL + 2 experts. Not blaming each other but talking about what needs to be done.

[Tallinna Rahvavabariik]

Debate in Postimees was quite nice actually between Reform party and IRL + 2 experts. Not blaming each other but talking about what needs to be done.

I agree and also note that it wasn't strictly a debate but rather a discussion. It's always nice to watch educated people intelligently and deeply discussing certain topics instead of quoting party programs and I wish more election shows on TV were like that. Then again, the topic (defence policy in the context of information warfare and other related topics) is probably one of the few areas where there is a wide consensus among different parties.

[Teemant]

3 weeks until elections.

I wonder if anyone knows when there will be some new polls? "Latest" ones are now about month old.

[Teemant]

Checked Postimees few minutes ago and they had latest popularity ratings. Elections are in 3 weeks.

26% Centre Party
22% Reform Party
16% Social Democrats
15% Pro Patria and Res Publica Union
6% Free Party
6% EKRE

I'm not happy with these results. I hope that Reform Party will win the elections.

[Tallinna Rahvavabariik]

Checked Postimees few minutes ago and they had latest popularity ratings. Elections are in 3 weeks.

26% Centre Party
22% Reform Party
16% Social Democrats
15% Pro Patria and Res Publica Union
6% Free Party
6% EKRE

I'm not happy with these results. I hope that Reform Party will win the elections.

Yeah. Okay. That's really bad.
Free Party's support dropped a bit as I expected and EKRE is slowly climbing but what is really worrysome is the fact that Reform and SDE have both had significant drops over the last few months, Reform from 28% in November to 22% in February and SDE from 18% in November to 16% in February. Especially in the light of Centre Party's strong showing. If the support remains at this level, it's going to be very hard to predict what the next coalition will look like but if the aim of the other parties is to keep Center from power as they have all claimed then it's going to be very hard to reach an agreement between three or even four parties.

[Bandwagon]

Just a question:
How do you have so many debates?
I mean is the whole election campaign just loads and loads of debates?

[Busen]

Checked Postimees few minutes ago and they had latest popularity ratings. Elections are in 3 weeks.

26% Centre Party
22% Reform Party
16% Social Democrats
15% Pro Patria and Res Publica Union
6% Free Party
6% EKRE

I'm not happy with these results. I hope that Reform Party will win the elections.

If we count the Free Party and Ekre as Estonian than it seems that the Russian parties will have 42% of the share yet there are only less than 30% in the whole populations.

Are there majy Estonians voting for the Center or Social democrats?

[Teemant]

Just a question:
How do you have so many debates?
I mean is the whole election campaign just loads and loads of debates?

I guess Estonians (I do) like debates.

[Azov Battalion]

Conservative people's party of course!

Estonia should be for Estonians....not for foreigners.

[Teemant]

Checked Postimees few minutes ago and they had latest popularity ratings. Elections are in 3 weeks.

26% Centre Party
22% Reform Party
16% Social Democrats
15% Pro Patria and Res Publica Union
6% Free Party
6% EKRE

I'm not happy with these results. I hope that Reform Party will win the elections.

If we count the Free Party and Ekre as Estonian than it seems that the Russian parties will have 42% of the share yet there are only less than 30% in the whole populations.

Are there majy Estonians voting for the Center or Social democrats?

Social democrats seem to be more popular among Estonian voters than Centre party. Social democrats have many popular people in their list like actors, musicians and journalists. I guess it helps their rating as well.

[Teemant]

It seems that this time politicans must cook rabbits in looduslik valik.

[Tallinna Rahvavabariik]

Just a question:
How do you have so many debates?
I mean is the whole election campaign just loads and loads of debates?

I think it's worth pointing out that a lot of those debates and election shows are relatively simple webcasts on major news websites and not prime-time shows on TV. On one hand it means they're relatively cheap to organize and only require the participants to find the time to show up, on the other hand though I doubt that most of these debates draw meaningfully large audiences, probably only the people who are actively interested in politics.

If we count the Free Party and Ekre as Estonian than it seems that the Russian parties will have 42% of the share yet there are only less than 30% in the whole populations.

Are there majy Estonians voting for the Center or Social democrats?

Well, personally I wouldn't classify any party in Estonia as Russian. The last two that declared themselves to represent specifically the Russian community were the Constitution Party (which joined the Left Party to create the United Left Party) and the Russian Party in Estonia (which joined SDE). I also think that classifying parties by nationality is conceptually wrong because it shouldn't be a political issue. However, it is undeniable that the Center Party is the clear favorite among local Russians. According to a recent survey, 76% of non-Estonians support the Center Party, 12% support SDE, 4% IRL, 3% Reform and 1% support both EKRE and Free Party. Also, I disagree with the characterization of SDE as a Russian party because unlike the other parties they have been trying to deemphasize the issue of nationality in politics. The fact that SDE doesn't go along with the more right-wing parties by trying to scare Estonians with Russians or with Center Party who scares Russians with Estonians does not make them a Russian or even Russian-leaning party in my opinion. Ok, rant over.

Conservative people's party of course!

Estonia should be for Estonians....not for foreigners.

I wasn't even going to comment on that but... this whole nationalism thing falls apart the moment you start analyzing who actually qualifies as an Estonian (or as a representative of any other nationality) but that's a completely different topic and I'm not going to derail this thread by going any further with that. I guess it should be noted that because the respective terms in Estonian and in English do not exactly overlap, there is some confusion to their meaning. While the Estonian word "rahvuslus" is often translated as "nationalism" (and "rahvus" as "nationality"), it is my opinion that at least in the context of Estonian politics, this word should more correctly be translated "ethnicism". That's because the Estonian word "rahvus" combines both the ethnic and socio-cultural meaning of one's nationality/ethnicity. That being because Estonians are a monoethnic group while bigger nations tend to consist of different ethnicities.

It seems that this time politicans must cook rabbits in looduslik valik.

I'm more interested in what's going to happen to Yoko Alender because the preview showed others carrying her (reportedly to a rescue helicopter) and it seemed like she had broken a leg. I hope she's alright.

[Teemant]

Just a question:
How do you have so many debates?
I mean is the whole election campaign just loads and loads of debates?

I think it's worth pointing out that a lot of those debates and election shows are relatively simple webcasts on major news websites and not prime-time shows on TV. One one hand it means they're relatively cheap to organize and only require the participants to find the time to show up, on the other hand though I doubt that most of these debates draw meaningfully large audiences, probably only the people who are actively interested in politics.

If we count the Free Party and Ekre as Estonian than it seems that the Russian parties will have 42% of the share yet there are only less than 30% in the whole populations.

Are there majy Estonians voting for the Center or Social democrats?

Well, personally I wouldn't classify any party in Estonia as Russian. The last two that declared themselves to represent specifically the Russian community were the Constitution Party (which joined the Left Party to create the United Left Party) and the Russian Party in Estonia (which joined SDE). I also think that classifying parties by nationality is conceptually wrong because it shouldn't be a political issue. However, it is undeniable that the Center Party is the clear favorite among local Russians. According to a recent survey, 76% of non-Estonians support the Center Party, 12% support SDE, 4% IRL, 3% Reform and 1% support both EKRE and Free Party. Also, I disagree with the characterization of SDE as a Russian party because unlike the other parties they have been trying to deemphasize the issue of nationality in politics. The fact that SDE doesn't go along with the more right-wing parties by trying to scare Estonians with Russians or with Center Party who scares Russians with Estonians does not make them a Russian or even Russian-leaning party in my opinion. Ok, rant over.

Conservative people's party of course!

Estonia should be for Estonians....not for foreigners.

I wasn't even going to comment on that but... this whole nationalism thing falls apart the moment you start analyzing who actually qualifies as an Estonian (or as a representative of any other nationality) but that's a completely different topic and I'm not going to derail this thread by going any further with that. I guess it should be noted that because the respective terms in Estonian and in English do not exactly overlap, there is some confusion to their meaning. While the Estonian word "rahvuslus" is often translated as "nationalism" (and "rahvus" as "nationality"), it is my opinion that at least in the context of Estonian politics, this word should more correctly be translated "ethnicism". That's because the Estonian word "rahvus" combines both the ethnic and socio-cultural meaning of one's nationality/ethnicity. That being because Estonians are a monoethnic group while bigger nations tend to consist of different ethnicities.

It seems that this time politicans must cook rabbits in looduslik valik.

I'm more interested in what's going to happen to Yoko Alender because the preview showed others carrying her (reportedly to a rescue helicopter) and it seemed like she had broken a leg. I hope she's alright.

I think that this carrying to rescue helicopter is an competition between two competing teams. Something like what do to in case when one gets severely injured and can't walk/move anymore or something like that.

[Tallinna Rahvavabariik]

Tonight the second debate on defence and security issues took place on ETV, this time with the six parties that have full electoral lists. Without going into specifics I'll mention that in my opinion there was no clear winner since all the candidates made some good points and obviously had enough knowledge to talk about these topics. However, I did find Artur Talvik from the Free Party to be the weakest of the six and his antics would perhaps have been more fitting for the last week's debate.

Also, on Postimees earlier today Center Party and SDE were debating on education policy. What was interesting is that the issue of Russian-language education was not brought up at all, since both of those parties are generally considered to take this issue quite seriously. I'd say that SDE (represented by the minister of education Jevgeni Ossinovski and Anto Liivat) were the winners because while they may not have gone into very specific details, they did manage to point out one very serious problem in our education today which is that the teaching and learning process is very much fact-based and that newer teaching methods have not really taken hold yet. In my opinion these days it's not that important to know certain facts about historical figures but rather to have skills to find the information because unlike earlier in history the information is actually widely available thanks to the internet.

Also, for non-Estonian it might be interesting to know that an English-language debate was held today by the Foreign Investors Council of Estonia with representatives from Reform, IRL, Center and SDE taking part:

The Foreign Investors Council of Estonia (FICE), in cooperation with the Foreign Chambers of Commerce, is holding an English-language interactive pre-election debate with the representatives of the major political parties in Estonia, with the focus on business climate and foreign investments.

You can view it here along with the partly quoted article: http://news.err.ee/v/politics/4d20fff1- ... f987b917ea (you need to go to the 37th minute mark for the debate to actually begin though, before it's just a screen with some backround noise)

[Liberty and Linguistics]

From what I've heard, the Centre Party is doing well in the polls.

I will respond by saying one word.

Fuck.

[Dejanic]

From what I've heard, the Centre Party is doing well in the polls.

I will respond by saying one word.

Fuck.

Just imagine it. The Centre party wins, and Russia democratically invades "to defend the pro Russian population".

[Liberty and Linguistics]

From what I've heard, the Centre Party is doing well in the polls.

I will respond by saying one word.

Fuck.

Just imagine it. The Centre party wins, and Russia democratically invades "to defend the pro Russian population".

"Guys, guys, Estonia was once part of Russia. Ergo, it must still be Russia. They even had a referendum where there was an 106% voter turnout. Proof that all the Estonians want to be Россия."

[Teemant]

Tonight the second debate on defence and security issues took place on ETV, this time with the six parties that have full electoral lists. Without going into specifics I'll mention that in my opinion there was no clear winner since all the candidates made some good points and obviously had enough knowledge to talk about these topics. However, I did find Artur Talvik from the Free Party to be the weakest of the six and his antics would perhaps have been more fitting for the last week's debate.

Also, on Postimees earlier today Center Party and SDE were debating on education policy. What was interesting is that the issue of Russian-language education was not brought up at all, since both of those parties are generally considered to take this issue quite seriously. I'd say that SDE (represented by the minister of education Jevgeni Ossinovski and Anto Liivat) were the winners because while they may not have gone into very specific details, they did manage to point out one very serious problem in our education today which is that the teaching and learning process is very much fact-based and that newer teaching methods have not really taken hold yet. In my opinion these days it's not that important to know certain facts about historical figures but rather to have skills to find the information because unlike earlier in history the information is actually widely available thanks to the internet.

Also, for non-Estonian it might be interesting to know that an English-language debate was held today by the Foreign Investors Council of Estonia with representatives from Reform, IRL, Center and SDE taking part:

The Foreign Investors Council of Estonia (FICE), in cooperation with the Foreign Chambers of Commerce, is holding an English-language interactive pre-election debate with the representatives of the major political parties in Estonia, with the focus on business climate and foreign investments.

You can view it here along with the partly quoted article: http://news.err.ee/v/politics/4d20fff1- ... f987b917ea (you need to go to the 37th minute mark for the debate to actually begin though, before it's just a screen with some backround noise)

Defence debate best was Mihkelson (IRL) in my opinion but he knows a lot about these topics as well. In other shows/debates (doesn't have to be related to elections) he has always been very reasonable in my opinion and it is interesting to hear what he has to say. Best politician in IRL in my opinion.

I wasn't disappointed with Laaneots (Reform) as well when considering that he is new to debates like this. But I think we all agree that in that studio nobody knows more about military than Laaneots.

[Teemant]

From what I've heard, the Centre Party is doing well in the polls.

I will respond by saying one word.

Fuck.

It makes me worry.

[Tallinna Rahvavabariik]

As for Center Party's lead, I'll note again what I've said earlier in this thread. I see no reason to panic. There is no way that they would ever gain the majority in the parliament which means that they'd need a coalition partner to form a government. Since all the other parties have been, to say it modestly, lukewarm regarding any possible coalition agreement with the Center Party, there is little chance of that happening even if Center Party wins the elections. And in the most unlikely case of them actually getting an outright majority in the parliament, I still really don't see the Ukrainian scenario playing out in Estonia because the situation is just that much different and the Center Party is very very unlikely to do anything about our membership in the EU and NATO.

Defence debate best was Mihkelson (IRL) in my opinion but he knows a lot about these topics as well. In other shows/debates (doesn't have to be related to elections) he has always been very reasonable in my opinion and it is interesting to hear what he has to say. Best politician in IRL in my opinion.

I wasn't disappointed with Laaneots (Reform) as well when considering that he is new to debates like this. But I think we all agree that in that studio nobody knows more about military than Laaneots.

I agree about Mihkelson, he's also my favorite politician from IRL - always level-headed and knowledgeable. As for General Laaneots, I had great respect for the man when he was the commander-in-chief of the Defence Forces (I find his successor Riho Terras to be inferior) and while I have no doubt that his knowledge regarding the military was way above the other candidates there, I find it somewhat strange to see him in the role of a politician trying to debate issues with other people and his inexperience in that field showed IMO.

[Calimera II]

From what I've heard, the Centre Party is doing well in the polls.

I will respond by saying one word.

Fuck.

They don't seem to be really that bad.


''In the local elections of 20 October 2013, the Center Party and his leader Edgar Savisaar reported an extraordinary result getting the absolute majority in the city of Tallinn obtaining 53% of votes : 46 seats out of 79 (2 more than 2009 results), far over the second party Erakond Isamaa ja Res Publica Liit that took 19% of votes: 16 seats. The administration of the capital city in the past years was clearly appreciated by citizens (particularly the introduction of free public transportation for all Tallinn residents).''
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estonian_Centre_Party

[Scepez]

From what I've heard, the Centre Party is doing well in the polls.

I will respond by saying one word.

Fuck.

They don't seem to be really that bad.


''In the local elections of 20 October 2013, the Center Party and his leader Edgar Savisaar reported an extraordinary result getting the absolute majority in the city of Tallinn obtaining 53% of votes : 46 seats out of 79 (2 more than 2009 results), far over the second party Erakond Isamaa ja Res Publica Liit that took 19% of votes: 16 seats. The administration of the capital city in the past years was clearly appreciated by citizens (particularly the introduction of free public transportation for all Tallinn residents).''
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estonian_Centre_Party

From the same article
"The controversial contract of co-operation between the Estonian Centre Party and the Russia's dominant political party of power United Russia has probably contributed to the success in ethnic Russian electorate as well."

You know, the one with Putin? That screams "Get rid of them, NOW!".

[The New Greater Fascist Federation]

Add the Estonian Independence Party?
Gotta love them.

[Lytenburgh]

From the same article
"The controversial contract of co-operation between the Estonian Centre Party and the Russia's dominant political party of power United Russia has probably contributed to the success in ethnic Russian electorate as well."

You know, the one with Putin? That screams "Get rid of them, NOW!".

My-my! Banning a party on the ethnical gorunds! How "progressive" and "European", Estonia!

Maybe, just - maybe, if the level of general scaremongery was a little bit less, if the so-called "True" Estonians didn't make others second-class citizens and always view them as potential traitors and try to culturally exterminate them, then there won't be such tensions tensions, easily exploited by interested parties?