Estonia's Reform Party has managed to stay out of IRL's troubles - SDE politician

Illustration: graafika: Silver Alt

Commenting on the results of the latest party popularity poll, deputy chair of the Social Democratic Party (SDE) group in parliament Eiki Nestor observed that there are no big differences in support for the top three Estonian parties and attributed the continued rise in the Reform Party's support to its ability to stay out of coalition partner's troubles.

With regard to SDE's high rating, Nestor said it's great to place first, but in reality the top three parties are going neck and neck and there is little difference in their popularity. "It's a matter of luck that our support is highest, but you have to have a little luck. Actually it was to be expected that the gap between parties with the highest support would narrow this month," the Social Democrat lawmaker told BNS.

In Nestor's opinion, the continued rise of the Reform Party is due to the fact that the funding scandal which broke last spring is being forgotten. "It's an old political truth that scandals live for some time and then people start forgetting. Their rating obviously was hit by the scandal, and it'll take them a while to work their way back to the top," he said.

Commenting on the combined support of the two coalition parties, Reform and Pro Patria and Res Publica Union (IRL), Nestor observed that the Reform Party has managed for several months to distance itself from the troubles of its coalition partner which has to some extent tipped the scales in Reform's favor and to the disadvantage of IRL. "The Reform Party has for example distanced itself from the search for director general of the Police and Border Guard Board and taken a position that is better understandable to the public than its partner's," he said.

It's not a surprise that Center Party supporters were not affected by the so-called party fees scandal which broke out in Tallinn earlier this month, the Social Democrat politician said.

"It influenced SDE electorate to vote even more firmly for Social Democrats, but it certainly does not influence the Center Party's electorate. I believe their voters either don't think this scandal has any importance or, who knows, maybe some think that's the way things should be. It was no surprise this didn't influence support for the Center Party. If it had any impact at all, it was perhaps in the direction that people who would not have voted for the Center Party anyway are even more certain not to do this in the future," Nestor said.

The scandal broke in mid-March after reports in the press that Center Party chairman and Tallinn Mayor Edgar Savisaar had asked for the resignation of four city officials allegedly because they had not paid the party a 5 percent fee for the privilege of holding their positions.

The ruling Reform Party almost drew even with the opposition SDE and Center Party in the latest popularity poll.

If parliamentary elections were held now 27 percent of respondents would vote for SDE, 26 percent for Center and 25 percent for Reform, according to the poll TNS Emor took for public broadcaster ERR in March.

Compared to the previous month, support for the Reform Party climbed 2 percent and for the Social Democrats 1 percent. Center's popularity remained at the previous level. IRL, the other half of the two-party governing coalition, saw its backing slip 2 percent from the previous month to 15 percent.

Support for the two opposition parties combined was 53 percent against the coalition's 40 percent, practically unchanged in monthly comparison.