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Estonia has stuffed three elections into intense 1.5 years – the local ones last fall; the EU elections this past spring; and the Riigikogu elections when next year’s winter is over. If, among other things, the coalition to be formed next spring will basically agree regarding the next President, our politicians are left with two and a half years of no elections.
In all democratic countries, politicians do complain that with elections happening too often, it is difficult to carry out essential and vital reforms. Changes affecting the entire nation are postponed, fearing any slightest public skirmish which would perhaps lead to a little defeat at local councils – say. This fear in hears of politicians may somewhat be understood, as in any change the losers surface fast while the beneficial effects of reforms usually take their time to arrive.
The coalition to emerge next spring will lack such pretext to avoid changes. With 2.5 years left for reforming, no-one will be able to hide behind some incurable election-time people pleasers.
On the other hand, the timetable at hand attributes a dramatic touch to the next parliamentary elections: these will set the power lines for many a year. Thinking on the domestic-political fall, the first thing to strike the eye is the discrepancy – putting it mildly – between the current coalition’s springtime promises and the options in next year budget. With that in mind, it would be nothing short of a miracle if squirrel and soc dem friendship should convincingly be acted out till the end.
On top of all that, after a long while we have a party in the opposition with fresh government experience in back pocket – IRL. To the tiniest detail, they know their opponents and the practicality of governing – thus, surely, the precise places to attack, to dig for a scandal.
The increasingly obvious Putinisation of Centre Party, its mental distancing from Estonia and Europe and explicitly from values underlining the freedom of the individual, is serving up reasons for some politicians, as well as a considerable amount of Russian speaking people, to leave that camp. The pitiful dependency of a certain politician on an anti-freedom regime is increasingly obvious to all.