Europe | The centre can hold

Ukraine’s most committed backer wins a huge election victory in Estonia

Kaja Kallas, the prime minister, crushes her Eurosceptic populist opponents

Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas speaks after the results of e-votes were announced, on March 5, 2023 in Tallinn, Estonia. - Kallas's centre-right Reform Party won the general election by a large margin, scoring 31.6 percent against 16 percent for the far-right EKRE, according to near complete results. In order to stay in power, Reform will again have to form a coalition with one or more of the parties that entered the Baltic state's 101-seat parliament Riigikogu. (Photo by RAIGO PAJULA / AFP) (Photo by RAIGO PAJULA/AFP via Getty Images)
Image: AFP
|TALLINN

ESTONIA’S general election on March 5th was, in large part, a referendum on Estonia’s support for Ukraine. Kaja Kallas, the prime minister, has become the face of eastern EU members’ resistance to Russian aggression. She began sounding the alarm over the looming invasion of Ukraine in late 2021, when many European leaders doubted it would happen. She has since made tiny Estonia the biggest military donor to Ukraine measured relative to its GDP, and her proposal for a joint European ammunition fund has been picked up by the EU’s heavyweights. Foreign publications have dubbed her “Europe’s new iron lady”.

This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “The centre holds”

Europe March 11th 2023

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