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Home , Centre Party (Finland), Centre Party (Sweden), Elections in Estonia, Pro Patria Union, Raimond Kaljulaid

ANALYSIS

Tallinn

2019 Parliamentary in

ANU TOOTS March 2019

„ The elections to the fourteenth on 3 March 2019 did not yield major changes at fi rst glance, but do indicate some structural changes. Although all political parties represented in the new parliament have been in parliament before, relative strengths are markedly different. The new parliament will be signifi cant- ly more right-wing (with 65 seats as against 36 for parties on the left).

„ While voter turnout, at 63.7 per cent, was similar to previous elections, there is a clearly rising trend in pre- voting, especially e-voting. Such options obviously promote a shift towards higher involve- ment on the part of voters abroad, as well as of middle and higher income voters. Election day itself is losing importance.

„ The election campaign lacked a clear pervasive theme, but rather largely circled around centre-right and neoliberal issues. Furthermore, over the course of the campaign complex issues were simplifi ed within a populist framework, which had a direct effect on the election outcome. This of course favoured the two winners, namely the neoliberal Reform Party and the right-wing populist Conservative People’s Party (EKRE), while bringing about a demobilisation of lower-income and ethnic Russian voters. This weakened the and to some extent the Social Democrats.

„ The Social Democrats suffered a major defeat, losing fi ve of their 15 seats, as well as their strongholds in south-east Estonia. Due to a lack of appealing candidates and the dominant polarising, nationalistic dis- course the party failed in both agenda-setting and in getting its core messages across.

„ Coalition formation will be more diffi cult this time. The winning Reform Party has fi rmly excluded a coali- tion with the right-wing populist EKRE. All other combinations are possible, but each is impeded through mutually precluding positions. ANU TOOTS | 2019 PARLIAMENTARY

Content 1. Electoral system ...... 3

2. Politics in Estonia: overview ...... 3

3. Party landscape, leadership andɄforecasts ...... 5

4. Main campaign issues ...... 6

5. The campaign ...... 7

6. Election results and lessons learned ...... 8

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1. Electoral system in 2019. Besides the party lists, all eligible persons may nominate themselves as independent can- Estonia has a unitary parliamentary system, with didates. To date, no independent candidate has the national parliament (Riigikogu) as the gained a seat in the Riigikogu, however. and government as the . The President of the Republic is elected by the Riigikogu, or by a spe- The election is run on the basis of a complex three- cial and has a largely ceremonial round system. In the fi rst and second rounds per- role. The unicameral 101-member Riigikogu is elect- sonal and district mandates are allocated in each ed by Estonian citizens for a four-year-term. Taking of the 12 electoral districts. Here open party lists the election results into consideration, the president are used, although every elected candidate must nominates a candidate for prime minister, who, af- personally gain at least 10 per cent of district quota ter obtaining parliamentary approval appoints the votes. In the third round, compensation mandates government. The cabinet of ministers is formally are divided at the national level based on closed approved by the president, but effective power lies party lists. Even so, to be elected every candidate with the political parties represented in the Riigikogu. must personally obtain at least 5 per cent of dis- The Estonian parliament includes four to six political trict quota votes. Estonia introduced a 5 per cent parties; the larger has about 20–30 seats, the small- threshold in 1991, aimed at avoiding excessive er 6–8 seats. A minimum of six seats are needed fragmentation in the legislature. Although this risk to entitle a political party to form a parliamentary is minimal today, the threshold has been retained. group. Because no party is usually able to obtain an absolute majority of parliamentary seats, Estonia Voting age for national elections is 18, while candi- has been ruled by coalition governments. As a rule, dates must be 21 or above. About 6 per cent of the coalitions include two or three political parties of population (or 16 per cent of the voting-age popula- different ideological stripes; minority governments tion) do not possess Estonian citizenship and there- are extremely rare in Estonia. Since the restoration fore cannot vote in parliamentary elections. Estoni- of independence in 1991, the Estonian political land- an citizens residing abroad (about 10 per cent of the scape has become substantially more stable; the electorate) can vote in all Estonian elections. major political parties are well established and new- comers rarely survive a second national election. Estonia typically has a fairly low turnout at both na- The average life-cycle of government cabinets since tional and local elections. At the previous parliamen- 2003 is above 24 months. tary elections 2015 the turnout was 64.2 per cent and at the most recent municipal elections in 2017 Parliamentary elections are major political events only 53.3 per cent. To facilitate participation in elec- because the system is skewed towards central tions, Estonia uses advance voting, home voting and government, which plays a crucial role in defi ning internet voting. In the 2017 municipal elections, 31.6 the direction of policy. Local authorities have rela- per cent of participating voters voted online. tively little autonomy and are also strongly fi scally dependent on central budget transfers. 2. Politics in Estonia: overview Estonia has proportional representation (PR), which means that most candidates are registered Political stability and the electoral system have on party lists. The composition of party lists is contributed to the stability of election results. In determined by internal procedures laid down in contrast to many other European countries, in the party statutes. Only offi cially registered polit- Estonia the ruling party did not change in the af- ical parties can nominate candidate lists in par- termath of the Great Recession (at the 2011 elec- liamentary elections. In order to be registered, a tions). In the long run, too, Estonia stands out be- political party must have at least 500 members. cause of the exceptional dominance of neoliberal Currently there are 14 political parties in Estonia, ideology. The Reform Party, which adheres to neo- 10 of which participated in the Riigikogu elections , also governed between 2005 and 2016.

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This was due to consistent electoral support; since with varying numbers of seats. They managed to 2007 they have obtained about 30 per cent of the increase their representation in 2007 and 2011, but votes and occupied about a third of the seats in have suffered losses since then. Nevertheless, the the Riigikogu. In various periods, they governed in Social Democrats have been constantly in govern- coalition with Conservatives or Social Democrats. ment coalitions since March 2014. Current SDP leader Yevgeny Ossinovsky was Minister of Health The second most popular party, the Centre Party, also and Labour in 2015–18 and was heavily criticised for demonstrates remarkable consistency. In four con- his strict policy on alcohol. He has been held publicly secutive parliamentary elections they have obtained responsible for the increase in the cross-border alco- 26–29 seats. Despite this strong voter support, how- hol trade with Latvia due to the sharp increase in Es- ever, they have been in opposition since 2007 and tonian excise . On the other hand, Ossinovsky have not provided a prime minister since 1991. The was given the European Award for Reducing Alcohol major reason for this was the personality of the long- Harm in 2018 by Eurocare. In May 2018 Ossinovsky lived leader of the Centre Party, , whose decided to resign as minister to commit himself en- leadership style was authoritarian and clientelistic. tirely to the election campaign. He was also regarded as pro-Kremlin, or at least too pro-Russian. Edgar Savisaar lost his position as par- The story of the moderate Conservative Party is ty leader to Jüri Ratas in autumn 2016 as a result of similar, although the party organisation has devel- intra-party elections. This change made it possible oped somewhat differently. In 2003 a new moder- for the Centre Party to form a government after the ate right-wing party Res Publica was established, Riigikogu had voted that it had no confi dence in the which won a landslide victory in the parliamentary cabinet of Taavi Rõivas (Reform Party). The current elections and formed the government. Because of situation (that is, on the eve of the 2019 elections) is a subsequent decline in support, however, Res Pub- that Edgar Savisaar, although the defendant in sev- lica merged with the National Conservatives to form eral corruption cases, has been spared legal action the . Internal party tensions dogged due to ill-health. Jüri Ratas formed a coalition with the party for years, eventually leading to a split (the previous partners the Reform Party–Conservatives Free Party) and a change of name (Fatherland). De- (Fatherland) and the Social Democrats, which gov- spite every effort, popular support for the moderate erned until the recent elections. Conservatives has not recovered former high levels. Like the Social Democrats, they have been the minor The Social Democrats (SDP) have been represent- partner in coalition governments since 2007, with a ed in all parliaments since independence, although year in opposition in 2014–2015.

Figure 1. Share of seats in Riigikogu, 2003–2015 (2019* forecast; out of 101)

Source: National Electoral Committee, Turu-Uuringute AS polling company.

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3. Party landscape, leadership As in many other European countries, populist andɄforecasts right-wingers have enjoyed increasing success in Estonia. The populist Conservative People’s Party The 2019 parliamentary elections are taking place (EKRE) is not entirely new. It re-entered the political in a political landscape that differs substantial- arena in 2015 after its predecessor Rahvaliit had ly from previous occasions. Four points may be vanished (in the 2011 elections Rahvaliit obtained 2 highlighted: per cent of the votes and thus failed to make it into parliament). During the past year (2018–early 2019), (i) the leadership change in the Centre Party; however, EKRE has enjoyed stable support of about 15–20 per cent and thus was very likely to enter the (ii) status and leadership change Riigikogu as the third political force in 2019. The rea- inɄtheɄReform Party; sons for the rise of right-wing in Estonia are manifold. They include the international situation, (iii) the rise of right-wing populism; especially migration crises, political spillover from Scandinavia (increasing worries related to the im- (iv) the emergence of new political parties. migrant population in and , the rise of the far right in all ), internal prob- The leadership change in the Centre Party has lems facing the moderate Conservatives (Pro Patria made it more suitable for coalition. At the same Union/Fatherland) and EKRE’s ability to retain its tra- time, opinions remain divided regarding any ditional constituency in rural areas and to gain new change in its internal political culture. Some be- voters (including young people) in cities. The closer lieve that the current leadership of the Centre Par- election day came, the more radical EKRE’s views ty has renounced corruption and efforts to placate became. It is now a clearly anti-establishment, an- the Russian-speaking population, while others ti-immigrant and anti-EU political party. Its populism claim that this apparent turn to democracy and is more pronounced in domestic affairs, where EKRE transparency is just a façade. Nevertheless, the promises to double old age pensions, abolish health constituency of the Centre Party remains strong care waiting lists and literally cut all taxes. EKRE and stable, which enabled it to approach election stands out with its radical resistance to same-sex day with optimism. A generational change is also marriages, LGBT rights and mass immigration. In evident; »comrades« of Savisaar have been mov- international affairs, similar to all Estonian political ing backstage and a new set of leaders aged 30– parties, it supports active membership of NATO and 40 are becoming key players. This new generation prioritise an increase in military spending. Currently typically has a background in Tallinn city govern- EKRE stands for an »EU of nation states« and as far ment and includes several popular non-ethnic as this vision is achieved, it foresees Estonia remain- (Mihhail Kõlvart, Mihhail Korb, Vladimir ing in the Union. Svet, Raimond Kaljulaid). A fourth feature of the political landscape in 2019 The Reform Party went into the election as a chal- is the participation of two new political parties. lenger for the fi rst time since 2005. After the de- Generally speaking, this was made possible by the feat of Taavi Rõivas as prime minister, amendment of the Political Parties Act in 2014 was elected to lead the Reform Party. As an MEP that lowered the minimum required number of par- and the daughter of a former prime minister and ty members to 500 from the previous 1,000. The Siim Kallas, expectations towards the »Richness of Life« party (Elurikkuse Erakond, ERE) party’s fi rst female leader were high. She has had can be characterised as a post-populist movement, to cope with internal party tensions, however, and with environmentalism and smart green communi- the party’s election platform shifted from right- ties as the core of its platform. Some ERE leaders wing liberalism to a stronger emphasis on pop- originate in the Free Party, while others are totally ulist redistribution. In result, the Reform Party’s new to party politics, having made their names as support declined during 2018. hard-line environmentalists. It is worth mentioning

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that Estonia also has a long-established Green Par- Most prominent among specifi c issues were ty, but its support lies at around 3–4 per cent. The policy, social policy, and research, and second recently established political party is »Esto- military security. The and the labour nia 200«, which purports to have a long-term policy market received relatively little attention; most po- plan for the country. To some extent, »Estonia 200« litical parties suggested that their current policy refl ects dissatisfaction among some line would be maintained. people with the pace of economic and national de- velopment. In the fi rst few months after its formal Tax policy was addressed in all the party manifes- registration the party increased its support to 8–9 tos, due mainly to the recent changes in govern- per cent, but a week before the elections they were ment tax policy. Income tax was covertly made polling only 4 per cent. Ideologically, »Estonia 200« progressive in 2018, in contrast to the previous remains somewhat. With a membership including fl at-rate system, and pension benefi ts were add- businessmen and the intelligentsia they can be ed to total taxable income. Moreover, excise taxes placed somewhere in the middle of the political on alcohol and petrol have been increased sub- spectrum. stantially, leading to loud public dissatisfaction and boosting cross-border trade with Latvia. In Besides these fi ve established and three lately response, all opposition parties promised to lower emerging parties there are a couple of minor politi- excise duties and make pension payments tax- cal parties, the Greens (as already mentioned) and free. Even the left-wing coalition parties (the Cen- the ethnic-Russian United . Neither had tre Party and the Social Democrats) agree on that, much of a chance to win a seat in the Riigikogu. although they differ from the right-wing parties in wanting to keep the current income tax brackets. Beyond party affi liations, a substantial number Social insurance contributions are rather high in of Estonians (38 per cent) do not have a political Estonia (totalling 37.4 per cent) but were not a preference. According to a survey about a week prominent topic in the election campaign. before election day, only 10 per cent of them in- tended to vote. Social policy themes tend to go over well in elec- tion campaigns and populism has been most ev- ident in this area. All parties are keen to court el- 4. Main campaign issues derly people by promising higher pensions. At the same time, the fi rst pillar (pay-as-you-go) of the The 2019 election campaign did not have perva- pension system is suffering from a substantial sive themes that would make it possible to clear- defi cit close to 2 per cent of annual GDP. Some ly distinguish between the party platforms. From alleviation is provided by upbeat economic fore- time to time some issues popped up, but did not casts and ever increasing social contribution remain at the forefront for long. Three general fea- revenues, however. The party manifestos did not tures can be highlighted, however: offer any solution concerning how to improve the sustainability of public pension funds while at (i) domestic issues, including »saving« the the same time maintaining senior citizens’ living country and Estonian culture, are central. standards. The effectiveness of the compulso- ry funded pension schemes (second pillar) has (ii) foreign policy issues (EU after Brexit, rela- received quite a lot of attention due to the poor tions with Russia, climate change) are very performance of the relevant funds. The neoliberal marginal; Reform Party wants to emphasise individual con- tributions, the social-liberal Centre Party promises (iii) domestic policy debates moved from to make the current system more effi cient and the initial substantive debates to simplistic national-conservative »Fatherland« party propos- populist promises of higher benefi ts and es to make the currently obligatory second pillar better services, accompanied by tax cuts. voluntary.

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On health policy, the common concern of all po- guage question the Reform Party’s position pre- litical parties is long waiting times, which all have dates its adoption of economic-liberal principles promised to cut. It remains totally unclear in the and it takes a clear nationalist stand. party manifestos, however, what viable tools are available to achieve this. Another big problem – There is a strong cross-party consensus on secu- the lack of health insurance coverage for about rity policy. No one questions the strong military 120,000 people (14 per cent of the population) presence of NATO troops in Estonia, or the allo- was not refl ected in the electoral campaign. cation of 2 per cent of GDP to military expendi- ture. The Conservative People’s Party is keen to The Social Democrats have been focusing on a ask for fi nancial help from the United States (up to specifi c topic, care of elderly and disabled people, 1 billion /dollars) and moderate nationalists which currently is poorly provided by the public from the »Fatherland« party want to increase de- sector and very expensive in the private sector. fence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP. The Social Democrats are the clear »owners« of this issue and have promised to reduce the cost of institutional care (currently about 800 euros a 5. The campaign month) to the level of the average pension (cur- rently 480 euros). Although the issue is very ur- The 2019 campaign intensifi ed in its fi nal weeks gent, it has not done much to boost support for because the two main political parties – the Re- the Social Democrats. form Party and the Centre Party – were running neck and neck. The number of surveys, opinion As usual, family policy has been prominent in polls and so on, all too often unreliable, has been manifestos without much difference between the higher than usual. parties. The generous parental leave system will be retained and made more fl exible; free childcare Overall, election campaigns are regulated by the Po- has been promised by several (mainly left or cen- litical Parties Act, but this is widely seen as requir- tre-left) parties. ing adjustment to the real situation. First, outdoor campaigning is prohibited up to 40 days before Education policy has been less prominent than elections but due to the vague wording of the it usual, with a slightly different focus. Because is possible to campaign in public spaces (motor ve- teachers’ wages have risen, this topic has lost hicles, supermarkets and shopping malls). The po- much of its salience. The question of the lan- lice have complained that this uncertainty entails guage of tuition remains important, however, a lot of pointless work for them. Second, there are and was used in the campaign to heighten the no regulations on political campaigning on social confrontation between the Centre Party and the media, in which recently established (or reformed) Reform Party, but also between the left and the parties (including the populist EKRE) are very ac- right more broadly. The Centre Party, which has tive. Third, advance voting is becoming more and a large Russian-speaking constituency, advocates more popular. In 2019, already 39 per cent of vot- a step-by-step transition to the ers voted before the actual voting day. This means for instruction, whereas right-wing parties, espe- that opinion polls continue to be released at a time cially the Reform Party, are calling for a more rapid when voting is already proceeding on a large scale. transition. Moreover, this time the language issue was extended to all stages of the education sys- Despite some rather heated debates, the cam- tem, from kindergarten to university. In higher ed- paign has not been a »dirty« one. There has been ucation, concerns have been expressed about the only one major leak intended to discredit a par- invasion of the English language into study pro- ticular candidate. Rainer Vakra (Social Democrat) grammes and research output, which the nation- was accused of committing plagiarism at univer- alist parties have sought to exploit for their own sity 17 years ago. An opinion poll released shortly electoral ends. It is worth nothing that on the lan- after this information was made public revealed

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aɄfall in public support for the Social Democrats of north-east) abstained from voting because of their 1.4 per cent within a month. dissatisfaction with the party’s position on the lan- guage of tuition in upper secondary schools.

6. Election results and lessons learned The Conservative People’s Party had its best ever result, with 18 per cent of the votes and 19 seats. The turnout was 63.7 per cent. This is very similar This boosted its parliamentary representation by to the previous election and typical for Estonia. At 12 seats, which means that the Riigikogu will in- the same time, there were remarkable disparities clude a substantial number of newcomers. As a across districts. North-east Estonia, populated parliamentary political actor, however, EKRE will mainly by Russian speakers, had a record low turn- have to come up with realistic positions in most out of 51 per cent; those parts of the capital city in policy areas. To date, by contrast, their popular which Russian speakers form a majority also had a support has been built on nationalist and anti-es- lower than average turnout. By contrast turnout in tablishment rhetoric with promises of higher ben- the districts surrounding the capital and the upper efi ts and public goods, supposedly accompanied middle class areas of Tallinn was well above aver- by tax cuts. They are also free with their promises age (69–70 per cent). These large disparities ob- of »giving the state back to the people«. Propos- viously had an effect on the upstreaming Reform als along these lines include electing the president Party and the downstreaming Centre Party. and reforming the court system. One new EKRE MP in an early post-election interview remained The share of online voting was at a record high (44 characteristically vague, claiming that they will per cent of all votes), as was the share of advance address »truly important« issues instead of both- voting (61 per cent of all votes). All this makes ering themselves with such »nonsense as LGBT election day proper less important and the week rights or same-sex marriages«. Given that likely prior to the election the most important. The very prime minister Kaja Kallas has totally excluded intensive campaigns of the Reform Party and the coalition with EKRE, they may sit with the oppo- Conservative People’s Party at least partly explain sition and continue beating their nationalist drum. their impressive electoral results. The performance of the Social Democrats refl ect- The Reform Party took 29 per cent of votes na- ed the latest opinion polls and the result is an utter tionwide, which makes them the largest fraction defeat. Instead of the 15 seats they held in 2015 in the Riigikogu, with 34 seats. Reform Party lead- they now have only 10. One problem is their seem- er Kaja Kallas obtained a record high number of ing inability to fi eld attractive candidates. No SDE votes (20 083), while several other Reform Party candidate in 2019 surpassed the district quota candidates also performed extremely well (Siim with their personal vote; party leader Yevgeny Oss- Kallas, Urmas Paet, Jürgen Ligi, Kristen Michal, inovsky gained only 2,680 votes, signifi cantly be- Urmas Klaas). This gives Kaja Kallas a very strong low other party leaders. In substantive terms the mandate to form a government. campaign of Social Democrats was too moderate and probably too sophisticated for most voters. The second favourite in the 2019 elections, the Having excellent policy experts and sustainable Centre Party, retained almost all its seats (26), but policy proposals was not a winning strategy in this result has been perceived as a defeat. Based the 2019 election, as the poor results of »Estonia on voting data it seems that the major factor was 200« confi rmed (it received only 4.5 per cent of the the failure to mobilise its core constituencies. As votes, which is not enough to get into parliament). already explained, the Russian-speaking minori- It is worth noting that the Social Democrats lost ty is one such constituency and today, when in- their former dominance in south-east Estonia to ter-ethnic tensions are not as heated as former- the right-wing populists. These regions are poorer, ly, many did not feel motivated to vote. Estonian with higher unemployment and lower life satis- supporters of the Centre Party (especially in the faction, which made them vulnerable to populist

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Figure 2. Share of seats in the Riigikogu, 2015 and 2019

manipulation. Many voters here, for example, those of the »Fatherland« party, except that the clearly disliked the SDP’s alcohol policy. Reform Party also favours dual citizenship, which is not acceptable to »Fatherland«. Moreover, one »Fatherland«, representing moderately national- of »Fatherland«’s key election promises was the ly-minded constituencies ended up with 11 per abolition of mandatory funded pension schemes, cent of the votes and 12 seats. This is slightly less whereas the Reform Party wants to promote pillars than previously, but much better than had been two and three. Overall, foreign and defence policy forecast three or four months before the elections. will not pose substantial obstacles in coalition ne- It is possible that when »Estonia 200«’s poll ratings gotiations, but there will be many disagreements started to decline, some swing voters returned to on domestic affairs. the conservative »Fatherland«. Long-term changes in the political landscape Forming a will be more dif- resulting from the 2019 election will most like- fi cult in 2019 than in earlier years and politicians ly affect the Centre Party and the Conservative and experts alike are reluctant to voice their predic- People’s Party. The Centre Party has to work out tions. Kaja Kallas (Reform Party) will probably be how to keep and mobilise Russian-speaking vot- asked by President to form a cab- ers, while not losing its Estonian constituency. The inet and the Reform Party has already started ne- People’s Party may face a situation similar to that gotiations with possible partners. Kaja Kallas has of the True in Finland. The latter be- said they will not consider forming a government came the third largest party in 2011 and a coali- with the populist EKRE, but all other combinations tion partner in 2015, but this success turned out are possible. There are very diffi cult trade-offs to be to be a Pyrrhic victory for the Party, which subse- made, however, especially on tax policy and citizen- quently split and has lost much of its popular sup- ship/language policy. The Reform Party wants to port, while adopting a more moderate programme. return to the fl at-rate income tax system, which is not an option for the Centre Party and the Social For the foreseeable future the Social Democrats Democrats. On citizenship and language policy, the will probably remain a minor player, with its tradi- Reform Party has radical views that are in line with tional level of support at around 10 per cent.

9 About the author Imprint

Anu Toots is Professor of Social Policy in Tallinn University, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung | Riga Offi ce School of Governance, Law and Society. Her research interests 37-64 Dzirnavu iela | Riga, LV-1010 include the transformation of the welfare state in the era of the new economy and fi scal austerity. Currently she is working on Responsible: social investment policy in the Baltic . Her research arti- Peer Krumrey | Director of the FES in the Baltic States cles have appeared in Social Policy and Administration, Compar- Tel.: +371 6783 05 39 ative Education, Journal of Baltic Studies, Studies of Transition https://www.fes-baltic.org States and Societies and many others. Anu Toots has extensive https://www.facebook.com/FES.BalticStates expertise in policy evaluation and consultancy; she has worked as an expert with UNESCO, the and the Commercial use of all media published by the Bertelsmann Foundation. Contact: [email protected] . Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) is not permitted without the written consent of the FES.

About the FES FES in the Baltic States The Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) is the oldest political foun- Shortly after the restoration of independence, in 1992, the Frie- dation in Germany with a rich tradition in social democracy drich Ebert Foundation started its activities in the three Baltic dating back to its foundation in 1925. The foundation owes its States and opened offi ces in Riga, Tallinn and Vilnius. formation and its mission to the political legacy of its name- The core concern was to support the democratic transition sake Friedrich Ebert, the fi rst democratically elected German processes, to accompany the Baltic States on their way to President. The work of the FES focuses on the core ideas and the and to promote the dialogue between the values of social democracyɄ– freedom, justice and solidarity. Baltic States and Germany, and among the countries of this This connects the FES to social democracy and free trade region. unions. As a non-profi t institution, the FES organizes its work The current focus of the work of the Friedrich Ebert Founda- autonomously and independently. tion in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania is: The FES promotes: „ strengthening democracy and active civil society „ a free society, based on the values of solidarity, which of- „ supporting the process fers all its citizens the same opportunities to participate on „ contributing to the development of a common European political, economic, social and cultural levels, regardless of foreign and security policy their origin, sex or religion „ promoting a fair and sustainable development of economic „ a lively and strong democracy; sustainable economic and social policies in the Baltic States and in the EU growth with decent work for all „ a welfare state that provides more education and improved healthcare, but at the same time combats poverty and pro- vides protection against the challenges that life throws at citizens „ a country that is responsible for peace and social progress in Europe and in the world.

The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily ISBN 978-9949-01-031-8 those of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung or of the organization for which the author works.