Estonia's pro-NATO Reform party wins parliamentary elections

Estonia's governing pro-NATO Reform party topped parliamentary elections, defeating a Kremlin-oriented rival amid concerns over a militarily resurgent Russia, but analysts warned that forging a coalition would be difficult.
President Toomas Hendrik Ilves is expected to ask Reform chief, outgoing Prime Minister Taavi Roivas, to build a coalition on the basis of the 30 seats his party won in the 101-member parliament.
"The Reform Party is the 2015 winner of the parliamentary elections," Roivas announced on Estonia's ERR public television yesterday as official results showed his centrist Reform party won despite losing three seats.
The fresh-faced 35-year-old ruled out a coalition with the opposition pro-Kremlin Centre party, which was up one seat to 27, nodding instead to the Social Democrats, his current junior coalition partners, who scored 15 seats, down by four.

"Reform will be able to form a government... (but) coalition talks might be complicated," leading Estonian political commentator Ahto Lobjakas said, noting increased volatility with six parties now in parliament, up from the previous four.
The parliamentary newcomers are a free-market liberal party and an anti-immigration conservative party, who secured 15 seats between them.

Analysts expect Roivas to renew his party's coalition with the Social Democrats, possibly buttressed by the conservative IRL. It was the biggest loser Sunday, down nine seats to 14.
"In terms of Estonia's pro-Western orientation, commitment to EU, NATO, all this will remain and possibly become more pronounced," Lobjakas added, describing the entry of the two newcomers as a swing to the right.

Moscow's annexation of Crimea last year and its meddling in eastern Ukraine have galvanised the European Union, including eurozone member Estonia where a quarter of the 1.3 million population are ethnic Russians.
Military manoeuvres by Moscow on Estonia's border just days ahead of the vote further stoked deep concerns in Europe that the Kremlin could attempt to destabilise countries that were in its orbit during Soviet times.
NATO is countering the moves by boosting defences on Europe's eastern flank with a spearhead force of 5,000 troops and command centres in six formerly communist members of the alliance, including one in Estonia.

"If they (the Russians) come in here, Estonia can't do anything... I'm not sure NATO will help us out," Pyotr Sirotkin, a 25-year-old student at Tallinn University, said as he cast his ballot in the capital.