Eesti 200 chair Kristina Kallas is to propose at Sunday's party board meeting that the party run alongside the Greens in the March 2027 Riigikogu elections.
The Greens (Rohelised) will discuss the merger at their own general assembly later in the month. Both parties are polling far below the 5 percent threshold required to win seats, at 1.2 (Eesti 200) and 0.7 percent (Greens), even though Eesti 200 is in office with Reform at the national level.
Media reports that the two parties were considering joining forces emerged late last month.
Kallas, who is also education minister, told ERR she will make the proposal at Sunday's meeting and was unwilling to comment further on the possible merger, or her own political plans before then.
Rasmus Lahtvee, one of the Green party's leaders, said the exact date for their discussions is still not set, but the merger with Eesti 200 will certainly be talked about..
"There is talk [with Eesti 200]. We have been feeling out various possibilities and what the two parties have in common. It is clear that something has to change on the Estonian political landscape," Lahtvee said.
"The merger certainly has to be decided by the general meeting, and that will stay at the end of October," he went on.
Asked whether the parties' possible decisions would be followed by more serious merger talks in November, Lahtvee said some clarity must come soon, as the president will declare the Riigikogu elections by December 6 at the latest. Polling day is set for March 7, 2027.
Eesti 200 has been struggling with very low ratings for several years now. A Norstat poll published this week put support for the party at 1.2 percent, with the Greens at 0.7 percent. The latest ERR-commissioned Emor poll in September put Eesti 200 at 1.9 percent and the Greens at 1.1 percent.
Eesti 200 was founded in 2018 and won 14 Riigikogu seats in 2023, entering government with Reform and, until spring last year, the Social Democrats (SDE). Lauri Hussar, a former Eesti 200 chair, has held the Riigikogu speaker position since April 2023, while Margus Tsahkna is its Foreign Minister.
Eesti 200's rating started to collapse soon after the 2023 election, however, after a donations to Ukraine scandal engulfed a former MP. Another MP, former Green leader Züleyxa Izmailova, who herself had replaced the disgraced MP, returned to her original party, SDE, in 2024. Then in late summer this year, high-profile MP and former Riigikogu Defense Committee chair Kalev Stoicescu quit the party, to join the non-parliamentary Parempoolsed. This left the ruling Reform-Eesti 200 coalition as a minority government.
Eesti 200 has also approached SDE and also the Free Party (Vabaerakond) about mergers, but without success. The Greens in fact have more members now — 705 to Eesti 200's 579 — but their candidates mostly cannot afford the €946 election deposit, which is part of what Eesti 200 could offer.
A party needs a minimum of 500 members to be legally registered.
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