VILNIUS (Reuters) -Estonian conservative opposition party Isamaa said on Saturday it would seek to join the Baltic country’s government, putting Prime Minister Kaja Kallas and her liberal Reform Party on track to regain a parliamentary majority.
Kallas removed her junior coalition partner, the Centre Party, on June 3 after it had sided with a far-right group in parliament to vote down government reform of primary education.
“I am optimistic that we will be able to find the necessary common ground”, said Isamaa party chair Helir-Valdor Seeder.
The centre-left Social Democratic Party earlier indicated it would also seek to join the new three-party coalition, giving Kallas a slim majority of 52 seats in the 101-seat parliament.
The Reform Party has enjoyed a surge of popularity since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began, with 35% support among voters in May, according to a Norstat poll, even as annual inflation soared to 19% in April, the highest in the euro zone.
The next election in the European Union and NATO member nation of 1.3 million people is scheduled for March 2023.
(Reporting by Andrius Sytas in Vilnius; Editing by Terje Solsvik, David Clarke and Mike Harrison)
