Reform to create coalition with IRL

TALLINN - Estonia's ruling Reform Party has announced that it will reform a coalition with IRL following a landslide victory in the weekend's national elections.

Reform had spent the past few days in talks with both IRL and the Social Democratic Party over forming a new ruling coalition.

"Consultations held yesterday indicated that IRL is the closest to our vision: We have shown that our coalition is able to make difficult decisions also in tough times and crisis years," said Kristen Michal, general secretary of Reform Party, was quoted as saying by Aripaev.

Reform won a total of 33 seats in Sundays election, an increase of two seats. IRL secured four additional seats, bringing their total to 23, while the Social Democrats won 19 seats. Opposition Cenbtre Party lost three seats to end up with 26 in the new parliament.

Negotiations over the portfolio distribution in the new coalition are expected to be complete by the end of the month.

Ansip had dropped the Social Democrats from the previous ruling coalition in 2009 following disagreements over the budget and unemployment benefits.