Support for Center, Reform declines slightly in February

TALLINN - Support for the Center Party and the Reform Party declined slightly in February but they nonetheless remain the most popular parties in Estonia, it appears from a poll Turu-uuringute AS took for the public broadcaster ERR.

Compared to January, statistically significant changes in parties' popularity did not occur. Support for both Center and Reform fell by 2 percent, from 31 to 29 percent, and from 25 to 23 percent, respectively, ERR reported on Sunday.

Support for the Estonian Conservative People's Party (EKRE), Free Party, Pro Patria and Res Publica Union (IRL) and the non-parliamentary Estonian Greens increased at the two largest parties' expense by 1 percent each.

EKRE and the Social Democratic Party (SDE) were each backed by 10 percent of the polled in February. The Free Party was supported by 8 percent and IRL by 7 percent. The Greens had the most support among non-parliamentary parties - 2 percent.

The difference between combined support for coalition parties Center, SDE and IRL and opposition parties Reform, EKRE and Free Party likewise remained the same - the coalition was backed by 46 percent of respondents and the opposition, by 41 percent.

Like in January, the share of respondents expressing no preference was 33 percent. However, the proportion among them of respondents with negative attitudes towards politics has increased - 16 percent of voting-age citizens would not vote for anyone.

Turu-uuringute AS conducted face to face interviews with 1,002 Estonians. The statistical error margin was +/- 3.1 percent.