No. 20

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The 2009 local election campaign – the first step toward a left-wing Riigikogu?

17 December 2009

Politics

RiTo No. 20, 2009

  • Agu Uudelepp

    Propaganda expert, Ph.D. in government and political science

The writer believes that the 2009 local elections attested to how flexibly politicians were able to adapt to a changing situation.

In these elections, the parties and candidates who were able to understand the new mindset of the electorate did better at the polls. In hard times, most people are not interested in theoretical constructs but in questions of everyday coping and hope for a better future. For this reason, a large share of the tension of these elections remains in the air. Only by the run-up to the 2011 general elections will it be clear whether the ranks of those who understand the everyday concerns of their base have increased. If the right-of-centre parties currently in power in Estonia struggling with the economic crisis do not immediately embark on a strategic course of explaining to people the choices and injecting a note of optimism regarding the future, a year from now we will see either a sharp ethnic divide created as a last resort, or the first clear left-wing majority of the post-restoration of independence period will emerge in the Riigikogu.

Full article in Estonian

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