Monday, March 7, 2011

Estonians vote in first elections since its entry into the euro

Estonians voted Sunday in early parliamentary elections after the entry into the euro with the conservative Reform Party (PR) of Prime Minister Andrus Ansip, as the clear favorite to win. The first official results are expected in the early hours of Monday. According to the Central Electoral Commission (CEC), 342,900 Estonians have already cast their vote (37.6% of the electorate) after three hours of voting, 5.3% more than in previous legislative elections.

Although it must be borne in mind that this figure includes 249,800 who voted in advance, including more than 140,000 Internet, a practice in which the Baltic republic is a pioneer and has earned the popular nickname of E-stonia. Ansip, in power since 2005, has passed the economic crisis shout violently shook the economies of the three Baltic states and forced him to take unpopular decisions such as cutting social spending.

Estonians value that Ansip, 54, the only head of local government that has exhausted its mandate in 20 years of democracy, managed to meet the requirements of the EU to give up the kroon and adopt the euro once one January. In recent months, Estonia's economy, which shrank to nearly 20% during the crisis, is the second fastest growing in the EU after Sweden, while unemployment has fallen to 14.3%.

The second party in voting intentions is the training center of the Centre Party (PC) the mayor of Tallinn, Edgar Savisaar, with 22%, largely thanks to the support of the Russian minority. However, Savisaar has been embroiled in a scandal due to allegations that his party was financed by money from Russia, with which Estonia has a tense relationship.

Apparently, the president of the consortium of Russian Railways, Vladimir Yakunin, have given $ 2 million for the campaign of PC. Meanwhile, Respublica center-right party of former Prime Minister Mart Laar, integrating the governing coalition with the RP, accounts for 20% of voting intentions, and the Social Democrats, 13%.

As has become tradition, the election marked by controversy that 10% of the voting-age population can not, because they are people, mostly Russians, without a passport. They are known as non-citizens, who also include the Slavic born in Estonia, but not automatically receive citizenship because they must pass an examination on the Estonian language and the Constitution.

"The Russian minority is discriminated against. Estonians earn a third more and unemployment is three times higher among the Russians. Estonia is a spiritual gulag Slavs," said Dmitri Klenski, Russian politician and journalist. Klenski considers it unacceptable that the EU allows the existence within it of a segregated system in which "the Russians are second class citizens." "The Russians are silent.

They are afraid of losing their jobs. And while Russia has given up defending their countrymen in the post-Soviet space," he said.

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