Ratas and Kallas backing paved way for Karis’s election

Cooperation between then-Prime Minister Kaja Kallas and Riigikogu Speaker Jüri Ratas helped Alar Karis secure the presidency in 2021, ERR reported in a retrospective on Estonia’s presidential elections.

Estonia is due to hold its eighth presidential election this autumn. ERR is publishing a week-long review of the country’s previous seven presidential elections, featuring accounts from key participants. Jüri Ratas, Erkki Keldo, Lauri Läänemets and Helir-Valdor Seeder recalled the main events of the 2021 election.

Kersti Kaljulaid, who became president in 2016, decided not to seek a second term. Asked why she would not run again, she said on the television programme Ringvaade that “good politics is homeless” and that the Riigikogu was not currently its home.

Ratas was discussed as a possible presidential candidate during the first half of 2021, but he announced in June that he did not intend to run.

Raidla and Soomere declined

In July, lawyer Jüri Raidla said that Kallas and Ratas had jointly proposed that he run for president. Raidla declined, saying the president should be competent in foreign policy but that he lacked expert knowledge in the field.

In August, Jüri Luik said that although several political parties had asked him to become a candidate, he would stick to his plan to leave domestic politics and become Estonia’s ambassador to NATO in September.

Other possible candidates included Henn Põlluaas, Tarmo Soomere, Kaimar Karu and Indrek Laul. Soomere’s candidacy was considered particularly seriously, and he met with representatives of four parliamentary factions: Isamaa, the Social Democratic Party, the Reform Party and the Centre Party.

After a meeting of the party leaders on August 6, Ratas said Soomere did not have enough support to be elected by the Riigikogu, which required 68 votes. His lack of political experience, especially in foreign policy, was cited as a weakness.

Four parties backed Karis

On August 17, Alar Karis, then director of the Estonian National Museum, said that Ratas had asked him to consider running for president. The proposal was also supported by the leaders of the Reform Party, Isamaa and the Social Democrats.

At the time, Kallas’s first government consisted of the Reform Party and the Centre Party. Karis agreed the following day to become a presidential candidate.

On August 27, 59 Riigikogu members from the Reform and Centre parties formally nominated Karis. Under the agreement, they were to support him through the electoral college if necessary.

Isamaa and the Social Democrats left the choice of how to vote to each of their members. About half of the members of each party’s parliamentary faction supported Karis.

The Riigikogu convened to elect the president on August 30. Karis received 63 votes in the first round, five short of the required majority. Sixteen unmarked ballots were placed in the ballot box.

The 19 EKRE lawmakers, as well as Siim Kallas and Helir-Valdor Seeder, who were in hospital, did not take ballot papers. One lawmaker who had taken a ballot paper also did not vote.

It was believed that Isamaa lawmakers had submitted the blank ballots, with some possibly coming from the Social Democratic ranks. The second round of the presidential election in the Riigikogu took place on August 31.