A decent amount of time has passed since the 2023 Estonian parliamentary election. When it comes to elections and reporting, one thing is to scratch the surface and write an analysis of the political landscape of a country. Another one is to write after experiencing a campaign and seeing the political reality of a nation. Being a campaigner myself, I write from the latter perspective. As I had the opportunity to be in Tallinn to witness the dawn of the 2023 campaign, many lessons were evident to me:
- Polls are not to be trusted, and parties need to campaign at their best until election day (Proof of that is the failure of EKRE despite being favoured by the polls and the success of Reform despite the polls showing some losses)
- When it comes to campaigns, the economy and security are the main topics that everyone understands (This also explains the failure of parties like the Greens in Estonia)
- Voters always remember political scandals, especially when it comes to criminal charges for misuse of funding (The case against former PM Ratas and his party made this evident)
And perhaps, the most critical lesson I saw:
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