The Centre Party has won Estonia’s local council elections in the capital, Tallinn, while Isamaa has ended the Reform Party’s near 30-year dominance in Tartu.
Led by former Tallinn mayor Mihhail Kõlvart, the Centre Party secured 37 seats on the city council – one fewer than in the previous election, but still a clear victory. The Social Democrats came second with 17 seats (up from six), Isamaa third with 11 (up from five), the Reform Party fourth with eight (down from 15), and the relatively new Right-wingers fifth with six.
The populist Estonian Conservative People’s Party – known as EKRE – failed to cross the five per cent threshold required for representation on the Tallinn City Council, as did Eesti 200, one of the parties in Estonia’s governing coalition.
The Tallinn City Council has 79 seats. Although the Centre Party emerged as the largest faction, a coalition of the other parties could still leave it in opposition. At the time of writing, it remained unclear who would form the next governing coalition in the capital.
The centre-right Isamaa, however, achieved a major upset in Estonia’s second-largest city, Tartu, by winning 16 seats to the Reform Party’s 15. Previously, Isamaa held only five seats on the council while Reform had 19. This result means that, for the first time in 27 years, Tartu may be governed by a coalition not led by the Reform Party – and with a mayor from another party.
Reform punished by the electorate
Isamaa’s candidate for mayor of Tartu is Tõnis Lukas, who previously held the post from 1996 to 1997. Now, almost 30 years later, he is likely to take the reins once again.
Across the country, various non-partisan electoral blocs won the largest share of the vote. These local alliances, typically formed to contest elections in a single municipality, focus on specific community issues rather than national politics. Collectively, such blocs received 23.9 per cent of the vote.
The Centre Party placed second overall with 21.1 per cent, followed by Isamaa with 18.6 per cent and the Reform Party with 10 per cent – down sharply from 17.3 per cent in the previous local elections. The Reform Party, the leading force in the national coalition government, appeared to have been punished by voters for missteps both in Tallinn during the summer of 2025 and at the government level.
In total, 59.3 per cent of eligible voters took part in the 2025 local council elections.
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