Reform and Isamaa spend most on 2025 local election campaigns
The amount spent by Estonian political parties during the recent local election campaign varied greatly. The biggest spenders were Reform and Isamaa.
The amount spent by Estonian political parties during the recent local election campaign varied greatly. The biggest spenders were Reform and Isamaa.
The Reform Party spent the most money during the 2025 local election campaign, at a total of €1.5 million. Less than €100,000 (€92,345) of this was paid by party members themselves, with the majority coming from donations and state support.
Despite such an expensive campaign, it did not bring the Reform Party the results they desired. The party lost seats on local councils in a number of places, including in areas where it had previously been strong, such as Tallinn, Tartu and Rae.
"We received a lot of different feedback from across Estonia. We have taken this on board, we need to analyze it and put together new programs, new value programs, and new, more specific messages from the government," said Kristo Enn Vaga, secretary general of the Reform Party.
Due to its challenging financial situation, the Center Party had to rely most on contributions from its members to fund the election campaign. Members paid a third of the campaign's total cost of nearly €470,000. The party itself contributed less than €100,000. Anneli Ott, secretary general of the Center Party, said that looking ahead, it will be possible for the party to get by with a smaller budget.
"It is possible to achieve strong results with much smaller sums of money. In fact, we came first in Estonia in terms of the number of votes across all parties. Our tents were out. People went out and campaigned through making direct contact [with voters]," said Ott.
Eesti 200's campaign costs remained below €600,000. However, the personal campaign of one their members – Minister of Regional Affairs and Agriculture Hendrik Johannes Terras – was the most expensive in the elections as a whole. Terras spent a total of €55,000 and received 319 votes in central Tallinn. Terras' campaign was predominantly paid for by his former party colleague Joakim Helenius, who supported the minister with €51,000.
"It is certainly not so important in a local government election campaign how many euros bring in how many votes, but local government elections are very clearly personality contests. Money alone is definitely not the most important factor in any campaign, either now or in the future," said Anneli Kannus, CEO of Eesti 200.
Isamaa spent €1.36 million on the election campaign, while Parempoolsed spent approximately €0.5 million. The Social Democratic Party's (SDE) campaign cost €800,000, and EKRE spent €370,000.
How and where exactly the money was spent by each of the parties will be revealed in January.
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Editor: Michael Cole, Johanna Alvin
Source: "Aktuaalne kaamera"
