Ukraine’s most committed backer wins a huge election victory in Estonia

ESTONIA’S generalEUGDPEU election on March 5th was, in large part, a referendum on Estonia’s support for Ukraine. , the prime minister, has become the face of eastern members’ resistance to Russian aggression. She began sounding the alarm over the looming invasion of Ukraine in late 2021, when many European leaders doubted it would happen. She has since made tiny Estonia the to Ukraine measured relative to its , and her proposal for a joint European ammunition fund has been picked up by the ’s heavyweights. Foreign publications have dubbed her “Europe’s new iron lady”.Yet that moniker sits oddly on Ms Kallas, an informal and self-deprecating politician who often says the worst advice she ever got was to act more like a man. Until recently she struggled to emerge from the shadow of her father, who was prime minister in 2002-03. The war has changed that: she is now the most popular politician in the country. When the balloting ended, her Reform Party had taken 31% of the vote and 37 seats out of 101 in the Riigikogu, Estonia’s parliament.