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🗣️ Issue

Language and integration: what each party thinks

5 questions, 35 party positions and 3 complete disagreements (how they are assigned).

What each party proposes on this issue

A summary of their positions on the questions in this issue, based on their manifestos, votes and statements. Details and sources, question by question, below.

Reformierakond

Agrees: “All schooling should switch to Estonian by 2030, including in schools where most pupils speak Russian”; “People who work with customers should be required to speak Estonian, with higher fines if they do not”; “Churches in Estonia should be required to cut their ties with the Moscow Patriarchate”; “Estonian citizens should be allowed to also hold the citizenship of another EU or NATO country”

Disagrees: “It should be easier for people who have lived in Estonia since before 1991 to obtain Estonian citizenship”

EKRE

Agrees: “All schooling should switch to Estonian by 2030, including in schools where most pupils speak Russian”; “People who work with customers should be required to speak Estonian, with higher fines if they do not”

Disagrees: “It should be easier for people who have lived in Estonia since before 1991 to obtain Estonian citizenship”; “Churches in Estonia should be required to cut their ties with the Moscow Patriarchate”; “Estonian citizens should be allowed to also hold the citizenship of another EU or NATO country”

Keskerakond

Agrees: “It should be easier for people who have lived in Estonia since before 1991 to obtain Estonian citizenship”; “Estonian citizens should be allowed to also hold the citizenship of another EU or NATO country”

Disagrees: “People who work with customers should be required to speak Estonian, with higher fines if they do not”; “Churches in Estonia should be required to cut their ties with the Moscow Patriarchate”

In between: “All schooling should switch to Estonian by 2030, including in schools where most pupils speak Russian”

Eesti 200

Agrees: “All schooling should switch to Estonian by 2030, including in schools where most pupils speak Russian”; “People who work with customers should be required to speak Estonian, with higher fines if they do not”; “Churches in Estonia should be required to cut their ties with the Moscow Patriarchate”; “Estonian citizens should be allowed to also hold the citizenship of another EU or NATO country”

In between: “It should be easier for people who have lived in Estonia since before 1991 to obtain Estonian citizenship”

SDE

Agrees: “All schooling should switch to Estonian by 2030, including in schools where most pupils speak Russian”; “Churches in Estonia should be required to cut their ties with the Moscow Patriarchate”

In between: “It should be easier for people who have lived in Estonia since before 1991 to obtain Estonian citizenship”; “People who work with customers should be required to speak Estonian, with higher fines if they do not”; “Estonian citizens should be allowed to also hold the citizenship of another EU or NATO country”

Isamaa

Agrees: “All schooling should switch to Estonian by 2030, including in schools where most pupils speak Russian”; “People who work with customers should be required to speak Estonian, with higher fines if they do not”; “Churches in Estonia should be required to cut their ties with the Moscow Patriarchate”

Disagrees: “It should be easier for people who have lived in Estonia since before 1991 to obtain Estonian citizenship”; “Estonian citizens should be allowed to also hold the citizenship of another EU or NATO country”

Parempoolsed

Agrees: “All schooling should switch to Estonian by 2030, including in schools where most pupils speak Russian”; “People who work with customers should be required to speak Estonian, with higher fines if they do not”; “Churches in Estonia should be required to cut their ties with the Moscow Patriarchate”; “Estonian citizens should be allowed to also hold the citizenship of another EU or NATO country”

Disagrees: “It should be easier for people who have lived in Estonia since before 1991 to obtain Estonian citizenship”

All schooling should switch to Estonian by 2030, including in schools where most pupils speak Russian.

Since 2024 Russian-language kindergartens and schools have been switching to teaching in Estonian; the law says the transition must be complete by 2030. The debate is about the pace, the shortage of teachers and whether to keep mother-tongue lessons.

Of the 7 parties with a position on this question: 6 in favour, 1 in between and 0 against.

It should be easier for people who have lived in Estonia since before 1991 to obtain Estonian citizenship.

After independence was restored, people who arrived in the Soviet era and their descendants had to pass exams in Estonian and the Constitution to become citizens. Tens of thousands of residents still have undetermined citizenship (the "grey passport").

Of the 7 parties with a position on this question: 1 in favour, 2 in between and 4 against.

People who work with customers should be required to speak Estonian, with higher fines if they do not.

The Language Act already requires customer service to be provided in Estonian. The government has proposed changes that raise the fines for breaking this rule.

Of the 7 parties with a position on this question: 5 in favour, 1 in between and 1 against.

Churches in Estonia should be required to cut their ties with the Moscow Patriarchate.

In 2025 the Riigikogu passed changes to the Churches and Congregations Act banning churches in Estonia from being subordinate to a foreign religious centre that threatens security, with the Moscow Patriarchate in mind. Critics say they restrict religious freedom.

Of the 7 parties with a position on this question: 5 in favour, 0 in between and 2 against.

Estonian citizens should be allowed to also hold the citizenship of another EU or NATO country.

The law generally does not allow Estonians to hold another citizenship, although citizens by birth cannot be stripped of Estonian citizenship. There is a debate about allowing it for allied countries, for Estonians living abroad.

Of the 7 parties with a position on this question: 4 in favour, 1 in between and 2 against.

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Who do you agree with on this issue?

The questions in this issue are part of the full test. On 3 of them the parties hold opposite positions, so your answer matters.

Take the political test