Up to 2019, Estonia’s EU policy and foreign policy were based on a strong domestic political consensus. From April 2019 to January 2021, Estonia was led by a government coalition including a Eurosceptic populist party, which brought visible cracks to this consensus. The coalition agreement assured continuity in Estonia’s foreign and EU policies, but the statements of some representatives of the coalition repeatedly brought this into question. During the same period, Estonia was faced with external pressure to de-Europeanize: the change and volatility of US foreign policy under Donald Trump put Estonia in a very uncomfortable position, on the one hand, striving to maintain strong relations with its most important security ally, while on the other hand trying to resist the negative impact of Trump’s policies on the EU, NATO and multilateral cooperation. This article analyzes the drivers, indicators and consequences of the de-Europeanization of Estonian foreign policy, resulting from these internal and external pressures.
