more than 1,000 signatures referred to the Riigikogu for consideration. The marriage petition by the Greens was signed by 35,805 people by its deadline, becoming the most signed petition in the portal's history and surpassing the previously most signed petition which had received 7,000 signatures. The Social Democratic Party formally announced its support for same-sex marriage on 1 November 2020, becoming the first mainstream political party in Estonia to do so. Estonia 200 also supports same-sex marriage. A draft bill to hold the marriage referendum on April 18, 2021 passed first reading on December 14, 2020. A motion to kill the bill failed by a vote of 48–51, with the Reform Party, the Social Democrats and some Isamaa MPs opposing the bill. Leader of the Reform Party Kaja Kallas argued that the planned referendum was "pointless, ridiculous and cruel", adding, "Generally, we have nothing against referenda. The opinion of the people can be sought in matters of national importance; however, what is being offered to us now is not an issue of national importance." Kallas argued that the funds needed for the referendum would be better used in matters relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. Before the bill's second reading, the Social Democrats and Reform Party introduced some 9,370 amendments to the proposed bill, with the aim of paralyzing the work of the Parliament and causing the bill to be shelved. Many of the amendments were of a humorous nature, such as "Should men be banned from having hair transplants in the Republic of Estonia?", and "Should friendship be banned in Estonia?". This prompted the Constitutional Affairs Committee chair, Anti Poolamets, to limit MPs' floor time to a few minutes. The bill's second reading was scheduled for January 13, 2021. However, on that same day, Ratas resigned as prime minister after his Centre Party was suspected of "criminal involvement" in an influence peddling scandal, causing the fall of the government. Following the fall of the government, Centre MP Andrei Korobeinik proposed to withdraw the bill. Poolamets nevertheless decided to put it to a vote, and the bill was defeated by a vote of 26–49. On January 26, 2021, Kallas became prime minister and a new government of the Reform and Centre parties was sworn in. a. Originally a member of the Estonian Centre Party, Raimond Kaljulaid left the party in April 2019 over the decision to include the EKRE into the