Estonian prime minister Kaja Kallas on Saturday said that her government is still in power despite the collapse of the coalition. Kallas was referring to the recent dismissal of seven ministers from the government, all of whom were part of the coalition government.
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“Coalition collapsed, government is standing. Minority government but still,” Kaja Kallas tweeted in response to an article by the Financial Times which reported that the prime minister on Friday urged the president, Alar Karis, to dismiss the minister.
Kallas accused the Centre Party of working closely with the Russian government and working against Estonian values.
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“The security situation in Europe does not give me any opportunity to continue cooperating with the Centre party, which is unable to put Estonia’s interests above those of the party. (They’re) actively working against Estonia’s core values,” Kallas was quoted as saying by Estonian news agency ERR News.
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The sudden dissolution of the government means that Estonia is currently without a foreign minister as Eva-Maria Liimets has exited. It is also without an interior minister as Kristian Jaani has exited.
The other departments that are currently without a minister in Tallinn are Estonia’s health and labor ministry, environment ministry, ministry of economic affairs and infrastructure, culture and public administration. Andres Sutt is the interim foreign minister.
The conflict between the Centre Party and Kallas’ Reform Party began after several weeks of deadlock in the Estonian parliament aka the Riigikogu, over a draft family benefits act which was aimed at developing Estonian language education in kindergartens.
Also Read: Estonia Asks NATO To Provide More Than 10k Troops, Command Centre To Thwart Russia
The Centre Party along with the far-right Eesti Konservatiivne Rahvaerakond (EKRE) opposed the bill.
“When I became prime minister, I promised to dedicate my strength to reinforcing the future of the Estonian people. This cannot be done through military spending alone but, rather, through our people’s united and unwavering will to defend our independence. Estonian proficiency is both a precondition and the foundation of this,” Kallas said, pointing out why Estonian-language teaching is also an essential tool in fighting Russia.
However, according to experts speaking to EER as well as Financial Times, there are underlying reasons, for example the closeness between the Centre Party and the United Russia party – founded by Vladimir Putin.
After a corruption scandal surfaced, the Center Party’s coalition government fell in 2019 and in 2021 it formed an uneasy coalition with the Reform Party.
In 2022, the Center Party denounced its ties with United Russia following the invasion of Ukraine but a section of the political establishment believe that they are in cohort with the Russian government who is trying to interfere in their neighbor’s government.
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