She had it all – a job in the Riigikogu and a comfortable apartment in the heart of Tallinn. A month ago, she gave it all up and sat on a wobbly three-legged stool in Narva. How does life in Estonia seem from the last homely house on the border? Mayor of Narva Katri Raik (SDE) knows and tells.
Have you regretted leaving the Riigikogu over the last two weeks days?
Not once.
Perhaps Center would have tried to recruit you for the new government?
I have served as minister once, and there are just two beautiful days in the life of a minister – the roses you get on the first day and those on the last. What happens in between makes you feel like you are plugged into the power grid at 7 a.m. and unplugged at 11 p.m. every day.
The new Prime Minister of Estonia Kaja Kallas. Photo: Estonian Presidency of the EU in 2017. flickr.com
On January 13th 2021, Estonian politics began to tilt on its axis. Estonian Prime Minister Juri Ratas announced his resignation following the Prosecutor’s Office announcement that five members linked to his Centre Party were involved in possible corruption and influence peddling. The syncretic Centre Party, which has been featured prominently in Estonian politics since the 1990s and governed the country for the last five years, was toppled. What caused the downfall of the Centre Party’s second government? Who might benefit from the resulting electoral reverberations? The answer lies in the Centre Party’s post-Soviet history.
Kaja Kallas, who leads the centre-right Reform Party, will become the country’s premier after forming a coalition government with the centre-left Centre Party. Kallas, who was a deputy for the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe from 2014 until 2018, subsequently became the first female chair of the Reform Party, of which her father, […]
On Tuesday morning, the new Reform-Center coalition led by Prime Minister Kaja Kallas took the oath of office in the Riigkogu.
All ministers were in attendance except for Minister Economic Affairs and Infrastructure Taavi Aas (Center) who signed the oath digitally.
The government s first sitting will take place at 2 p.m.
On Tuesday afternoon, former Prime Minister Jüri Ratas handed the prime minister s office over to Kallas.
Kaja Kallas new name plaque outside the prime minister s office. Source: Stenbock House
A list of the new government ministers is below:
Reform
We are prepared to consider something unorthodox in potentially supporting Kaja Kallas and her government with our votes, chairman of the opposition Social Democratic Party (SDE) Indrek Saar writes.