Estonian Prime Minister Reaches Coalition Agreement for Majority Government :: WRAL.com
HELSINKI – Estonia’s ruling center-right Reform Party of Prime Minister Kaja Kallas has reached a tentative deal to form a coalition government with two other parties, ending a month-long political stalemate in the Baltic nation.
Kallas, prime minister of the European Union and a NATO country since January 2021, expelled the center-left Party from the bipartisan coalition on June 3 following disputes over spending and social policies amid an economic crisis. increase in household costs due to high inflation.
The politically liberal Reform Party, which relies on a conservative fiscal policy platform, said on Friday night that it had struck a coalition deal with the opposition Social Democrats and the small Conservative Party of homeland (“Isamaa”).
The three parties together garner a comfortable majority of 56 seats in the Riigikogu legislature which has 101 seats. Thanks to this arrangement, which is due to be finalized in the next few days, Kallas, who is Estonia’s first female prime minister, avoids ruling a one-party minority government.
According to Postimees, Estonia’s main newspaper, Kallas, 45, will lead the new government expected to be appointed by President Alar Karis by mid-July. Kallas, however, must first formally resign before being reappointed, the newspaper said.
The new government will be short-lived as Estonia is due to hold general elections in March.
Karis said the new cabinet had no time to rest given Estonia’s economic difficulties and the consequences of neighboring Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Estonia will have new ministers who must quickly start working to guide our people through inflation and what lies ahead in the fall and winter in terms of energy prices,” he said. said Karis, adding that all of Europe was facing a security crisis due to the Moscow war. on Ukraine.
Estonia’s inflation rate is now the highest in the euro zone made up of 19 countries, with annual inflation reaching 22% in June, according to Eurostat, the EU’s statistical agency. High energy prices are one of the main causes of inflation in the Baltic nation of 1.3 million people.
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This story corrects Kaja Kallas’ age to 45.