Prime Minister Taavi Rõivas: No secret talks between Reform and Center
Prime Minister Taavi Rõivas (Reform) said on ETV’s “Ringvaade” on Tuesday evening that while the Social Democrats’ ambition to form a new coalition with the Center Party was understandable, it was rather unexpected that the Pro Patria and Res Publica Union (IRL) was considering joining it.
Rõivas repeated his statement from earlier on Tuesday that he didn’t intend to resign as prime minister, but that his government would be removed by democratic vote in the Riigikogu. He continued the course of argument the Reform Party chose already on Monday, saying that Estonia was about to move to the left, a point of view that had been fiercely rejected even by the conservative IRL, whose chairman, Margus Tsahkna, said on Tuesday that the Reform Party needed to stop its scaremongering in the matter.
Confronted by ETV’s Marko Reikop with names of several party colleagues who have been talking to the Center Party about a potential new coalition for weeks, Rõivas insisted that the Reform Party had not been holding secret talks negotiating the next government. “I can say with all my heart that from our side there have been no secret talks. Nobody had a mandate for that. What would be our interest in breaking up our own government?”, Rõivas said.
Rõivas added that rumors that Minister of Economic Affairs and Infrastructure Kristen Michal (Reform) was being positioned as the next prime minister weren’t true, and said that such talk was for conspiracy theorists.
The prime minister is to face a vote of no confidence in the Riigikogu today Wednesday. The sitting will begin at 2 p.m. with statements by the opposition and the prime minister.
Editor: Editor: Dario Cavegn