New coalition agreement expected for coming weekend
The Center Party, the Social Democrats (SDE), and the Pro Patria and Res Publica Union (IRL) are continuing their coalition negotiations with the aim to have an agreement ready to present to their party councils before the end of the week.
Monday’s talks would concentrate on regional politics and life in the countryside in the morning, and environmental and energy policy in the evening, ERR’s Estonian news portal reported on Monday morning.
Scheduled for the sessions on Tuesday are education and integration. Another topic still to be discussed is security.
The negotiations that also included consulting a range of experts on Thursday last week have already produced results in matters of foreign policy as well as finance and economic policy.
All three parties’ chairmen continued to stress that the talks were aiming for an open and rather short coalition agreement. Very little specific information has been released, including the much-debated matter of possible changes to Estonia’s tax system.
According to the Constitution, the president has 14 days following the previous government’s resignation to name a new candidate for prime minister. That candidate then has two more weeks to form a government.
This would mean the appointment of Estonia’s next government some time in early December. The currently negotiating parties are ahead of schedule though, and it is expected that the new government will take up work on Nov. 22.
Following the Riigikogu’s vote of no confidence against Rõivas on Nov. 9 the government resigned, with the two previous junior partners SDE and IRL now negotiating a new coalition with the Center Party.
Editor: Editor: Dario Cavegn