Skip to main menu 18.03.24 NEWS ... Outgoing Minister of Justice Kalle Laanet (Reform) has not undergone a security check by the Internal Security Services (ISS) since 2019. If another had been carried out, his resignation may have occurred sooner.
18.03.24 NEWS ... Reform Party members on Monday would not reveal the name of the potential candidate for the next minister of justice, who will likely take office in April.
18.03.24 NEWS ... The minimum salaries of culture workers paid by the state should rise to the forecast national average next year, the Estonian Employees' Unions' Confederation (Estonian Employees' Unions' Confederation /TALO) said. It wants to start negotiations as soon as possible.
18.03.24 NEWS ... President Alar Karis said the public dispute between Minister of Justice Kalle Laanet (Reform) and Prosecutor General Andres Parmas raised questions about the independence of the Prosecutor's Office and its limits. This needs to be thoroughly discussed with those involved in the justice system, he said on Monday.
18.03.24 NEWS ... Security expert Rainer Saks, who regularly provides overviews of the situation in Ukraine, both on social media and in the press, has decided to run in the European Parliament elections on Parempoolsed's party list. Saks believes Parempoolsed will secure one of Estonia's seven seats.
18.03.24 NEWS ... Russia's election result dispelled any illusion the West might have had of being able to negotiate with Vladimir Putin, Andrei Hvostov told Vikerraadio Monday. He added that the election result will be used to support the war and entrench the dictatorship.
18.03.24 NEWS ... Former Prime Minister, MEP Andrus Ansip will on Monday hand over signatures needed to run for the Reform Party's European Parliament elections candidate at in-house elections, despite PM Kaja Kallas having suggested she does not wish to see Ansip run.
17.03.24 NEWS ... Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said in an interview to BBC that Russian leader Vladimir Putin is very good at sowing fear in Western societies, while he is also afraid of finding himself at war with NATO.
16.03.24 NEWS ... Kalle Laanet (Reform) has announced he is stepping down as minister of justice. He will remain in office on a caretaker basis until his replacement is nominated.
16.03.24 NEWS ... Minister of Justice Kalle Laanet (Reform) has been obtaining reimbursement from the state to the tune of €12,000 for a rental property in Tallinn in which he has been residing, investigative weekly Eesti Ekspress reported Saturday.
16.03.24 NEWS ... Prosecutor General Andres Parmas says he has been documenting his communications with Minister of Justice Kalle Laanet (Reform).
16.03.24 NEWS ... Prime Minister Kaja Kallas (Reform) is to be guest of honor at a renowned annual dinner in Washington today, Saturday, underscoring the importance of US-Estonia relations.
15.03.24 NEWS ... Most political parties' Riigikogu factions on Friday said they are in no hurry to support setting up a parliamentary committee to investigate the dispute between Justice Minister Kalle Laanet (Reform) and State Prosecutor General Andres Parmas.
15.03.24 NEWS ... The opposition Conservative People's Party of Estonia (EKRE), Isamaa and Center Party may end up fielding multiple candidates in the Riigikogu vice-president elections coming up at the beginning of April, which means that it could be the coalition parties' stance that proves decisive in determining who will become the next second vice-president of the Riigikogu.
15.03.24 NEWS ... The Minister of Justice is entitled to inquire about the progress of various prosecutor office investigations, but without giving directives, the chief justice of the Supreme Court said Thursday.
14.03.24 NEWS ... Fewer Russians living in Estonia may vote in Russia's presidential election this weekend, as citizens say they are afraid to cross the border to cast a ballot. Many people will also find it hard to travel to Tallinn to vote.
14.03.24 NEWS ... Center Party MEP Jana Toom launched a promotional campaign on Wednesday as she seeks to gain re-election to the European Parliament. Toom said the ads, which appear on billboards, were paid for by European Parliament's Renew Europe group.
14.03.24 NEWS ... According to Riigikogu Social Affairs Committee member Karmen Joller (Reform), the Ministry of Economic Affairs did not want doctors involved in preparing changes related to alcohol advertising laws, and their views were ignored. Minister of Economic Affairs Tiit Riisalo (Eesti 200) responded that while alcohol is harmful to health, ultimately the most important thing is the freedom of individuals to make choices about their own life.
14.03.24 NEWS ... Council deputies in the eastern border town of Narva are demanding explanations over leaflets that conflate the March 1944 bombing by the Soviet air force of Estonian cities with the present-day devastation of Ukrainian cities by the Russian Federation. The director of the city's museum has been asked for an apology, while the museum sees no reason to do so.
14.03.24 NEWS ... Head of Eesti 200's Riigikogu group Marek Reinaas described as false Eesti 200 MP and board member Züleyxa Izmailova's claim that the party's change of heart in the matter of supporting offshore wind was orchestrated by Reinaas. The politician also sees no conflict of roles in having business dealings with developer Utilitas' owner Kristjan Rahu.
14.03.24 NEWS ... Estonia's Prosecutor General Andres Parmas told Kuku Raadio in an interview Thursday that he has kept records of conversations he's had with Minister of Justice Kalle Laanet (Reform) who has been critical and allegedly put pressure on Parmas to resign. The prosecutor general does not plan to leave office.
14.03.24 NEWS ... More people should move to the city center (Kesklinn/Südalinn) district of Tallinn, to prevent the spirit of the heart of the capital from fading away, Deputy Mayor of Tallinn Madle Lippus (SDE) said Wednesday.
14.03.24 NEWS ... While Supreme Court decisions regarding the self-organization rights belonging to the Riigikogu have motivated the Reform-SDE-Eesti 200 coalition to bundle hundreds of legislative amendments together, this has not proven to be a panacea with regard to the opposition filibustering efforts which have been ongoing for much of the time since last April.
13.03.24 NEWS ... Recently rebuked in an internal letter sent out by coalition Eesti 200 chair Margus Tsahkna, MP Züleyxa Izmailova confessed that most of the Eesti 200 parliamentary group doesn't know who is involved – and where, and when – in the party making such significant decisions as their about-face on supporting offshore wind farms.
13.03.24 NEWS ... Minister of Justice Kalle Laanet (Reform) on Monday signed a directive ordering for supervisory control to be conducted over the Prosecutor's Office.
13.03.24 NEWS ... Isamaa's main candidates in the upcoming the European Parliament elections are Urmas Reinsalu, Riho Terras, Jüri Ratas, and Riina Solman. Former Estonian Prime Minister Juhan Parts is not likely to run.
13.03.24 NEWS ... Reversing a policy to remove the so-called tax hump would help in the current state budgetary situation, rather than plastering over that policy with new taxes, such as the car tax and tax on sugary drinks, which hit lower wage earners as much as anyone else, Isamaa MP Jüri Ratas said Tuesday.
13.03.24 NEWS ... Despite stated opposition from Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz, some coalition members in principle support sending cruise missiles to Ukraine, including even the German Taurus system, ETV news show "Aktuaalne kaamera" (AK) reported from Berlin.
13.03.24 NEWS ... While the ratings of the three most-supported political parties in Estonia were substantively unchanged over the past week, coalition party Eesti 200 saw its rating rise by around one percentage point.
13.03.24 NEWS ... Prime Minister Kaja Kallas (Reform) has no issues with Minister of Justice Kalle Laanet's (Reform) actions in respect of Prosecutor General Andrus Parmas.
13.03.24 NEWS ... Prime Minister Kaja Kallas (Reform) says that some of her former colleagues and friends at the European Parliament have expressed surprise as to why former prime minister, sitting MEP and Kallas' party-mate, Andrus Ansip, is so "bitter," following the latest round of a long-running verbal feud between the pair.
12.03.24 NEWS ... Anneli Ott, general secretary of the Center Party, said that despite several high-profile departures, Center will have no difficulty putting together its list for the upcoming European Parliament elections. The final list will be approved by the party's executive board at the end of March.
12.03.24 NEWS ... On Tuesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry released a list of leading politicians from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania who are banned from entering the territory of the Russian Federation. The list includes ten Estonian politicians.
12.03.24 NEWS ... Finance Minister Mart Võrklaev (Reform) has sent a bill for governmental approval which, if it were to pass into law, would establish ground rules for cryptocurrency service providers active in Estonia.
12.03.24 NEWS ... Leaders of some of those municipalities in Harju County which ring the capital, Tallinn, have expressed opposition to an initiative by Minister of Regional Affairs Madis Kallas (SDE) to redistribute a part of their revenues to poorer local government areas across Estonia.
11.03.24 NEWS ... I have asked Prosecutor General Andres Parmas to take a look at criminal cases of heightened public interest before they go to court in order to rule out repercussions for the prosecution office, Justice Minister Kalle Laanet (Reform) told ERR's "Uudis+" program.
11.03.24 NEWS ... Lea Danilson-Järg (Isamaa) and Mart Helme (EKRE) suggested the conflict between Justice Minister Kalle Laanet (Reform) and Chief Public Prosecutor Andres Parmas must be probed for a separation of powers violation. Lavli Perling (Parempoolsed) said that Laanet has failed in political leadership.
11.03.24 NEWS ... In a letter sent out to members of the party, Eesti 200 chair Margus Tsahkna admonished Züleyxa Izmailova for allegedly making false accusations and wanted her to apologize. Tsahkna said that such things don't go unnoticed and that actions should have consequences.
11.03.24 NEWS ... According to predictions made by journalists Urmet Kook and Mikk Salu on ETV show "Terevisioon," the biggest winners in Estonia during this year's European Parliament elections are expected to be Isamaa and the Reform Party, both of which are likely to win two seats.
11.03.24 NEWS ... Monday will mark the start of the trial of EKRE MP Kert Kingo, charged with fraud, instigation of falsification of documents and use of falsified documents.
09.03.24 NEWS ... A leaked Reform Party internal communication reveals MEP and former prime minister Andrus Ansip has strenuously denied claims made by current Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, to the effect, Kallas said, that in the course of his European parliamentary work he had slandered Estonia.
09.03.24 NEWS ... A budgetary audit carried out across three of the largest of Estonia's 11 ministries should reveal the extent to which significant austerity cuts are viable.
09.03.24 NEWS ... While the Minister of Justice should always have scope for criticizing the prosecutor general, even to the extent of requesting their resignation, their must be checks and balances on this, a top legal scholar says.
09.03.24 NEWS ... The new secretary general of coalition party Eesti 200, Igor Taro, says that the party's current low rating is the result of some public internal tensions, along with tough economic decisions the coalition as a whole has had to make.
08.03.24 NEWS ... Tallinn City Council member Maria Jufereva-Skuratovski (Reform) is losing her city council seat after registering at a non-Tallinn address. As she had earned a mandate as a member of the Center Party, however, it is the latter who will regain her seat, weekly Eesti Ekspress writes.
08.03.24 NEWS ... Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas (Reform) will not stand as a candidate in the European Parliament elections on the Reform Party's list, the Prime Minister's Office has confirmed to ERR.
08.03.24 NEWS ... On March 7, the Constitutional Committee of the Riigikogu held a public sitting to discuss with foreign experts Russia's frozen assets and how to use them to compensate for war damage caused to Ukraine.
08.03.24 NEWS ... The two largest non-parliamentary parties in Estonia, Parempoolsed and the Estonian Greens (Rohelised), say they are both running full electoral lists at June's European elections, and both remain hopeful of winning a seat.
08.03.24 NEWS ... A total of 24 percent of respondents to a recent survey said they would prefer to see ex-foreign minister and Isamaa chair Urmas Reinsalu installed as prime minister of Estonia, making him the most-supported politician in relation to this job, and up one percentage point from the proportion who felt the same, last November.
08.03.24 NEWS ... A deficit worth several hundred million euros will continue to propagate in the 2025 state budget, while the Reform-Eesti 200-SDE coalition is still searching for ways to address this in a united manner, particularly from a taxation perspective.