Savisaar meets with Ratas, negotiates financial support
Former long-time chairman of the Center Party, Edgar Savisaar, met with Prime Minister Jüri Ratas over the weekend. Savisaar apparently refused an offer of the party to provide him with a van and a driver, while negotiations about a regular allowance to be paid to him as well as partial coverage of his legal bills are still under way.
“What I can say is that he gave up the car and the driver once and for all,” the party’s secretary general, Jaak Aab, told BNS on Tuesday. Aab said that people from the party’s leadership had now met with Savisaar.
“Jüri Ratas and Edgar Savisaar indeed met in Tallinn on Sunday and discussed matters related to the party,” the head of the Office of the Prime Minister, Tanel Kiik, told BNS, though he wasn’t able to provide details.
Aab said there was no final clarity about the benefits offered by the Center Party to Savisaar.
“Now at least a meeting has taken place, we didn’t have even that much before. Negotiations are ongoing, and there will be a new meeting unless new issues arise,” Aab said. Aab added that the negotiations were made more difficult by Savisaar’s refusal to answer direct and clear questions.
Asked by BNS if the previously futile attempts to establish contact with Savisaar had not created the wish in the party to stop helping Savisaar, Aab said he “didn’t quite think so”.
“With Edgar we are looking at a person who isn’t in the best possible state of health. Who will help him? Who will help him at all? I can’t think of anyone. I think we should at least try and find out what he needs, and we would like to help as far as is possible for us,” he said.
Savisaar is about to face corruption and money laundering charges in court. He was hospitalized in March 2015 as a result of a severe bout of streptococcal infection that necessitated the amputation of his right leg above the knee to stop the spread of the infection.
Editor: Editor: Dario Cavegn
Source: BNS