Reform Party leaders convene to discuss Siim Kallas' criticisms
The Reform Party Board of Directors assembled at the party's head office in Tallinn on Wednesday morning to discuss disagreements and Siim Kallas' proposed changes to the leadership of the party.
Absent from today's meeting due to work obligations elsewhere were MEPs Kaja Kallas and Urmas Paet and Rein Lang, who is in the Middle-East working as an expert at Estonian-owned IT firm Nortal.
Board member Aivar Sõerd told ERR last week that he had no complaints about Siim Kallas and that the latter's criticism of the party was justified.
In Kalle Palling's opinion, party members are tired of bickering among themselves. Palling also said, however, that the Reform Party was not at risk of a split.
According to MEP Urmas Paet, the presidential elections are over and the party should stop searching for culprits.
MEP Kaja Kallas has noted that her requests to schedule party board meetings for times when she could also attend have been ignored.
Rein Lang, a known supporter of Siim Kallas, believed that disagreements should be resolved and unity restored to the party.
Kallas himself told ERR that he did not wish to comment prior to the board meeting.
Disagreements within the party
Kallas said in an interview given to Estonian business paper Äripäev in mid-October that he would not rule out the creation of a new party.
"It's a complicated thing," he commented in response to the paper's question about forming a new political party. "I don't want to say that this is entirely ruled out either, but it's still early. I must think [about it]."
Party Secretary General Reimo Nebokat responded to Kallas' comments immediately, among other things accusing Kallas of becoming friendly with pro-Kremlin powers.
Kallas himself thereafter sent the secretary general a request for the party's board of directors to meet and discuss disagreements within the party and the pro-Kremlin accusation against him at the first opportunity.
A greater divide within the Reform Party appeared during the presidential elections, when some party members continued to support Marina Kaljurand's candidacy even after Siim Kallas was chosen as the party's official presidential canndidate.
Editor: Editor: Aili Vahtla