Reform Party Picks Dark Horse as New PM Candidate
Minister of Social Affairs Taavi Rõivas has been tapped by the meeting of the Reform Party board this afternoon to be the party's prime minister candidate.
The youngest member of the Cabinet at 34, Rõivas has a slightly thinner resume than other candidates mentioned, such as Foreign Minister Urmas Paet and Justice Minister Hanno Pevkur. In his five years in Parliament, Rõivas served as chairman of the Finance Committee and then the European Affairs Committee. Before that, he was adviser to Prime Minister Andrus Ansip.
He took over as social affairs minister in 2012, replacing Hanno Pevkur, who in turn took the post formerly held by Kristen Michal.
Pevkur was the other candidate considered at today's meeting. Paet had previously declined an offer from the Reform Party.