Reform to submit motion of no confidence against Mart Helme on Monday
The Reform Party will submit a motion of no confidence against Interior minister Mart Helme (EKRE) on Monday, Chairman Kaja Kallas has said. All members of the Riigikogu are being asked to support it.
Kallas said: " Mart Helme's departure is an elementary hygiene issue, that EKRE is not suitable for government must also be resolved."
She said the motion was drawn up on October 26 after Helme gave an interview to the Russian language website of Deutsche Welle in which he made homophobic comments.
The motion's submission was delayed as not all members of the Reform Party were able to participate in a Riigikogu sitting at the end of October due to coronavirus quarantining rules and there was no sitting last week.
On Sunday night, after comments made by Mart Helme speculating the American elections were fraudulent were published, Kallas said a no-confidence motion would be launched this week.
"A no-confidence motion in Mart Helme is planned for the new week. All MPs who vote against the motion or abstain can in effect be considered to condone their (the Helme's – ed.) positions, since then the minister will remain in office and continue to shame Estonia. Are there any boundaries?" Kallas wrote on her own social media account Sunday.
This will be the third motion of no confidence the party has initiated in the interior minister.
For a no-confidence motion to pass, it must receive a minimum 51 votes at the 101-seat Riigikogu. Reform and the other opposition party, the social democrats, between them have 44 seats, meaning over half-a-dozen coalition MPs would have to vote with them on the motion.
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Editor: Helen Wright