EKRE leader: We'll probably be in opposition
Finance minister Martin Helme (EKRE) has reiterated that he thinks his party will be left out of the next coalition, once it is formed, following Jüri Ratas' (Center) resignation in the early hours of Wednesday.
Helme wrote on his social media account Wednesday evening that: "Politics is dynamic. While in the morning the Center Party gave us a clear indication that they want to go forward with us, only half-a-day later, it was stated quite clearly: We have no appetite to move forward with you. So, the current coalition has ended."
Helme went on to note that while his party had, he said, been the whipping boys of the media throughout their time in office, it was a financial scandal related primarily to the Center Party that tipped the balance, adding that his party had not asked for or received large donations from big business, and as such was the only one not to do so.
He also pondered on possible moves by the Reform Party to include Isamaa in a coalition, saying it might be out of a desire to crush the conservative Isamaa between two liberal rocks (i.e. Reform and Center) or to make out that Reform had always been on board with Isamaa's pensions reform policy, now entered into law.
Helme added that Center had no coherent worldview, unlike EKRE which, in its championing of the marriage definition referendum, has one, adding that Center may be looking ahead to potential power-sharing on the Tallinn city government, following fall's local elections.
Helme signed off by saying his party had kept social issues including sexuality, hate speech, immigration and asylum, as well as the matter of cheap labor from Ukraine and other slavic nations, in the public eye.
Helme had already said at lunchtime Wednesday that Center no longer wanted to work with his party, after initial consensus between the two in the morning.
Former education minister Mailis Reps (Center) affirmed her party did not wish to be in office with EKRE again; perhaps the most visual illustration of this came when TV journalists, interviewing Helme in a Riigikogu corridor, abandoned him on spotting Reps, and rushed over to speak to her.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte