Siim Kallas: I don't understand why Center wants to break up the government
In an appearance on ERR's "Otse uudistemajast" live broadcast on Wednesday, Reform Party parliamentary group member Siim Kallas said that according to his information, rumors regarding the Center Party's attempts to form an alternative coalition are true. Kallas said, however, that there is no public demand for a change in government.
Weekly Eesti Ekspress wrote (link in Estonian) on Wednesday that the leadership of the coalition Center Party, led by party chairman Jüri Ratas and Jaanus Karilaid, have made repeated attempts at resurrecting the party's former ruling coalition with the Conservative People's Party of Estonia (EKRE) and Isamaa.
"As far as we know, that is true, yes," Kallas said on "Otse uudistemajast."
The Reform MP said that he doesn't understand what public demand exists for changing out the current, Reform-Center government.
"I can't imagine what message they would be going to the public with," he said. "Would they say that this government isn't providing as many benefits as we would like to provide?"
Kallas confirmed that while the Reform Party doesn't intend to break up the current government, sharing the road to the next parliamentary elections in March 2023 with the Center Party is going to be difficult. "The year ahead is going to be a torture chamber," he said.
"We aren't going to go break up the government," Kallas said. "If our coalition partner joins some kind of forces together so that it falls, then it will fall. But I think that would be a very unwise move. As [Prime Minister Kaja Kallas] has said, we have tough times ahead. We don't know how this war will end, or what economic difficulties await us this fall."
Should the Reform Party nonetheless end up in the opposition, he added, Reform's parliamentary group already has a plan for how to boost support for the party from there.
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Editor: Aili Vahtla
