Reinsalu: Isamaa wants Kaja Kallas to resign
In a Saturday assembly, Isamaa party chair Urmas Reinsalu said Prime Minister Kaja Kallas (Reform) should step down as head of government due to her husband's business relations in Russia.
"Isamaa's message is unequivocal: Kaja Kallas must step down," Reinsalu said in his speech.
He said that Kaja Kallas (Reform) is ineligible for the post of prime minister due to her "duplicity."
"A government leader lacking in moral capital is also a security threat, undermining our international credibility with regard to a resolute sanctions policy and continuing support for Ukraine. Our most persuasive argument to countries geographically and historically distant from Russia has been that the humanity aspect surpasses commercial interests. This argument is a critical security guarantee for us," Reinsalu said.
Reinsalu also recalled Kallas' statements to the Financial Times, in which the prime minister referred to companies who do business with Russia as hypocritical.
"It has now come to light that a company owned by the prime minister's husband has been carrying out shipments worth €30 million since the start of full-scale war to supply raw materials to a Russian factory. This raw material has subsequently been sanctioned by the European Union to hamper the capacity of Russian industry. The prime minister has personally credited a holding company owned by a shareholder of this company with a large sum of money," he went on.
"According to information disclosed yesterday, semi-finished goods worth $2.7 million have been shipped to Russia since this spring in an attempt to avoid EU sanctions," he said.
"When the matter became public, the prime minister blatantly lied that there had been no shipment of goods to Russia and took the position that there is nothing immoral about this conduct," the leader of the Isamaa party said.
Reinsalu also referred to the Ministry of Defense, which wrote in its 2022 annual report: "Companies need to understand that doing business with sanctioned countries undermines the security of Estonia and its allies and that doing business in this way harms the entrepreneur."
"If we read this kind of news about the leader of any other European country, our position in Estonia would be unambiguous. We must not be less demanding of our country's leader," Reinsalu said.
ERR reported on Wednesday that Stark Logistics, a transport company partly owned by Prime Minister Kallas' husband Arvo Hallik, has continued to operate in the direction of Russia during the war in Ukraine. Kallas said that Hallik has no customers in the Russian Federation, and the company in question is assisting an Estonian customer in winding down its industrial operations in Russia.
With eight MPs, the opposition party Isamaa has the smallest parliamentary group, while the 16-member Center Party stated on Friday that it will begin discussions with other parties on a motion of no confidence in the prime minister.
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Editor: Mait Ots, Kristina Kersa