Speaking to Vikerradio's "Stuudios on peaminister" Wednesday, Kallas said: "I can't abide this chat with him any more, hence the reason I honestly do not read his communications. To my mind, the national broadcaster's airwaves should be used to more productive ends, than what one particular individual somewhere thinks about [another] individual."

In fact, Kallas said, she and Ansip, a sitting MEP in the same party, do not need to work together at all, adding it would be a tricky situation if they were both on the same team, but "we are obviously not on the same team."

"Continually throwing things out can generally result in a conclave which is poor. If the team is not united when going into the elections, the situation is definitely much more complicated," the prime minister went on.

"Anyway let it be: I have no wish to prolong this fight," the prime minister added.

"[Ansip] goes and smears Estonia, outside of Estonia; he doesn't disburse the tasks of a member of the European Parliament," she continued, reiterating the main thrust of the criticism at the heart of the current controversy.

Speaking to Delfi Meedia journalist Vilja Kiisler last Thursday, Kallas had said that Ansip, prime minister and Reform Party leader 2005 to 2014, had "defamed" Estonia, while working at the European Parliament, where he has sat since 2019.

Kallas elaborated on what she meant by defamed, or smeared Estonia: More specifically, Ansip had done so in the context of the Covid crisis starting early 2020, "As if we had killed people here, and so on."

"In fact, if you look at WHO statistics, we are in exactly the same quarter [of the table] as Finland and Germany in terms of how we fared during Covid."

"This is but one example," Kallas said.

In a leaked Reform Party internal communication, Ansip himself effectively said Kallas was engaging in defamation with regard to her statements about him.

The prime minister also identified a disparity which readers may have noticed* themselves, namely that while domestic criticism of and by politicians and others, inside Estonia and in the Estonian language, is acceptable or at least "usually is the case," when it comes to the external audience, "we certainly stick together, so this kind of smearing and dragging down of Estonia doesn't sit well with me personally."

In short, Kallas implied that Ansip had not been playing the game, when viewed through this prism.

"This is very pointedly smearing Estonia, it is unnecessary, and my colleagues and good friends in the European Parliament (Kallas was an MEP 2014-2019 – ed.) are highly surprised at why is he so bitter, why is he doing something like this; there is such dissonance," she continued.

Kallas' name has been linked in some media outlets with various top international jobs in recent months, including the NATO secretary general position and, with the European Parliament elections looming on the horizon, the existing High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy post, the planned defense commissioner post, and ALDE/Renew Europe's lead candidate role.

Kallas herself has said she is not interested in being Estonia's next EU commissioner, a role Ansip held 2014 to 2019, and will not be running in the European elections, either as the ALDE lead candidate or not.

Of the current crop of Estonian MEPs, Ansip aside, Kallas had praise not only for the other Reform Party member, former foreign minister Urmas Paet, but also for the two Social Democratic Party MEPs: Marina Kaljurand and Sven Mikser.

Kallas noted that much of the good work done in Strasbourg and Brussels does not make the headlines in the way interviews and criticisms do; given Estonia only has seven MEPs, sending effective people to the European Parliament is all the more important, the prime minister added.

*The 'some of my colleagues have said' mechanism perhaps being another.

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