"I plan to hand in my signatures in support and application to run today. In-house rules provide that a candidate needs to be backed by ten signatures. And I got those immediately – I got 120 signatures supporting me electronically," Ansip told Kanal 2 morning show "Telehommik," adding that he hopes to get 170-180 signatures in all.

Ansip later took to social media to reveal that he received more than 173 signatures in support of his candidacy, including from 16 MPs, two ministers and a member of the European Parliament. This is noteworthy as Ansip received a public letter from party leader Kaja Kallas in early February discouraging him from running in the European Parliament elections. Now, two Reform Party ministers in Kallas' administration have decided to back Ansip.

ERR's information suggest throwing their lot in with Ansip where Minister of Climate Kristen Michal (Reform) and Minister of Justice Kalle Laanet (Reform).

The former premier said that Reform's in-house election will follow and determine whether he will be among its nine candidates for European Parliament elections. "I hope I will make the cut, and then we'll see what will happen next."

The ruling Reform Party will hold its election March 28 to April 4. But where the nine candidates with the most votes will be placed on the party's list of candidates is up to a special committee.

The final list of candidates will be approved at the party's April 7 general assembly.

Ansip also briefly commented on his conflict with party leader, Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, suggesting that he decided to stop arguing with Kallas in the interests of the party, while the premier has not done the same and has instead continued to throw accusations at Ansip.

He described as false Kallas' claims that he does not support the party financially and gets no work done in the European Parliament.

Commenting on Laanet's scandal, which initially concerned his conflict with Prosecutor General Andres Parmas and now includes Laanet having rented an apartment from a company owned by his spouse's son, Ansip said that it is regrettable the two have coincided.

"This coincidence does not look good. If we think about whether there are issues with the prosecution, I believe we can come up with quite a few. Let us think of [former Tartu Deputy Mayor] Kajar Lember's nine-euro haircut, which was in proceedings for a decade, as well as other things which are processed to no end without getting anywhere. The people are understandably a little disgruntled over this lack of progress. We cannot really speak of efficiency of proceedings when a million and a half in taxpayer money is spent on processing a nine-euro haircut. I believe that recent criticism aimed at the Prosecutor's Office is entirely warranted," Ansip said.

Regarding Laanet's apartment scandal, the former prime minister suggested that procedural restrictions on whether it is permissible to rent an apartment from a distant relative or a firm owned by your wife's son are about as cost-effective for the state as charging people over nine-euro haircuts.

"This reminds me of the case of former Olympic Committee head Neinar Seli where Port of Tallinn had been a sponsor of the Olympic Committee for 17 years until Seli found himself sitting on the boards of both the company and the committee, which was interpreted as a violation of procedural restrictions. Not a single cent was transferred [in that time], while all three court tiers deliberated whether he voted on something, had intent etc. It turned out that he had taken a vote, and just like that Seli was a criminal offender. Laanet's case falls in with that and the nine-euro haircut," Ansip opined.

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