Võrklaev presented the plan yesterday. Junior coalition partner SDE also does not support it.

"We are very clear that the whole calculation has to be done and then the numbers have to be presented either to the European Union or to whomever. And indeed, we also did not agree that the government should just do one thing about this stability program. In essence, this would have meant that, that without the existence of another plan, which concerns either large-scale cuts or whatever steps we take in the future, we would have simply lowered this budget balance ambition significantly from 1.9 percent of the nominal deficit, which has been in the current state budget strategy, to 3 percent," Tsahkna told Vikerraadio's "Uudis +" program.

"In essence, this would have meant that we would have been prepared, without any other measures, to go down the road of borrowing, so to speak, to cover running costs. A budget deficit actually means a borrowing burden, which means that there is not really any money to be put into the deficit. So we did not agree with that either, and we want the finance minister to come up with the whole picture, or at least we have to agree on what the picture is going to look like," he added.

"Eesti 200 has made it very clear here that, looking at our economic forecast, looking at our budget forecast, which shows a nominal deficit of 5.3 percent next year, we have to put the whole solution on the table. And what we are proposing is that before we start to change the ambition, we have to agree on a cut percentage, so to speak, whether it's 7 percent, whether it's 5 percent, that's what the finance ministry has to calculate now," said Tsahkna.

Without a cutback plan, Eesti 200 is unwilling to support taking a loan, he told the show.

"And on the other hand, there is investment. We are willing to borrow, but these loans have to be linked to some kind of reform that will bring change. At a time of crisis like we are in today, we have to use the crisis precisely to make reforms, be they in education, the economy, or investments in our digital capabilities. We are not going to get anywhere today simply by lowering ambition," the chairman said.

"We have to stand up for our interests here as the Estonian state. We do not need to report on things we have not agreed on," he said.

"It's not possible here to just think that maybe it will pass, maybe it will not. This is an even more serious situation than we had in the 2008 economic crisis.  Then there was the global financial crisis, but today we have come from the Covid crisis, the security crisis, the energy crisis, the financial crisis, now the economic crisis. There's no time to dwell on this, and I'm saying that there really needs to be a brutal cut in public spending," Tsahkna said.

"After all, we need to agree what the real action looks like. On one hand, there is the formal reporting, but on the other hand, we have to solve the problem of the Estonian state budget, we have to get the economy going, we have to make real decisions," he stressed.

Tsahkna said all ministries should cut their budgets by 5-7 percent.

"This is our proposal, this is a very concrete proposal. It is a concrete political decision that will be taken between the three political parties and it will have to be implemented, and this concrete guideline, this task with deadlines will be given to the ministries, will be given to the state foundations, will be given to the state-owned companies, simply a very clear guideline. It simply has to be done. And that is our concrete proposal," said Tsahkna.

Once a year, EU member states must submit stability and convergence programs to the European Commission and the Council of the European Union, which outline governments' political choices.

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