With Prime Minister Kaja Kallas' resignation, a full circle has now been completed.

In recent years, Estonia has had both a woman president and a woman prime minister, and now we have both a former president who is a woman, and a woman former prime minister.

In this regard, Estonia is a highly progressive and modern state.

Since this milestone has now been achieved, perhaps in the future, there will be no need to stress the gender of those holding high office. The main thing is that they be competent, and suited to the position.

Kaja Kallas headed up three administrations during her three-and-a-half years in office, making her tenure longer than most Estonian prime ministers have had.

Jüri Ratas was in office for slightly over four years, while the record-holder, Andrus Ansip, served as prime minister for more than eight years.

Three years is a sufficiently long period to call the recently concluded period the "Kallas era."

This does not just refer to the exact duration in office, but about everything we've faced in recent years—from the Covid crisis to the ongoing war.

While the former fortunately came to an end, the latter unfortunately goes on.

There are certainly many whose support for Kallas waned or even turned hostile over these years, and who now breathe a sigh of relief, albeit with a heavy heart.

At the same time, it is hard to imagine a politically engaged Estonian who dislikes Kaja Kallas wholly yet finds the presumed next prime minister, Kristen Michal, highly appealing

There will be plenty of time to debate whether Kaja Kallas was suitable for her position, and how well she actually performed if the time or the will can be found.

At the same time, it is hard to imagine a politically engaged Estonian who dislikes Kaja Kallas wholly yet finds the presumed next prime minister, Kristen Michal, highly appealing

Kallas herself told "Vikerhommik" that the governments she led had managed well.

Regarding what went awry, Kallas said: "There are certainly things I regret, but now is not the right moment to talk about them. However, one day, when I write my memoirs, I will cast light on all those things. Right now, everyone else is pointing out the negative aspects anyway."

It is possible that the final assessment of Kaja Kallas's time as prime minister will take place in the distant future, perhaps when she, or someone else, writes a book about it. By then, interest in our present era will be mostly academic.

It may well also turn out that, within a year or two, the Kaja Kallas era will start to seem like the "good old Kallas era."

Alo Raun noted in Eesti Päevaleht (link in Estonian) that: "Mark my words, soon we will yearn for and have praise for Kaja Kallas."

This could indeed happen, but only if life gets more dangerous, more expensive, and generally worse, compared with what it is now. Despite everything, both as a country and as individuals, we still have plenty of room in which to fall.

Kaja Kallas has undoubtedly left three sealed envelopes for her successor on the Prime Minister's desk, to be opened when things get tough.

The first envelope would contain a note saying "Blame everything on me." The second: "Make promises for the future," while the third reads: "It is time to prepare three envelopes."

You don't need to be a major clairvoyant to predict that Kristen Michal will have opened the first two envelopes, if not at the new government's first press conference, then certainly before the end of this year.

In terms of prime ministers, at least, Estonia has been fortunate, since the restoration of independence. There haven't been many for one thing, and each one of them has been memorable in their own way. For better or worse, Kallas will certainly remain one of the most memorable heads of government, and for quite some time.

If Kaja Kallas does become the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, she will be absent from Estonian domestic politics for at least some time to come also.

It is likely that Kallas would eventually return home, and it will be interesting to see by then whether she resembles more a Mart Laar or an Andrus Ansip, as a former prime minister.

Perhaps yet she will be more of a Taavi Rõivas, but that would seem a rather unlikely option.

In a few years' time, perhaps even Kallas' current opponents would go on to welcome her as the savior of the homeland and as a potential new (woman) president. That is by no means impossible, since the world is full of daily miracles.

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