"Parempoolsed tend to be critical regarding this, in terms of both content and their messages, which certainly don't provide predictability to the economic environment," Perling told ERR.

"This is still a watershed moment in the conditions of Estonia's competitiveness, where, after 20 years, income tax will essentially be reintroduced on companies," she highlighted. "This is a very bad message to the Estonian economy, which is in the worst shape in Europe, which has been in recession for over two years."

"Parempoolsed tend to be critical regarding this, in terms of both content and their messages, which certainly don't provide predictability to the economic environment," Perling told ERR.

"This is still a watershed moment in the conditions of Estonia's competitiveness, where, after 20 years, income tax will essentially be reintroduced on companies," she highlighted. "This is a very bad message to the Estonian economy, which is in the worst shape in Europe, which has been in recession for over two years."

The party chair said that Parempoolsed had proposed three conditions that would be of substance in this coalition agreement.

"First of all, immediately make this expenditure-based state budget visible, making it possible to say which [budget] lines can be saved on, which lines will contribute to national defense spending," she noted. "It hasn't been."

According to Perling, the coalition considering the economy a priority would be demonstrated by the coalition signing the Estonian Employers' Confederation (ETK) economic agreement, which is aimed at economic growth.

She is likewise skeptical about how believable the Reform Party's story can be.

"The Reform Party has 'temporarily' hiked the income tax and VAT before," she pointed out.

The Parempoolsed chief said that a negative state budget should be significantly more robust, and that nobody should be going on summer vacation right now.

"This is still a Reform Party-led government, therefore the degree of specificity today should be that there are formulas clearly on the table regarding where cuts will come from, where deindexation will take place," she said, highlighting that expenditures related to indexation run into the hundreds of millions. "And third, clear agreements that expenditures must be frozen."

And of course, she continued, as Parempoolsed have repeatedly said, the focus must now remain on growth.

"A business peace must be implemented," she said. "We were hoping that there was already a list of specific bureaucratic regulations that would be repealed."

Perling warned that raising the income tax will hike inflation again. "People will be left with even less money in hand, and people's lives will get more difficult," she said.

"It's exactly the same with businesses," she continued. "If [corporate] income tax is introduced, the consequences thereof will be unpredictable. Who will optimize how, or who will in large part decide to continue their business elsewhere altogether. There may be serious consequences."

The Parempoolsed chief does, however, approve of postponing the elimination of the tax hump.

"That is essentially a good idea," she said. "We've said that this whole tax hump thing should be postponed until the state budget is balanced."

Perling said that the country still has to start with expenditures.

"Because Estonia's current problem is the fact that our debt is growing at breakneck speed; we can't manage to halt our fixed costs," she explained. "We have to address these issues. And then, of course, how to get Estonia to the kind of growth that would be long-term, permanent and faster than that of its neighbors."

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