Kallas, 75, announced Friday he would be leaving the Riigikogu and active politics, with his next activities to include a book on liberal politics, which he has just finished.

Kallas was a co-founder of the Reform Party, now 30 years old, and expressed his satisfaction with his time in that party and in politics in an interview with ERR which follows.

This decision to step down from politics – what prompted it?

Well, my time was up. I had been pondering for a while that it was time for others to take over. The work in the Riigikogu has a specific dynamic, and that's really all there is to it.

I have in my lifetime been a man of executive power; I have always been in the executive roles, in leadership positions. But leadership roles are for younger people, so logically it was time for to say "Enough."

What is your assessment the era you're leaving behind? What has been happening in the world, in Estonia, and in the Reform Party? How should it all be evaluated? You're stepping down now, so what do you think you're leaving behind you?

It would be nice to say that challenges remain, and they certainly do. But I would come from a different starting point. The period I have experienced as a member of the Riigikogu, and in other positions, has been incredible, and an unbelievable time of turbulence. I can only express high satisfaction that this happened. But the truth is, each era brings new challenges. Every era demands new people, just like in the Good Soldier Švejk stories, where it was written that great times require great people.

But it is usually the case that the grass was greener, and the snow deeper, on the other side of the fence in one's youth. In your view, do we have enough "great people" for these crazy times Estonia is facing?

We have to! They ae always there and it simply can't be any other way. They emerge and combine. Look at other fields: Culture, technology—new people, new ideas, and thoughts are constantly emerging. It's a kind of a natural inevitability that it works this way.

Let's press a bit more on the political theme. Are you satisfied with the current state of the Reform Party, and what challenges lie ahead for it?

We have to deal with it. The Reform Party has no reason for complaint—when you have 39 seats in the Riigikogu, you can't hope for a better result.

None of us in 1994 or 1995, when the party was founded, thought there would be a time when we would have won five elections in a row, formed governments, and so on.

The Reform Party can be justly quite proud of its history. But, of course, the vigilance must not be lost, and new challenges will arise… Others are thinking, others are pushing to present their alternatives. That is how life usually goes.

But fundamentally, the Reform Party has done very well.

During your younger years, the key figure was Edgar Savisaar. He's no longer here. Who do you think is the main player alongside the Reform Party now?

I don't know if we need to always highlight such a key player. Savisaar wasn't so much the key figure, but a very colorful one—he influenced and shaped a lot of politics. But there were others alongside him, and today it's the same. I think new times will bring new people. I don't think the question is about needing some pillar of support as an alternative to the Reform Party. That alternative could very well come from somewhere else.

What is the next plan then?

(Laughs) For me or?...

I can see you have your sandals on, and the lawn is mown. What next, going forward?

Really, I can report that I've finished off a book manuscript. Since my … how can I put it … political colleague or political opponent at the Riigikogu was cursing liberalism, calling it a full-on crime, then I decided to write a book about what liberalism actually is.

It's already ready and will be coming out this fall. It was extremely interesting to do. I hadn't thought so systematically about it before, but when you start from John Locke, and the British thinkers... I've been working on it for some time while at the Riigikogu, and it has brought me much satisfaction.

I got the full manuscript yesterday and started reading it through last night. It will be finished soon and sent to the printers, then it will come out as a book.. So, another task ticked off the list.

Then we'll most likely meet at the book presentation soon. But aside from those who curse the liberals, there are also those who remain convinced that you're somehow a 'white collar criminal.' Will there be a book where you tell the whole truth about the ten million?

(Chuckles) No, that won't be coming.

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