"I think that this should definitely be seen as a recognition of the bankruptcy of the political leadership of Reform Party leader Kristen Michal. The government of Kaja Kallas reached the point of no return in a year, while Kristen Michal took half as long to do so as head of government. And if we look today at the assessments of the government made by members of all three parties in the coalition –  that the government's economic policy stance is wrong, that decisions are being taken on security, that there is no trust and that there is no leadership, then unfortunately they also coincide with the criticisms I have made. And indeed, at the heart of this is Prime Minister Kristen Michal himself as head of the government," Reinslau said.

"To talk about having wasted eight months of Estonia's time in the government and to be now moving on, continuing, partly by dismantling its current policies and admitting its bankruptcy, I think, does not inspire confidence in society. Everybody understands that this is being done with their backs against the wall /.../ We honestly have to admit that it would be appropriate for Prime Minister Michal personally to resign as head of his own government," he added.

According to Reinsalu, the Reform Party-led government is revising some of its decisions out of fear of the Isamaa alternative.

"I am glad that the support of the people for Isamaa is also hopefully, step by step, forcing today's political leadership of the Estonian state to retreat from its policies. It is a question of whether such a volatile political agenda is appropriate to the needs of today's society. My conviction is that it is not. As I said, the most appropriate thing is for the prime minister himself to consider that he has failed in leading the government he put together last summer," Reinsalu said.

The plan of Reform and Eesti 200 to review issues related to the green turn, including allocating as more natural resources for the benefit of the economy and easing restrictions on nature conservation, is also in line with Isamaa's policies. Reinsalu said that if the government does make any substantive changes in that direction, he would welcome it.

At the same time, Reinslau added that politicians in the government have, up to now, lied a lot on green and climate issues.

"I would remind you that these three leaders of the governing parties stood before the Estonian people a month ago and said they had taken an analytical, thorough and irreversible position on the subsidized energy economy with the €2.6 billion auction of offshore wind farms, and that the current head of government, Kristen Michal, called those who doubted that the agents of chaos," Reinsalu said.

"In the same way, there has been talk of reducing government expenditure, but we also know at the moment, according to the calculations of the National Audit Office, that government expenditure will increase in 2025. It has been said that sufficient funds have also been allocated for critical capabilities, for the procurement of ammunition. Unfortunately, we know that this is not true either. So, unfortunately, it is hard for me to believe these words of this government when I look at the implementation of their policies so far," the Isamaa leader pointed out.

Helme: Government of tax increases will continue and there is no point expecting change of course

Chair of the Conservative People's Party of Estonia (EKRE) Martin Helme, said that throwing the Social Democratic Party out of the governing coalition was a political maneuver.

"It was planned and decided upon some time ago, and carried out in a rather cold and calculated way to improve the popularity of the leading party in the government before the elections. There are local elections in the fall and the situation now is bad, so this was their so-called ploy to overhaul the government. This kind of scheme has been tried many times before," Helme said.

The EKRE leader added that it makes no sense for the Reform Party and  Eesti 200 to blame only the SDE alone for the tax increases, as is the joint responsibility of the whole government. "There is no point in talking about a right-wing government. The government of tax increases will continue."

According to Helme, there is no point in expecting any change of course from a government that continues as a two-party coalition.

"A change of course is only possible if there are extraordinary elections in Estonia. In the current composition of the Riigikogu, it makes little difference what the composition of the government is, the same policies will be pursued as they have been up to now. This means that we can't get much better on the economy, our security policy is at a standstill, and so on," he said.

"Of course, domestically, the game is going to be more open now, because the government's support base both in the halls of the Riigikogu and among the public, that is, among voters, has become much narrower. And if Eesti 200 and the Reform Party get a bad result in the local elections, we will basically be on the brink of another government crisis in the fall," Helme added.

If the governing coalition decides to reverse the tax increase, EKRE will support it.

"Of course, they need to send some kind of signals to the public to make this whole scheme work in some way. We are being provided with some cosmetic changes and of course we have been against all tax increases and have promised to reverse all tax increases – of course, if it is done even with such a small step, we are certainly in favor of it," Helme said.

"But when we now hear this talk about how environmental regulation has grown out of control, the public has to be very alert. In fact, one of the causes of the dispute was the stalled distribution of billions of green funds, which is that in order to build wind turbines, onshore wind turbines, the restrictions need to be relaxed in nature reserves. And that was the bureaucracy that we are being told about here in euphemisms. In fact, it's a rather cynical plan to reduce opportunities, to oppose the construction of giant wind farms on the basis of conservation arguments," he added.

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