Ratas: Reform Party trying to cover up internal tensions

With the 2019 elections approaching, the Reform Party is obviously getting nervous, Prime Minister Jüri Ratas (Center) said on Wednesday. He added that Reform is trying to hide its own internal tensions in the party with the opposition's motions of no confidence.
The motion of no confidence against Minister of Economic Affairs Kadri Simson (Center) as well as the opposition's talk about such a move against the prime minister himself served to distract from the Reform Party's infighting, Ratas said.
In remarks released through spokespeople after the opposition handed in the no-confidence motion against Simson, Ratas said that the Reform Party finished the year 2017 amid passionate infighting, which wounded several of their leading members. Just as they were getting ready for the campaign against Simson, they had expressed their no-confidence in their own leader, Ratas hinted at Reform's leadership crisis in December, and party chairman Hanno Pevkur's remaining months until he is to be replaced with Kaja Kallas (Reform/ALDE).
"During the first working week of this year, the Reform Party already managed to demand the resignation of the minister of justice, the minister of economic affairs and infrastructure, and the prime minister," Ratas said.
As the attacks kept coming, the Reform Party hadn't been able to make sense of its far-fetched allegations, he added.
Moves like the one against Simson today were being invented by the opposition instead of there being actual debate, Ratas said. "The sole aim of this is to divert attention away from their own infighting. Kadri Simson has pursued a right and fair policy both as an opposition MP and as a member of the government. She has my full trust and support," the prime minister said.
The Riigikogu is to debate the opposition's motion of no confidence on Wednesday.
Editor: Dario Cavegn
Source: ERR, BNS