New coalition already agreed upon, says EKRE chairman

According to Conservative People's Party of Estonia (EKRE) chairman Mart Helme, should the current government coalition collapse, a new coalition has already been agreed upon.
At a party council meeting held in Türi on Saturday, EKRE approved a statement with which it declares its stance against Estonia's joining of the UN Global Compact on Migration. While expressing hope at the weekend that the Centre Party might still do a 180 and vote against sending the document to the government in order to avoid the collapse of the current coalition, party chairman Mart Helme admitted that the matter would in all likelihood be pushed through at Monday's sitting of the Riigikogu. Regardless, according to the EKRE chairman, the new government coalition has already been agreed upon.
"According to our information, the new coalition has already been agreed upon," Helme said. "This new coalition consists of 31 Reform MPs, six Free Party MPs and 13 MPs of the Social Democratic Party's (SDE) parliamentary group, plus some independent tagalongs."
Social Democratic Party (SDE) chairman Jevgeni Ossinovski denied these claims, however, noting that their party was uninterested in breaking up the cooperation of the current ruling coalition, and adding that those who actually understand how the government and Riigikogu function are aware that this suggestion, despite being served by EKRE as a done deal already, essentially isn't currently possible.
SDE board member Rainer Vakra also found that the Reform Party, currently the biggest opposition party, isn't prepared to take responsibility for the Estonian government anyway, finding Reform chairwoman Kaja Kallas to be too wishy-washy, leaving the impression with her changing stances that she is not leading, but rather being directed by fellow party members.
A statement regarding the UN Global Compact on Migration is to be put to a vote in the Riigikogu on Monday. Should Pro Patria with its 11 seats leave the government after Centre and the SDE vote in favour of supporting the migration compact, Centre and SDE would be left with a minority government holding a combined 39 seats in the 101-seat Riigikogu, with just over three months left to go until the 2019 Riigikogu elections.
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Editor: Aili Vahtla