The Riigikogu did not support the vote of no confidence in the Prime Minister

34 members of the Riigikogu supported the vote of no confidence in Kallas and 57 voted against it. At least 51 votes would have been needed to express no confidence in the Prime Minister and consequently in the whole Government.

Tanel Kiik, who represented the initiators of the motion of no confidence, said that, in the opinion of the members of the Riigikogu belonging to the opposition, the Government coalition of the Reform Party, Estonia 200 and the Social Democratic Party had begun to implement decisions that were short-sighted and harmful to families.

“The Government is steering the country in a completely wrong direction and is deepening the population crisis, economic crisis and trust crisis with its activities,” he said, and referred to the extraordinary session that had started the day before and ended today. In his opinion, decisions worsening the livelihood and welfare of Estonian people and families had been adopted one after the other at the session. In Kiik’s words, the Government is pushing through a policy for which they have received no mandate in the elections and the long-term negative impacts of which have not been assessed.

“Therefore 40 members of the Riigikogu from the Estonian Conservative People’s Party Group, the Estonian Centre Party Group and Isamaa Parliamentary Group have tabled a motion of no confidence in the Prime Minister Kaja Kallas because of lying and a deceitful policy, disrespectful language, and suppression of the Parliament,” Kiik said.

The Prime Minister Kaja Kallas thanked the members of the Riigikogu for discussing the Government’s policy as well as for their tenacity. She pointed out that there was a large deficit in the state budget and her party had promised to put public finances in order in its election programme. “A budget in a sustained deficit is not sustainable and leaving debts to your children is not sustainable,” she emphasised. The Prime Minister pointed out that decisions relating to taxes were not popular, but they could not be deferred.

When speaking of the cuts in family allowances, Kallas said that the allowances remained very generous and larger than the year before. “If people were able to manage in 2022, then now that the allowance has increased, they will be sure to manage, especially in the situation where inflation is going down and will be around 9% this year and where the purchasing power of the people is really increasing,” she said.

When speaking of the gender-neutral marriage, the Prime Minister said that it had not been her promise before the elections but, when forming the coalition, they had listened to their partners’ arguments and had found that it was reasonable to resolve this issue definitively so that there would be no need to fight any longer and everyone would have equal rights.

Kallas noted that, according to the Constitution of the Republic of Estonia, the Riigikogu adopted decisions by a majority of votes in favour. “This means that you must have a majority. This means that, in democracy, the majority decides,” Kallas stated. The Prime Minister underlined that the Government would declare no Bill to be a matter of confidence if the opposition did not obstruct Bills.

During the debate, Andrei Korobeinik took the floor as the representative of the Estonian Centre Party Group, Urmas Reinsalu as the representative of Isamaa Parliamentary Group and Henn Põlluaas as the representative of the Estonian Conservative People’s Party Group and Erkki Keldo as the representative of the Reform Party Group.

Voting results

Verbatim record

Photos of the sitting will be uploaded with a delay (Author: Erik Peinar / Chancellery of the Riigikogu)

Riigikogu Press Service
Merilin Kruuse
Phone: +372 631 6592, +372 510 6179
E-mail: merilin.kruuse@riigikogu.ee
Questions: press@riigikogu.ee

Link uudisele: The Riigikogu did not support the vote of no confidence in the Prime Minister

Source: Parliament of Estonia