The former Member of the European Parliament, Kaja Kallas has become the first female Prime Minister of Estonia as the new two-party coalition government was sworn in on January 26, 2021. The Baltic Nation will be led by the first woman PM, ever since it regained independence in 1991.
The two biggest political parties of Estonia, the center-right Reform Party, and the left-leaning center party had reached a deal on January 24 to form a government after the previous cabinet, with leader Juri Ratas as PM had collapsed in January 2021 because of the corruption scandal. Kaja Kallas chairs the center-right reform party of Estonia.
The 15-member Cabinet of PM Kaja Kallas took the charge of the office after the lawmakers in the Parliament of Estonia gave their approval to the government appointed by President Kersti Kaljulaid.
The 43 years old Kaja Kallas is a lawyer and the former European Parliament Member. She is the daughter of Sim Kallas who founded the Reform Party and was PM of Estonia from 2002-2003.
Government of Kaja Kallas was sworn in today in the Parliament and has started work. https://t.co/QblxER0p4L pic.twitter.com/TmjKSoIpUd
— Estonian Government (@EstonianGovt)
January 26, 2021
Newly formed coalition government of Estonia: Key Details
• The two parties, the center-right Reform Party and the left-leaning center party, each will have 7 ministers in the newly formed Cabinet in addition to Kaja Kallas serving as the Prime Minister.
• The newly formed coalition government holds a comfortable majority in 101 seats Riigikogu.
• While stressing gender balance in the new cabinet, Kallas placed several women in key positions. It includes naming Keit Pentus- Rosimannus from the Reform Party as the Finance Minister and Eva- Maria Liimets, Ambassador of Estonia to the Czech Republic, as the new Foreign Minister.
What will be the immediate priority of the new government?
The new cabinet of Kaja Kallas has little over two years to prove and leave its mark in NATO and European Union before the next general elections in March 2023. One of the immediate priorities of the new government will be to tackle the worsening coronavirus situation of Estonia as well as the economic turmoil in the country caused by the pandemic.
Political crisis in Estonia: Background
The Reform Party which is a pro-business party supporting liberal economic policies had emerged as the winner in the 2019 general elections of Estonia under Kallas’s lead.
However, the 43 years old Kallas was outmaneuvered by the Center Party of Juri Ratas who then formed a three-party coalition with the Conservative Fatherland Party and right-wing EKRE Party.
But the government which took charge under the leadership of Ratas in April 2019 was shaky from the start due to the nationalist EKRE which runs on an anti-EU and anti-immigration agenda.
On January 13, 2021, Ratas’s government was eventually brought down by a corruption scandal that involved an official suspected of accepting a private donation in exchange for political favour.
Future is female: women as head of the state
Estonia with a 1.3 million population has now become one of the few countries where both the head of the government and head of the state are women as the current President of the country is Kersti Kaljulaid.
The other countries that are run by a female head of state and head of government are Denmark, New Zealand, and Barbados, all with a female Prime Minister and a queen.
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,document,’script’,’//connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’); fbq(‘init’, ‘570864263071190’); fbq(‘track’, “PageView”);
Source link
Source
