Postimees Digest, Saturday, February 23
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Postimees
Board to nominate Priit Kama.
Police and Border Guard Board (PPA) candidates' inspection board has decided to nominate justice ministry deputy chancellor Priit Kama as the new head of the agency. Chairman of the inspection board, internal ministry chancellor Leif Kalev said that the board wanted to find a capable leader with extensive experience in internal security and commended Kama's efforts in reforming the prison service. Priit Kama has been working for the internal ministry since 1993.
Mart Laar: It's time to end game of rescuing Estonian Air
It's time to end the game around rescuing the flag carrier Estonian Air, veteran Pro Patria and Res Publica Union (IRL) politician Mart Laar said in an interview with Postimees.
"To my mind this game should have been ended a while ago. How long are we going to keep doing what practically no European country is able to do?" Laar asked. "Of course, if taxpayers are willing to shell out this sort of money then, God willing... But now a right-wing economic politician raises his head in me and I'm asking, what for? Yes, some people are getting a high salary, Finnish consultants are being well paid, people who sit on supervisory boards are earning a lot of money. And air connections certainly are necessary and useful in economic terms, but here's the point for serious thought about whether there exist less expensive ways," said Laar who served as head of two previous Estonian governments.
Reform Party rating bounces back.
The recent TNS Emor political ratings poll demonstrates that the popularity of the ruling Reform Party is on the rise again as the party's rating hit bottom in January and has grown by 3 percentage points since then to 23 percent in February. The party's support rating came down from its peak of 39 percent at the end of summer of last year and fell steadily until January this year. Opposition forces the Center Party and the Social Democrat Party are now tied for the lead at 26 percent while reformists' minority coalition partner Pro Patria Res Publica Union has 17 percent of the potential vote.
Average salary continues to grow.
Estonia's average gross salary has reached 916 euros a month following a 5.9 percent growth in the final quarter of 2012 year-over-year. Statistics suggests that real wages also grew by 2.1 percent in Q4 and have been growing for six consecutive quarters y-o-y. Analysts say that wages are growing faster than productivity but that it is still a reaction to the recent situation where the trend was reversed.