This week, this Taavi Rõivas government turns one year old. The Reform, Soc Dems and IRL coalition has cruised like circus bus – one engine, many drivers, the engine tweaked while in gear plus body work applied. The passengers i.e. people don't trust them too much… And yet it moves. And it does go a little further from point A – not necessarily to point B though.
The political context for the coalition is contradictory. On the one hand, the problems are complex to the extreme: the world around us and therewith the UE we are integrated in are way more astir than in decades past. The union is fermenting with Greeks in debt and Brits threatening Brexit and waves of migration coming in while unity is altogether elusive.
At home, meanwhile, the political situation favours a status quo. By the opposition, government has been left deep in comfort zone. Some are about themselves, others about scoring points. No serious alternatives to the hesitation coalition.
While, whatever the government gets done, if it does, trouble is sure to follow – till it gets personal. Whether it be the private schools, the gays act implementation. The administrative reform seems to be on the move while underwater rifts are waiting as differences in Sod Dem hearts. On the positive, they do tend the security issue while one could imagine a government with Estonia’s international role assessed as altogether other than.
Purely on paper, they seem to be sweating out the action programme. While one would doubt the importance and quality of what is accomplished. For whatever reason, we are not hearing them talk about us falling to third place among Baltics in economic growth... We did have an enterprise minister in the government, did we?
As such, differences within government aren’t bad in principle. But if the image created is that they are not about the same thing really and what the Prime Minister says is visibly ignored, how do you earn the ear of the nation?