Ratas says no long coalition agreement will be drawn up

Photo: Liis Treimann

According to Juri Ratas, chairman of Estonia's Center Party who launched coalition talks on Wednesday, the new government coalition is not to draw up a long coalition agreement, but will instead agree on general principles and in the future will be ready to head all good ideas.

"With the three parties we have very clearly felt the responsibility to take Estonia forward in the present situation and form a new government. But we won't do it in a hurried manner, but instead by discussing and involving experts," Ratas told journalists on Wednesday evening.

He confirmed that during the consultations which were launched on Wednesday they have already met with leaders of the Conservative People's Party (EKRE) and the Free Party, and the latter two parties are also expected to contribute to designing Estonia's future politics.

According to Ratas the partners want the new coalition to stand on three main pillars. The first is solving the population crisis. The second is bringing changes to standstills in the economy and tax policy. The third one is the goal to strongly contribute to security and foreign policy. "The latter was also the first block of topics which we discussed in great length," Ratas said, affirming that there is no plan to change the present security and foreign policy.

SDE chairman Jevgeni Ossinovski also said that there will not be thousands of points to agree on, but instead main principles would be agreed upon. In other matters the coalition would be open to new ideas and changing circumstances. "You can be sure that the new government will take Estonia forward and solve issues which the previous government was not able to do," he added.

IRL chairman Margus Tsahkna confirmed that the new partners do not want to continue with the previous political culture. "Our governing and coalition agreements will be open and we will definitely include experts," Tsahkna said.

According to Tsahkna all good ideas would be discussed, and priorities are economic growth, security and population growth. He added that negotiations will be tough, but he expressed hope that these will be productive since there is the necessary will.