Helir-Valdor Seeder ⟩ New coalition agreement is a disappointment and confirms only one thing

President Alar Karis appoints the Government of the Republic led by Kristen Michal to office in Kadriorg. Photo: Eero Vabamägi

• The government has simply swept the deepest crisis in history under the rug
• The new coalition agreement doesn't address the elimination of the voting rights of Russian citizens
• Personal income tax will increase even more, same with value added tax, car tax will still come

Kristen Michal's government is a sad continuation of the policies of Kaja Kallas' government. Unfortunately, there will be no correction of mistakes. Instead of a sense of security and crisis resolution, the people of Estonia will receive new spectacular tax hikes and substitute activities. However, the government is keeping quiet about the most important thing, says Helir-Valdor Seeder (Isamaa).

The continuation of the Estonian nation depends on our offspring, that is, as future Prime Minister Kristen Michal has said – «Estonian children come from Estonia». These are true but empty words, because there is not a single word about population issues in the signed coalition agreement. At the moment, Estonia’s deepest crisis with the longest-term negative consequences is the population crisis, or the lowest birth rate of the century. The birth rate and family policy make up the most important area and the biggest challenge for the new government.

Especially in a situation where the only significant cuts of the previous government led by Kaja Kallas were made at the expense of families with children – a brutal (Margus Tsahkna's assessment) cut of the support for families with many children and the elimination of basic exemption for all families with children. This way, even the slightest feeling of confidence and trust towards the state that families had was destroyed and the way was paved for an even lower birth rate, which we are also becoming painfully aware of this year. Negative birth rate records are breaking every quarter and the crisis is getting worse, but the new coalition agreement includes no ideas, remedies or measures related to the population crisis, it is not even mentioned.

The government has simply swept the deepest crisis in history under the rug. Depressing!

The field of security is still weak

The coalition agreement includes support for Ukraine, cooperation with allies, a general bow to the defense industry and some other general goals, but there is no ambition and no concrete goal for Estonia to have the permanent presence of a fully manned allied brigade, not just command and reception capacity in the event of a crisis. We are the weakest link in the Baltics and lagging behind the Latvians and Lithuanians.

The neighbors have an agreement that the personnel of the brigade will be permanently stationed on site and a corresponding infrastructure will also be developed. As a legacy of the Kaja Kallas government, we have a general cooperation memorandum signed with the Brits, which unfortunately does not contain such a goal. Michal's government does not aim to eliminate this shortcoming in our defense capability. Dangerous!

Internal security and the voting rights of Russian citizens

The new coalition agreement also does not deal at all with the elimination of the voting rights of Russian citizens in local government elections, which is one of the key issues of internal security. An analysis by security authorities also sees a great risk in this. Russia is waging a brutal war of conquest in Ukraine and has declared war on the entire Western world, which also includes Estonia. The Riigikogu has declared the Russian regime to be a terrorist regime, but the citizens of this militant and terrorist country have the right to vote in Estonia and form a political force, indirectly also in the elections of the Estonian head of state.

Instead of dealing with the very fundamental and important issue that is the voting rights of Russian citizens, the continuing coalition has agreed to give 16-year-olds the right to vote in the European Parliament elections. This is a disproportionate treatment of the subject and a substitute activity. It is difficult to hope for positive developments when, even before taking office, the future prime minister is a hostage of the Social Democrats when it comes to security matters.

In addition, the strength of the interior minister in solving the problem of the Estonian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate has waned and we do not find a word about it in the coalition agreement. Security issues are woefully under-addressed. Short-sighted!

Taxes, the economy and competitiveness

This is the saddest read of the coalition agreement since the non-existent population chapter. Personal income tax will increase even more, value added tax will also increase, car tax will still come, excise duties will rise cumulatively, corporate income tax will also come...

According to the understanding of the Reform Party, the Social Democrats and Estonia 200, this is the establishment of confidence, security and competitiveness during an economic crisis and the message to investors. The «fixing of the state’s finances» initiated by the government of Kaja Kallas will be continued at the cost of sacrificing the economy. It is an impossible mission, accompanied by a continuing decline in people's living standards.

The biggest losers are people with lower incomes, small businesses and people living in rural areas. But at the same time, the people of Estonia will be blessed with a climate-proof economy law! Will this cure our climate or our economy or both!? We learn that sports and culture will be more at the service of economic development. Mandatory but unremarkable points about investments and municipalities. The specific tasks of public sector savings are postponed to the future.

Cutting red tape will begin with the creation of an additional ministerial position. In addition, there is a pinch of modern but unrelated digital rambling and tech talk. The Reform Party’s tax hump elimination will be postponed by a year, but taxes, people’s expenses and price increases will come right away. Thus, in reality, everyone loses. Foolish!

Substitute activity and varia

The new ruling coalition will not implement any real reforms. Ambitious expressions, such as state reform and vocational education reform, are used, but there is no comprehensible content, there are only substitute activities or even failed wording. In order to improve the image of vocational education, its quality assurance has been formulated in the same sentence as the Unemployment Insurance Fund. The school network will be organized at the level of the law. How, based on what principles? It was agreed to agree on a sustainable healthcare financing model. A clear message…

The sad list above confirms that new quality and action to lead Estonia out of crisis cannot be expected from this government. The coalition agreement is general, with the exception of the tax follies, and the coalition partners jointly and proudly state that the government coalition has a strong mandate from the Riigikogu to get the financial policy decisions (read: follies) done together.

Indeed, considering the number of seats the coalition has in the Riigikogu, the future government will have a large majority, but there is simply no mandate from the people to implement the agreed policies. So, indeed, one’s own people will be «done for».