Reinsalu: Michal should resign along with his entire government

Isamaa party chairman Urmas Reinsalu has stated that Prime Minister Kristen Michal's government should resign entirely, as it is increasingly collapsing from within. If Michal fails to do so, Reinsalu believes parliament has grounds to express a vote of no confidence in him.

Writing on social media, Reinsalu pointed to Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur as an example, who resigned last week after it emerged that a 70-million-euro arms procurement deal with the Indian company Datasel had run into trouble. Reinsalu noted that just a week earlier Pevkur had insisted he would not step down, only to quickly decide to resign afterward. According to the politician, the public has seen only the tip of the iceberg of this scandal, and the true reason for the resignation still remains unclear.

Criticism over successor and other ministers

Reinsalu said the sorry state of the Reform Party is further illustrated by the appointment of Martin Herem, rather than a politician from within the party, as the new defence minister. Herem himself had earlier stepped down early as commander of the Defence Forces while under Pevkur's authority, and later criticized both decisions made in the defence sphere and the indecisiveness shown there. The politician described this as an attempt, amid internal deadlock ahead of elections, to hand responsibility to an outsider who will bear no political accountability.

Reinsalu also raised the government's dismissal of Chancellor Kaimo Kuusk, which was attributed to irreconcilable disagreements with the new minister, Herem, over the organization of national defence. In Reinsalu's view, the public has a right to know what these disagreements actually involve.

The politician additionally pointed to Wednesday's announcement that Energy and Environment Minister Andres Sutt had decided to leave his post, leaving behind what Reinsalu described as disarray. He added that other ministers are already being rumored as possible next departures, citing Kuldar Leis's recent statement that he is staying on — the same words, Reinsalu noted, that Pevkur had used a week before his own resignation.

In Reinsalu's assessment, just months before the elections, the Reform Party is trying to install people from outside politics in order to blur accountability for what has and hasn't been done — a pattern he says was also followed by the Estonian Coalition Party's government shortly before its collapse. He argued that such internal wavering represents lost time for Estonia, and that it would be sensible for Prime Minister Michal to resign along with his entire government amid this turmoil.