In just over two months the Riigikogu will elect a new council and Uku Toom vaeb, who now that the lines of power have changed, will be able to become the third member of the council. There is also the possibility that Jüri Ratas will continue, but that requires a little too much guesswork, Toom notes.
The usual tradition of the Riigikogu is for the speaker of parliament to be a representative of the coalition, but not of the prime minister’s party, the first vice president of the prime minister’s party and the second vice president of the major opposition party. A year ago this tradition was broken and the largest opposition party, EKRE, was deprived of the post of vice president thanks to the joint efforts of the Center Party and Isamaa, while Jüri Ratas, who was already present before the elections, was remained a member. of the council.
Now the year is coming to an end and council elections are upon us again. It can be assumed that Lauri Hussar and Toomas Kivimägi will remain in their places, even if there was criticism of the first action. But the position of the second vice president is uncertain. There are several possible variations.
The first and most logical possibility is that Martin Helme gets his job. With its 16+1 votes, EKRE should be able to guarantee this.
There is also the possibility that Jüri Ratas will continue. But that requires a little too much guesswork.
First of all, Ratas must remain a member of the Central faction until then, and the members of the faction must support him. Secondly, he should be supported by the Isamaa faction. And even then the votes would be 17-17. So even some members of the center-left party should vote for Ratas, which is not a real problem because the coalition has an excess of votes.
The reality is that by the end of March Ratas will probably have left the Central Faction, and it probably makes no sense to talk about his opportunities elsewhere. Or he hopes to enter the European Parliament and no longer considers a seat on the council important. Be that as it may, why on earth would Isamaa give votes to the Central Party? One might rather hope for the opposite behavior. After all, Isamaa currently has ten votes in the Riigikogu against the Central Party faction’s seven.
This brings us to the third option: Urmas Reinsalu can become vice president. But in this case the question arises as to why members of the Center Party should support him. If, then only out of contempt for EKRE. To this end, EKRE should contribute with its behavior. With similar statements, as Mart Helme has just made, according to which EKRE does not want to be in the same situation with Mihhail Kõvart’s center party. Even in this case, all it takes is a few more votes from the coalition and it’s all together. Of course, to rebalance EKRE, the coalition can also vote for Reinsalu.
To eliminate EKRE there is also the possibility that the coalition decides to take on both positions of vice president. With a divided opposition, this would be possible. As mentioned at the beginning, this is not a custom, but a tradition that was already broken a year ago. In this case the post of second vice president can go to the third party of the coalition, i.e. the socialists, so why shouldn’t Tanel Kiik become a member of the council? In any case, consensus and internal peace would come to the council.
2024-01-10 13:51:00
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