Reform Party leader: Government should step down over Vaher dismissal case ({{commentsTotal}})

Kaja Kallas.
Kaja Kallas. Source: Priit Mürk/ERR

Reform Party leader Kaja Kallas says that the government should step down, in the wake of a crisis surrounding the attempted firing of the Police and Border Guard Board (PPA) chief Elmar Vaher.

Returning from vacation Thursday afternoon, interior minister Mart Helme (EKRE) called for Vaher's dismissal effective Friday. Finance minister Martin Helme (EKRE), deputizing for his father up to that point, had already rebutted claims made by Vaher that the PPA was facing redundancy cuts of around 150 people, in a war of words between the police chief and Conservative People's Party of Estonia (EKRE).

"The Minister of Finance is trying to release the head of the PPA from the interior ministry, without the prime minister's knowledge," Kallas wrote on her social media account Thursday evening.

"In such a situation, the prime minister will have no choice but to either release such ministers or resign with the entire government," Kallas continued.

Former interior minister and Reform Party member Hanno Pevkur also appeared on ERR current affairs show Ringvaade, noting it was a deep crisis.

Hanno Pevkur on Thursday night's Ringvaade. Source: ERR

"In my opinion, this is a situation where the prime minister has to decide which side he is on," said Pevkur, noting that if he picked Vaher's side, Mart Helme would have to leave office, and vice versa.

Pevkur said that both the Helmes had tried to dismiss Vaher without due legal process and had thus stuck at the very foundations of the rule of law.

The original Ringvaade broadcast featuring Hanno Pevkur (in Estonian) is here.


Editor: Andrew Whyte

