Estonia bids farewell to Siim Kallas with state honours

Former Estonian prime minister Siim Kallas is being given a state funeral with military honours on Saturday, ERR reported. The hearse began its journey from Viimsi and is travelling through Tallinn and Toompea before arriving at the Estonia Concert Hall.

The first memorial stop was outside Viimsi rural municipality headquarters, where representatives of the local government and council gathered. Kallas lived in Viimsi and served as the municipality’s mayor from 2017 to 2019.

In Tallinn, the hearse is scheduled to stop outside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Eesti Pank, the Ministry of Finance, the Riigikogu and Stenbock House. It is due to arrive outside the Estonia Concert Hall at 10.40 a.m.

An honour company from the Defence Forces Guard Battalion and a military band will receive the coffin. Representatives of Viimsi municipality, the Reform Party, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, Eesti Pank and the Riigikogu will stand guard beside it in the concert hall.

Kallas died on August 22 at the age of 77. He served as Estonia’s prime minister, foreign minister and finance minister, led Eesti Pank, was a vice-president of the European Commission and served multiple terms in the Riigikogu. He was one of the authors of the Self-Sustaining Estonia proposal, a leader of the 1992 currency reform and one of the founders of the Reform Party.