Centre Party seeks talks on no-confidence motion against Michal

Estonia’s Centre Party will begin talks with other parliamentary groups on launching a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Kristen Michal, ERR reports. The party said the resignation of Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur was not enough to address the problems identified by the National Audit Office.

Lauri Laats, chairman of the Centre Party parliamentary group, said responsibility also lay with the Reform Party-led government and the prime minister.

“We have now learned that serious problems that have remained unresolved for years also exist in the management of national defence,” Laats said. He added that if people and companies were being asked to contribute more to national security, the state had to be able to account for how every euro was used.

Laats said the issue was no longer limited to one minister or one policy area. He pointed to rising state debt, mounting problems in healthcare and special care, uncertainty in education and regional policy that had left many parts of Estonia behind.

“The prime minister cannot hide behind his ministers indefinitely,” Laats said. “When problems affect one policy area after another, this is a problem with the leadership of the entire government. The resignation of the defence minister does not relieve the prime minister of responsibility.”

Laats said Michal no longer had the public’s trust and that his minority government lacked a stable majority in the Riigikogu, Estonia’s parliament. He said the Centre Party would therefore consult other parliamentary groups about seeking a vote of no confidence in the prime minister.

Pevkur, a Reform Party member, announced his resignation as defence minister on Wednesday evening on the television programme Aktuaalne kaamera.