Läänemets wants a plan before backing no-confidence motion

Social Democrats will not join an opposition motion to oust the government until its sponsors present a clear plan for forming a functioning replacement, party leader Lauri Läänemets told ERR. He said the government had failed in its work but warned that a leadership vacuum would be dangerous for Estonia.

Opposition parties have agreed on the motion’s text and are seeking the Social Democrats’ support. But Läänemets said the initiative was unlikely to succeed as it stands, noting that it also lacked the signatures of four unaffiliated MPs. Even if the Social Democrats joined, he said, the motion might still fall short.

The party’s main condition is a clear account of what would happen next. “It is very easy to go ahead with a no-confidence motion, and the Social Democrats are ready to join, but there needs to be a plan for what comes next. We have not been offered one,” Läänemets said.

He warned that if the government were voted out without a replacement ready, it would remain in office with almost no authority. A government crisis and uncertainty over what comes next would be particularly harmful given the current security situation, he said.

Läänemets also criticised launching a no-confidence process without a substantive plan. He said the Social Democrats would take the motion seriously because the government had failed and no longer had the legitimacy to govern, but questioned the point of debating a motion that was expected to fail without a new government in prospect.

He said that in Estonia, efforts to form a new government had traditionally begun with a plan for the future, before moving towards a no-confidence vote or the collapse of a government.

Three opposition parties in the Riigikogu are due to submit a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Kristen Michal’s government on Wednesday. Members of the Centre Party, Isamaa and the Conservative People’s Party of Estonia, along with nine unaffiliated MPs, have joined the motion.