Ruusmann rejects speculation he will leave Reform Party

Maido Ruusmann, a member of the Reform Party faction in Estonia’s parliament, has confirmed he is not leaving the party, ERR reported.

Ruusmann said Saturday that although other parties had made him what he called attractive offers ahead of the next parliamentary elections, he was not negotiating to join any of them and had not done so previously.

“To make it clear and prevent speculation, I am not holding and have not held negotiations to join any party,” Ruusmann wrote on social media.

He added that he had also received thought-provoking offers from the private sector.

Ruusmann said this was why he had told a journalist on Monday, when asked whether he might not stand in the next elections, that it was possible, although he had not made such a decision. “Perhaps that is why I was given the label of an MP with an open future,” he said.

Ruusmann told ERR on Monday that he was not planning to leave the party yet, although every politician sometimes considers whether the party they belong to is right for them.

He said the Reform Party had previously made decisions with which he did not always agree, but noted that the grass might not necessarily be greener elsewhere.

Reform Party faction member Meelis Kiili announced on Monday that he was leaving the party and would continue working in parliament as an unaffiliated MP.

Following Kiili’s departure from the Reform Party and its faction, and Kalev Stoicescu’s announcement a day earlier that he was leaving Eesti 200, the governing coalition now has 50 MPs in parliament, leaving it dependent on a minority government.