Michal sees better cooperation with Vseviov-led Social Democrats

Prime Minister and Reform Party leader Kristen Michal said Reform would work better with the Social Democratic Party under Jonatan Vseviov, ERR reported. He criticised the party’s current leader, Lauri Läänemets, saying he speaks more often with French President Emmanuel Macron than with Läänemets.

Vseviov, a longtime secretary general of the Foreign Ministry and a security expert who has announced he is joining the Social Democrats, criticised the government and Michal at a press conference on Thursday. He said they lacked sharpness of mind, intellectual breadth and the courage to assert themselves.

Michal welcomed Vseviov’s move into politics and said he believed cooperation with the Social Democrats would improve under his leadership. Läänemets said at the party’s press conference that he would remain its leader, making Michal’s remark a jab at him.

Michal said Reform and the Social Democrats would not find common ground on economic policy, but could work together on foreign and security policy. He disputed the Social Democrats’ claim that Estonia’s economy was on a poor course, saying it would grow twice as fast as the European Union average this year and that people’s incomes had risen. He credited the income growth to the government’s tax reform, which abolished the progressive income tax “tax hump” introduced by the Social Democrats, the Centre Party and Isamaa.

Both Läänemets and Vseviov have said Estonia needs to assert itself more internationally and in security discussions, arguing that the current leadership has failed to do so. Michal said foreign policy had been a shared effort, and pointed to Russian assets remaining frozen since the end of last year, rather than being put to a vote every three or six months. He also said Estonia had taken the lead on the shadow fleet.