Vseviov vows to end rushed tax changes if Social Democrats win

Social Democratic Party prime ministerial candidate Jonatan Vseviov has pledged to end rushed tax changes if his party wins the election, saying Estonia needs wider public debate to address its budget deficit and support the economy. He made the remarks in an interview on ERR’s “First Studio”.

Vseviov said the government should avoid short-sighted cuts and repeatedly changing individual taxes. He said political leaders could not be experts on every issue but needed to identify the central questions facing the country.

Responding to Isamaa leader Urmas Reinsalu, who has said Vseviov is not a social democrat and previously belonged to the Reform Party, Vseviov said his views had changed over the years. He said he had always been a liberal but now considered the Social Democrats’ view of society the most comprehensive, linking security, welfare, the economy and international affairs.

Vseviov said he had agreed in the summer to become the Social Democrats’ prime ministerial candidate but continued working for several months as secretary general of the Foreign Ministry. Some media outlets have described the overlap as a conflict of interest. Vseviov said he was proud of more than 20 years in public service, including six years as the Foreign Ministry’s secretary general and two and a half years in the same role at the Defence Ministry. He said governments of different political stripes had appointed him, including the Ratas government on Reinsalu’s proposal.

Asked about claims that he had worked at the Foreign Ministry to prevent Ukrainian sanctions from being imposed on Oleg Ossinovski, Vseviov said he had not been directly or actively involved. He said the ministry routinely protects Estonian citizens’ interests abroad as required by law, without making moral judgments about them. Vseviov added that he condemned business cooperation with Russia while it continued its war of aggression and maintained its aims toward Europe. He said he had worked to make it harder to profit from business with Russia and believed sanctions should be as broad as possible.