Helme says budget cuts can raise wages and pensions

Martin Helme, leader of the Estonian Conservative People’s Party (EKRE) and its candidate for prime minister, told ERR that cutting more than one billion euros from the state budget could help raise wages and pensions and lower energy and food prices.

Helme said the party’s proposed choices included changes to tax, energy, immigration and family policy. He called support for young families and families with many children essential, saying that without more births and support for families, other efforts would ultimately come to nothing. He also said corruption in government was a major cause of poverty.

He urged voters to consider whether parties had delivered on earlier promises and whether they could be trusted to carry out the pledges they were making now. Helme said voters could be certain EKRE would act on its promises.

On taxes, he said EKRE would abolish the car tax and registration tax, reduce value-added tax to its previous level and lower excise duties to the lowest level in the European Union. He said the party also planned to reverse tax increases introduced by the Reform Party, the Social Democrats and Estonia 200, including a significant rise in land tax.

Helme said EKRE had proposed 1.1 billion euros in budget cuts, without reducing pensions or the salaries of teachers and rescue workers. He said the proposed cuts targeted spending that taxpayers did not need and could help balance the budget while making tax cuts possible.

Asked about the party’s election target, Helme said EKRE aimed to match or surpass its best result of 19 seats, won in 2019, or come close to it. He said polling figures in the months and weeks before past elections had not reliably predicted the results. Helme added that the party was not aiming to win the election this time, but would be satisfied with a result comparable to its previous one.

He said poverty would be one of the main election issues, along with how to put Estonia on an upward path.