The new government in Estonia

On 23 November 2016 the Estonian parliament swore in a new government consisting of the Centre Party, the Social Democratic Party and the conservative IRL.

The Centre Party candidate Jüri Ratas was named Prime Minister, and each of the three parties took 5 ministerial posts. Ratas’s new cabinet will include three heads of government departments from the Russian minority: two from the Centre Party, and the Social Democratic leader Jevgeni Ossinovski, who has ministerial experience from the previous government of Prime Minister Taavi Rõivas.

The new coalition partners have stressed their desire to continue the country’s current defence and foreign policy, based on the alliance with the countries of NATO, and Estonia’s activity in the EU (Estonia will take over the Presidency of the EU Council in the second half of 2017).

ESO: Background information: Estonia: the fall of the Rõivas cabinet and the end of isolation of the Centre Party http://www.europeansources.info/record/estonia-the-fall-of-the-roivas-cabinet-and-the-end-of-isolation-of-the-centre-party/

ESO: Background information: Estonian government collapses and a new coalition is formed http://www.europeansources.info/record/estonian-government-collapses-and-a-new-coalition-is-formed/

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