Estonia's outgoing PM: We have coped very well

TALLINN - Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, who is set to resign from office on Monday, said on the "Vikerhommik" radio show of public broadcaster ERR that she and her government have coped very well despite difficult times.

An extraordinary sitting of the government was to be held at 8:30 a.m., and and 9 a.m., Kallas was already scheduled to meet with president Alar Karis to submit her resignation request.

"Everything comes to an end eventually. The prime minister resigns during a government sitting, and along with that, the entire government resigns. That's what the law prescribes. After that, I must go to the president and complete the necessary formalities," she explained. However, Kallas still has to fulfill the duties of the prime minister until a new premier and government take office.

"That's right. There's still a whole series of things this week. For example, on Thursday there's a meeting of the European Political Community in London, where I will represent Estonia. By that time, the new government will not yet be assembled. Hopefully, it will come together fairly quickly and then I will be free," Kallas said.

Kallas noted that her time as prime minister has coincided with very difficult times. 

"It has been a very difficult time. I started when the COVID crisis was at its peak, and I think I am the only prime minister who went straight from taking the government oath to attending a government meeting and making decisions immediately. There was absolutely no grace period to settle in. And the decisions we had to make at that time were difficult. It was a very tough task to balance keeping society open on the one hand and preventing the spread of the disease on the other," she said.

"In retrospect, it can be said that we have coped well. If you look at those WHO reports -- we rather kept society quite open, and our number of deaths was relatively low or at least we were at that end. We coped quite well. In addition, our economic growth was strong at that time, thanks to the fact that our society was open compared to others. Our economic growth was over 7 percent or nearly 8 percent. Meanwhile, our neighbors -- Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, and Sweden -- had growth rates between 2 and 4 percent. The credit for this is not given to the government, naturally. If things go wrong, then it is attributed to the government. During COVID, an energy crisis emerged, followed by a war, and an economic downturn. There have been many difficult times," she acknowledged.

"I am pleased that alongside these crises, we have been able to develop Estonia significantly, make many important decisions that had not been made before -- such as the transition to Estonian-language education. This decision had not been made for 30 years, and we made that decision and allocated substantial funds to make it work in real life. Of course, there is still much to do there, and I hope it all goes smoothly. Steps to strengthen our national defense, for example, acquiring air defense capabilities, and at the same time, we have significantly reduced the state apparatus. There have been indeed many such decisions," she said.

Kallas admitted that there are also things she regrets from her tenure.

"There are certainly things that I regret, but now is not the right time to reveal them. However, someday, when I write my book, I will speak about all these things. Right now, it is still everyone else bringing out the negative," she said.