Brussels (The Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Kaja Kallas has left as Estonia’s Prime Minister to become the European Union’s foreign policy chief. Kallas has appeared as one of the bloc’s staunchest critics of neighbouring Russia.
Why Did Kaja Kallas Resign as Estonia’s Prime Minister?
Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas raised her resignation ahead of becoming the European Union’s latest foreign policy chief. Kallas, who has ruled the small Baltic republic since 2021, gave her resignation to President Alar Karis but will remain PM in a caretaker capacity until early August.
The 47-year-old, who will also step down as head of the liberal Reform Party, was the first female PM in Estonia’s history. She was selected by EU leaders to replace Josep Borrell as the bloc’s chief diplomat after the recent EU elections. Kallas has always been a hawkish criticiser of what she calls neighbouring Russia’s expansionist desires, especially since Moscow’s full-scale attack on Ukraine in February 2022.
Why Was Kaja Kallas Chosen as EU Foreign Policy Chief?
One of Kallas’s great muscles is the clarity of her values and the obvious absence of doubt with which she translates them into policies. She understands what she thinks and she knows how to express it, and can do so fluently in many languages, including French, English, Finnish, Russian and, of course, Estonian. It is what has earned her the first European leader to be placed on a Russian wanted list. Not surprisingly, her position, a clear statement to Russia, will be witnessed as a risk by some, especially at a time of conflict over Ukraine.
The position of the high representative is not just about advocacy but healing mediation within the EU, and in this context, some claim Kallas’s formidable certitude could become a concern. “In some situations, it is reputed to have somebody that leads from the front, and can be the tough outrider, but the high rep is that – a spokesperson,” one Western diplomat said
What Are Kaja Kallas’s Views on Russia?
Since the fighting in Ukraine started, Estonia has become one of the largest suppliers of military aid to Kyiv about GDP, while Kallas has always pressed NATO and EU allies to follow suit.
“This was a very hard time,” Kallas spoke on Estonian public radio on Monday, looking back on her term. “I started when the COVID-19 problem was at its peak and I was presumably the only prime minister who, instantly after being sworn in, went to a government conference and started making decisions.”
Climate Minister Kristen Michal has been pitched to succeed Kallas, but much will hinge on how the Reform Party recalibrates the government with its alliance partners, the liberal Estonia 200 and the Social Democrats. With inhabitants of around 1.4 million, Estonia is the least of the Baltic States and the fourth-most diminutive country in the EU ahead of only Luxembourg, Cyprus and Malta.
Following short years of independence and actions against Russian and German occupation in the interwar years, Estonia was immersed into the Soviet Union as a Soviet Republic after the Second World War, before gaining independence again in 1991.
