Estonia’s Prime Minister Kaja Kallas has resigned from her role as the Baltic nation's leader to take on the position of the European Union's foreign policy chief later this year.
Kallas, Estonia’s first female prime minister, officially submitted her resignation to President Alar Karis during a brief meeting at the Presidential Palace in Tallinn on Monday.
Under Kallas' leadership, Estonia, 47, has been one of the strongest supporters of Ukraine since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022. She will succeed Spain's Josep Borrell, who has been the EU foreign policy chief since 2019.
Reflecting on Kallas' 3 1/2 years in office, President Karis noted, “It has been a time full of crises, including the coronavirus pandemic, economic recession, and the war in Europe when Russia's aggression in Ukraine shattered our previous security landscape.”
Kallas' resignation automatically led to the departure of her three-party coalition Cabinet, which included her center-right Reform Party, the Social Democratic Party, and the liberal Estonia 200 party. This coalition will continue as a caretaker government until a new Cabinet is sworn in, expected in early August.
In her final Cabinet meeting on Monday, Kallas highlighted her government's efforts to enhance Estonia's security. As a NATO member neighboring Russia, Estonia has significantly increased its defense investments.
“We have invested more in national defense than ever before and increased the annual defense budget to 1.4 billion euros (about $1.5 billion), which is 3% of GDP,” Kallas stated, noting that the defense budget has grown by nearly 70% in the past two years. “These decisions help to ensure that Estonia is firmly protected and a safe place to live.”
On June 29, the Reform Party announced that veteran party member and Climate Minister Kristen Michal would be the prime minister candidate to replace Kallas, who represented Estonia at a NATO summit in Washington last week. Under Kallas' leadership, the Reform Party achieved a decisive victory in the 2023 general election and holds a mandate for the prime minister post.
The Cabinet is likely to remain unchanged, but Michal, who is expected to succeed Kallas as the Reform Party’s chair, is currently negotiating with both the Social Democrats and Estonia 200 to update the current 4-year government program established last year.
Michal's nomination as Estonia’s next prime minister must be approved by President Karis and the 101-seat parliament, or Riigikogu, where the coalition has a comfortable majority. Michal, 49, has been serving as the climate affairs minister since April last year. The former economics and justice minister has been a prominent figure in the Reform Party, Estonia’s leading political force, since the late 1990s.
Michal is known for his extensive and respected political career focused on Estonia’s internal affairs but lacks international experience, in contrast to Kallas, who excelled on the international stage but struggled with domestic politics, resulting in a significant decline in her popularity among Estonians over the past year.