"AK. Nädal": Is the new government normalizing corruption? - ERR
25 Jan 2021 EWR Online
Stenbock House, seat of the government. Source: Siim Lõvi /ERR
The Reform Party started coalition negotiation with the Center Party a day after the party resigned due to corruption allegations. ETV's weekly current affairs show "AK. Nädal" looked at whether the Reform Party is normalizing corruption when forming the new government and what it will mean for the new government.
Elmar Sepp and Ivo Parblus, the eastern money scandal, former Prime Minister Edgar Savisaar and now Hillar Teder and Porto Fanco are all chapters in the long and shady story of the Center Party's party finances. Removing Savisaar as chairman did not entirely remove corruption scandals from the party as was hoped by many.
But what about the Reform Party? How aggressively should they be reminded of their own previous funding scandals? For example, the owner of the Väinamere ferry line Vjatšeslav Leedo's "lemon" scandal where €4 million was offered for political support from Reform Party member Aivar Kiil in 2014.
Or what about the incoming Minister of Finance Keit Pentus-Rosimannus' Autorollo scandal? The allegations centered on a trucking company owned by Väino Pentus, Keit Pentus-Rosimannus' father, which was quickly drained of money over a short period between 2010-2011.
A large amount of money was withdrawn from the firm's account and some of the bank transfers were made from the personal IP addresses of Keit Pentus-Rosimannus' computers. Pentus-Rosimannus was Estonia's foreign minister between 2014 to 2015.
Väino Pentus testified in court during the civil case that part of the money intended for Autorollo was used to build Pentus-Rosimannus's house in Tallinn's Viimsi district instead.
The Chief-Editor of Delfi and Eesti Päevaleht Urmo Soonvald told "AK. Nädal" that neither of the parties will completely get over their scandals.
"The Center Party currently has to deal with the scandal very actively and I think that it weakens them as the elections come closer. And when we look at the last 10 years for the Reform Party, then we definitely find stains that no party would like to have," he said.
At the same time, Soonvald highlights that EKRE and Isamaa, which are now actively playing the corruption card, were in coalition with the Center Party for the last two years.
Even when taking corruption into consideration, the political reality needs to be considered as well, he said, which means that the government has been formed by those with the most votes.
Rein Lang, a former member of the Reform Party and a minister, has the same approach: "101 is a magical number [the number of seats in the Riigikogu - ed.] in which, calculations are required and two partners are definitely better than three."
Lang said it would be naive to think the last government collapsed only due to the Porto Franco corruption allegations. "Tensions had been gathering for a long time, which nobody is denying today. These tensions were piling up and everybody held their heads in their hands when another episode of the Helmes' radio show had been aired."
