Saturday saw a first for Estonia’s Reform party. The centre-rightists elected as their new chairperson Kaja Kallas, who ran unopposed. She is the first woman in Reform’s history to be elected to the position. The party took this step after the resignation of Hanno Pevkur in December. As the next elections scheduled for March 3rd are less than 11 months away, this provides Reform a chance to hit the hustings, the campaign trail with fresh new attractive leadership.

A lawyer by profession, presently a Member of the European Parliament, Kaja Kallas carries some unfortunate family baggage. And in politics this matters more than in other arenas. From a North American perspective consider the Bush, Kennedy successes (and failures) as well as the present Trudeau government in Canada, which threatens to become more of a debacle than first anticipated.

In Kallas’ case her father Siim also once chaired the Reform party. Kallas père was an originator of IME, the concept of economic self-government in Soviet Estonia After independence was restored he became President of Estonia’s National Bank (Eesti Pank), later Finance and Foreign Minister, Prime Minister and Eurocommisioner. Those portfolios are seriously large and hefty. (The baggage did not prevent Siim Kallas from being elected vallavanem, or parish elder of Viimsi parish, the richest by per capita income in Estonia. Merely proving that Siim still has a nose for money. The scandal he was involved with at Eesti Pank involving missing millions has not been resolved to anyone’s satisfaction. And there linger other questions.)

Hence Kaja Kallas needs to establish her own identity and her own personality. She went some way toward that in providing Toomas Sildam of Estonia’s national broadcaster ERR with her views in a lengthy interview, published Sunday. Written in Estonian, it is recommended reading as is listening to the weekly audio commentary by Sildam, aired also Sunday. Both are available at err.ee

The Reform party’s mascot is a squirrel. Originally intended to emphasize thrift, fiscal prudence, saving for the future. Yet the Sildam interview suggests that Kallas is hedging her bets. A key statement was “ma praeguse seisuga välistan igasuguse välistamise.” (In the present situation I exclude all exclusions.) Earlier in the interview, when Sildam noted that the present PM Jüri Ratas of the Kremlin-friendly Centre party is known for answering questions with a non-answer, Kallas hoped that she would not fall victim to that type of evasion.

She also seemed a bit of a babe in the woods, no sexism intended with this common expression, when asked about those who play the Russian Card. What is it, Kallas queried, perhaps intentionally naïvely. Sildam explained that it is the situation created by pro-Kremlin politicians versus Estonian patriots, politicians. As the Centre party has overwhelming support from Russian-speaking Estonian citizens, this is politically a key and unfortunately divisive issue.

Kallas is loath to use labels such as patriotic/national conservatism and liberalism. She believes in the blue-black-white definition of an Estonian, and in this interview danced gracefully around from alienating any specific group or party.

No surprise there. Since regaining independence Estonia has been ruled by coalition governments mainly because of its voting system. Kallas did not dismiss outright working with the Centre party should the Reform party need a ruling partner. If the goals are common she would work with any, even a populist party she said. While populism is on the wane in the Netherlands and France it is not an extreme, it is the mainstream in places such as Hungary and Poland, both victims of Soviet, Warsaw Pact rule. Kallas does not expect this to rise in Estonia.

Kaja Kallas seems to dismiss political labels. She told Sildam that the voter does not care whether the candidate is a patriotic/national conservative (rahvuskonservatiiv) or a liberal. She believes that the electorate will decide on the basis of the candidate’s ideas. A key issue for the new chairperson is how Estonia will fare in the future, once financial support from the EU disappears, as it will. How the economy will be structured to ensure growth, better incomes for all, adequate social programs are critical for Kallas.

Hence her three key pillars of Reform party strategy, as she described them in her speech on Saturday. She was quick to say that these pillars are not yet part of their official election platform. They are patriotism, freedom and consideration for others. Noble goals, yet politically almost impossible to vouchsafe, guarantee by any government.

The final important point made during the interview was Kallas’ wish to lure more input, participation from the private sector. Noting that there should be a “rotation” amongst those in government, bureaucracy and the private sector she acknowledged that it is a difficult goal. For the strong positive performers in the private sector, even allowing their belief in the nation lack sufficient motivation to do so. Read: financial compensation.

Co-operation is very important considering Estonia’s geopolitical location and the constant desinformatsiya campaign waged by Moscow. Kaja Kallas has her work cut out toward achieving electoral support in the next 11 months. As she is willing to work with anyone, and is a fresh new, and importantly female face in the nation’s political gamesmanship, there may be hope for the squirrels yet.

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