• Estonia Two Estonian women to stop the extreme right

Europeanist, feminist, economically liberal, disciplined 'runner' and with enough rhythm to play the drums.

They are the coordinates of Kaja Kallas, the woman who has managed to remove the extreme right of the government coalition in Estonia.

He will lead the new Estonian government in alliance with the Center Left Party, the country's second political force.



Kallas is the daughter of a former prime minister and grew up surrounded by party arguments.

Perhaps that is why in his youth he denied the po

li

ethics in favor of the laws.

Now he will pilot a 'grand coalition'.



The new prime minister took the reins of the Reform Party in 2018, becoming

the first woman to hold this position

.

Kallas and her deputies won the 2019 election to the surprise of many, including herself:

"I have to admit that I had two speeches prepared"

he told his followers that night.

They won almost a third of the votes but did not reach power because the centrists made a pact with a right-wing party and with the far-right populists of EKRE.

Kallas then missed his chance to make history, but he decided to sit back and wait for the demagogic rampages and corruption scandals to rot the government coalition.



The hitherto prime minister, Juri Ratas, and his cabinet resigned on January 13 due to a scandal that involved an official of his formation (Center Party) suspected of accepting a donation to the party in exchange for a political favor.

LAWYER AND POLYGLOT

The curriculum of Kallas (born in 1977, when the capital of his country was Moscow) exemplifies the vertiginous changes that Estonia has undergone: from being just a quiet port of the Soviet dictatorship to a small independent republic with an uncertain future in the 1990s, and from there until achieving European integration and opening to the world in the 2000s.

He speaks Estonian, English, Finnish (the most important neighbor), French and Russian

.



As a lawyer she specialized in European and Estonian competition law and also in the energy market.

His father, Siim Kallas, was one of the creators of the Estonian Reform Party.



Kaja Kallas, who studied at the University of Tartu (the oldest in Estonia), eventually succumbed to family political passion in 2010 and joined the party.

She was a member of the European Parliament in 2014

to 2018

.

There he focused on energy and digital policies.



During his 'European adventure' things got complicated at home.

The leader of her party said she was retiring and pointed to her as a successor.

Kallas asked for two days to decide and hung up the phone thinking about what was coming.

And it was more than he feared.

In the 2019 elections, right-wing populism doubled its votes, placing itself as the third force and ultimately managing to enter the Government.

Since then, scandals have occurred, with racist and homophobic polemics (one of the ultra ministers proposed that gays go to

Sweden

).



That radical cloud that personally repulsed him seems clear for the moment.

"A large part of society has had enough of EKRE quite quickly, they have been in power for two years, with close to 20% support after a government breakthrough that was a surprise and disappointment for much of the population. Estonian society ", explains to EL MUNDO from Tallin the political scientist Tõnis Leht, who is also the host of a radio program on politics.

"Besides," Leht laments, "

the EKRE ultras were not moderated in power, the same thing happened with Donald Trump "

.

Women's double

Kallas has become the

first female head of government in the history of the small Baltic nation

, which right now has a woman as head of state: President Kersti Kaljulaid.



Reports on the worrying progression of the

coronavirus

in Estonia.

And the need to continue modernizing a country that was one of the first to digitize the public administration in the early 2000s. The three Baltic nations have recently had women in the presidency or head of government.

"In the Estonian case it comes from our Scandinavian orientation, I think Kallas is familiar with the feminist agenda," explains Leht, who believes that "people's attitude is positive about it. People expect good management of the coronavirus and a culture decent policy. "

The status of the Russian language, which remains the mother tongue of a minority in Estonia, continues to sow discord in some areas.

Kallas loves to spend hours doing puzzles with his son, but now he has a much more complicated puzzle before him.



This remarkable lawyer (who is a descendant of one of the founders of the Estonian republic in 1918) was married at the beginning of the last decade to Taavi Veskimägi, who was Minister of Finance.

In 2018, being already a national political figure, he married for the second time.

The lucky guy's name is Arvo Hallik, and he's a prominent Estonian entrepreneur.

She has been a partner at the law firm Luiga Mody Hääl Borenius and

worked as an executive coach at the Estonian Business School

.

He is also a member of the European Antitrust Alliance, plays golf and loves to ski.



Estonia, a small Baltic nation with a population of 1.3 million, c

will hold general elections in 2023

.

Until then, Kallas has time to become the face of calm change.

At the moment in Estonia, when the surname 'Kallas' is said, few think about their father.

The dynasty, despite initial doubts, continues its course.

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