Estonian premier clinches new coalition deal after election win

Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas secured a deal for a new ruling coalition following her victory in last month’s elections, extending her tenure as one of Europe’s most ardent backers of Ukraine in its fight against Russia.

The ruling alliance, due to be sworn in next week, will swap out one of the three parties in Kallas’s outgoing cabinet for a new administration focused on reigning in fiscal deficits, promoting socially progressive policies, and boosting the Baltic nation’s defense. 

Members of Kallas’s center-right Reform Party are expected to dominate ministerial posts after their commanding win in the March 5 vote, Bloomberg reports.

Under her leadership, Estonia has stood out as the biggest contributor of weapons aid to Ukraine on a per-capita basis. Alongside Baltic neighbors Latvia and Lithuania, the country has pushed hard for tough sanctions to punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

Kallas, 45, is a former lawyer and the daughter of former Prime Minister and European Commissioner Siim Kallas. Like many in the Baltics, her family was directly affected by the Soviet Union’s mass deportations in the 1940s and 1950s.

With a civil union law that’s been in limbo since 2014, a decision to adopt full marriage equality would make Estonia the first of 15 former Soviet republics to do so.