(29 Jun 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tallinn - 29 June 2024
1. Estonian Prime Minister and candidate for the EU's foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas arriving for a meeting
2. Estonian Minister of Climate Kristen Michal arriving for a meeting
3. Wide of the meeting
4. Close of Kallas
5. Close of Michal
6. Kallas listening
7. Michal listening
8. Kallas laughing
9. Michal smiling
10. Wide of meeting
11. Posters of Reform Party's chairpersons
12. Poster of Kallas
STORYLINE:
Estonia’s ruling center-right political Reform Party chose Climate Minister Kristen Michal Saturday to replace outgoing leader Kaja Kallas as prime minister of the Baltic country.
The unanimous decision to nominate Michal was made following a closed-door meeting by the party's governing board in the capital, Tallinn, only two days after the European Union tapped Kallas to become the bloc's new foreign policy chief.
Estonia’s first female prime minister, Kallas has been in the job since January 2021 and currently heads a three-party coalition government.
Under her leadership, the Reform Party overwhelmingly won the March 2023 general election.
She has proposed an extraordinary party meeting to elect her replacement on July 14, with Michal expected to take over after his main rival Defense Minister and ex-Prime Minister Hanno Pevkur bowed out on Friday.
Michal’s nomination for Estonia’s top job will then have to be approved by the 101-seat Riigikogu, or Parliament, where the coalition holds a comfortable majority.
He has been serving as the minister for climate affairs since April last year.
Estonia under Kallas' rule has been one of Europe’s most vocal backers of Ukraine following the Russian invasion that started in Feb.2022.
The Reform Party said that Kallas will represent Estonia as a prime minister at the NATO summit in Washington on July 9-11.
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3 июл 2024
