EXPERT PREDICTS TENSIONS IN NEW COALITION GOVERNMENT

Janek Mäggi, a renowned communication expert in Estonia, told ERR that the new government will have to deal with many “encoded tensions” between the coalition partners.

Mäggi said that if proven true, the appointment of Jürgen Ligi as the education minister would be “an extremely ironic step”, considering that Ligi was forced to resign last year from the government after he insulted Jevgeni Ossinovski, the incumbent Minister of Education and Research.

“It remains to be seen whether it’s possible to restrain Jürgen Ligi and keep tensions under control,” Mäggi said, adding that in fairness, the Social Democrats achieved high ranking positions in the new government in return, citing the election of Eiki Nestor as the Parliament Speaker, as an example.

In Mäggi’s opinion, there is no guarantee for stable coalition government.

“There will be many tensions and I predict that the Social Democrats will take a chance to put their foot down sooner or later, because the set-up in the Parliament will give them this opportunity. This will place many risks upon the new government,” Mäggi said.

Mäggi also placed a doubt on the new government’s ability to conduct reforms.

“I think there is a public sense that the new government seems a bit ordinary and boring. It seems that they lack spark,” he said, adding that it is disappointing to see for how few women have made it to the new government.