Lauri Husar, chairman of the “Estonia 200” party, was elected as the Speaker of the Estonian Parliament on Monday.
Lauri Husar, chairman of the “Estonia 200” party, was elected as the Speaker of the Estonian Parliament on Monday.
59 votes were cast for Husar, the other candidate – the leader of the national populist Conservative People’s Party (EKRE) Martins Helme – received 20 votes. 22 ballots were declared invalid.
Helme and his party member tried to challenge Husar’s candidacy, but the parliamentary Election Commission rejected the protests.
Husar replaces Center Party leader Jiri Ratas as Speaker.
Tomas Kivimegi from the Reform Party was later elected as the first deputy speaker, and Ratas as the second deputy speaker.
They received 56 and 27 votes respectively, while Helme, who also ran for deputy speaker, received 17 votes and was not elected.
Before the election of the Speaker, the President of the Republic Alar Karis gave the opening speech at the first session of the new term of the Parliament and the MPs took the oath of office.
It has already been reported that according to the election results held on March 5, in the new parliamentary term, the liberal Reform Party has 37 mandates, the national populist Estonian Conservative People’s Party (EKRE) – 17 mandates, the center-left Center Party – 16 mandates, the liberal party “Estonia 200” – 14 mandates, the Social Democratic Party – nine mandates and the national conservative party “Tēvzeme” – eight mandates. There are a total of 101 deputies in Rīga Kogu.
The term of office of the Estonian Parliament is four years.
The former Prime Minister, the chairperson of the Reform Party, Kaja Kallas, will also lead the next government, the formation of which has been agreed with the party “Estonia 200” and the Social Democrats. On Monday, these three parties signed a coalition agreement.
The previous government coalition included the Reform Party, the Social Democrats and the “Motherland” party.
Leave a Comment