On Wednesday, Estonia’s parliament approved Prime Minister Kaja Kallas’ plans to hike taxes and defense expenditure in response to perceived Russian threats.
“The ongoing war in Ukraine and Russia’s attempt to demolish the current European security standards will for the next several years place Estonia in the most challenging security scenario since World War Two,” Kallas’ new three-party coalition declared.
The prime minister’s liberal Reform party won the March general election and formed a coalition with Estonia 200 and the center-left Social Democrat Party, garnering 60 of 101 parliament votes.
The coalition claimed Estonian defense expenditure will grow to 3% of GDP by 2027 from 2.85% in 2023, while value-added tax and income tax would rise by two percentage points to balance the budget.
Comment Template