Estonia’s Prime Minister Jüri Ratas has announced his resignation after corruption allegations against his party.
Ratas informs that he wants to take political responsibility and to give the opportunity to clarify the allegations.
Judicial authorities in the Baltic EU country had earlier launched investigations into a state aid loan to a real estate project against Ratas’ left-leaning Centre Party.
“In politics, very difficult decisions have to be made to resolve difficult situations,” Ratas said in a statement to the press. The decision to resign was made after consultations with his party, he said. Ratas stresses that the suspicions of the public prosecutor’s office do not mean that someone is already definitively guilty. But the suspicion inevitably casts a very serious shadow over all involved.
Doubtful 40-million loan for real estate project
The background to the investigation is a loan of almost 40 million euros granted by the state financing agency Kredex in the summer of 2020 for the development of a large-scale real estate project in Tallinn. The decision was allegedly preceded by unauthorized collusion. Among the suspects are Center Party Secretary General Mihhail Korb, and the party itself is suspected of being a legal entity. Four people were also provisionally arrested on Tuesday.
Ratas claimed not to have been informed about the details of the controversial loan. “I can say with full certainty that as prime minister I did not make a single malicious or knowingly wrong decision,” he said.
Ratas governs in Estonia with his left-leaning Centre Party in a tripartite alliance with the right-wing populist Estonian People’s Conservative Party and the conservative Isamaa party. He has served as head of government since 2016.
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