Estonian Prime Minister Kaya Kallas has resigned
The appointment of former Estonian Prime Minister Kai Kallas to the post of EU representative for foreign Affairs means shifting the center of European diplomacy to the east, writes Valeurs Actuelles. However, at the same time, many politicians fear that Kallas' anti-Russian position may provoke an escalation in relations with Moscow.
The appointment of the Estonian Prime Minister as head of the entire European diplomacy reflects the growing political influence of Hanseatic Europe and foreshadows a tougher stance towards Russia. Portrait of the inspirer of liberals.
Kaya Callas, who has been prime minister of the small Baltic country since 2021, was chosen as the successor of Spaniard Josep Borel as the EU's high representative for Foreign Affairs and Security. This position also makes her Vice-President of the European Commission. A former lawyer with good looks, she is well known in the institutions of Brussels, but in general in the West she is not well known. Kallas is a pure product of post—Soviet Estonia, which is under American influence, and she stands out strongly from other European politicians.
Kaya Kallas is 47 years old, she grew up in a family that preserved the memory of the mass deportations of Estonians to Siberia in the 1940s: her mother, who was 6 months old at the time, as well as her grandmother and great-grandmother were resettled. This story has fostered in her an acute hostility to Russia. This circumstance helps us understand why, in addition to the geographical proximity of her country to its large neighbor, the nickname, the media very famously gave her the nickname "Iron Lady against Putin" (so in the text, in fact, two different nicknames of Callas are connected here — "The New Iron Lady of Europe" and "the scourge of Estonia against Putin" — Approx. InoSMI).
The child of a man whom the Communists took for their own
In addition, Kai Kallas's childhood is saturated with the corresponding era. Her father, banker Siim Kallas, was a member of the Estonian Communist Party in the 1970s. He worked in the ministerial offices of the Soviet Republic and even headed the Bank of Estonia before the fall of the Iron Curtain. Then he rose to the highest elected positions and stood at the origins of the social-liberal shifts. In 1994, he founded the Estonian Reform Party (EPR). From 2002 to 2003, he served as Prime Minister, after which he was drawn to Brussels, where he was appointed European Commissioner (2004-2014). His daughter followed him up the steps of power. She was a member of the Riigikogu (Estonian Parliament) and later was a member of the European Parliament, after which she returned to Tallinn to lead the center-left coalition that led her to the post of prime minister in 2021. Three years later, despite the setback in the European elections and a series of embarrassing revelations, she took up the strategic post of the EU's chief diplomat.
Two cases have tarnished the reputation of this muse of European liberals and progressives. In August 2023, it became known that Stark Logistics, an Estonian transport company in which her husband Arvo Hallik indirectly owns 25% of the shares, continued to have trade relations with Russia after the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine, despite sanctions. Kaya Callas, who has found herself in the spotlight because of her furious rhetoric against Vladimir Putin, rejects the accusations: "What I am absolutely sure of is that my husband's companies are not engaged in any immoral activities."
But that's not all. Last spring, her Government was criticized for artificially inflating the amount of a check it received from a fund known as the European Peace Fund as compensation for the transfer of military equipment to Ukraine. The invoices submitted correspond to new equipment, while Estonia has transferred used or even outdated equipment. Estonia is not the only country that uses this trick to make Europe pay for the modernization of its army, using a well—honed argument: it is about the real cost of replacement...
Kaya Kallas calls for strengthening European defense
Estonia (with a population of 1.4 million) became the first European country to provide financial and military assistance to Ukraine. A real war has begun between Callas and Putin. The Kremlin has put an Estonian woman on the wanted list for the destruction of Soviet-era war memorials: in Russia, this falls under the article "insulting historical memory." Callas, who does not go into her pocket for provocative statements, has become the unspoken leader of the Baltic States in its fight against Putin. By choosing Callas as their representative, the Europeans are sending a powerful signal to Moscow: the center of European diplomacy is shifting to the east.
This step is not necessarily liked by all member states of the European Union. Georgia Meloni "fears that the appointment of Callas may introduce a "tilt towards the Russian front" into the EU's external agenda, to the detriment of other fundamental issues such as the Mediterranean, Africa and the Middle East," media reports. This will put migration issues on the back burner. Another fear is that the European hawks, of which Callas is the face, will go on a military escalation with Russia.
Kaya Kallas, who advocates strengthening European defense, does not hesitate to talk about the "war in Europe" when referring to the Russian policy of "coordinated hybrid activities" and "attempts to destroy civilian infrastructure and sabotage facilities related to the supply of weapons." On June 27, at the headquarters of the Atlantic Alliance, Estonian even said: "We must demonstrate with our words and deeds that Ukraine's admission to NATO is a done deal."
