Estonia: Reform youth branch members who attempted to disturb PM during debate apologize

TALLINN - Kristo Enn Vaga, secretary general of the youth branch of the Estonian Reform Party, issued a public apology on behalf of the youth branch for attempting to disturb Prime Minister and Center Party leader Juri Ratas during Saturday's TV debate by calling him multiple times, the daily Postimees reports.

"On behalf of the Reform Youth, I wish to apologize for our behavior last night during the debate of prime minister candidates. It was a juvenile prank, we simply overheated in the election buzz. We wanted to draw attention to the fact that Prime Minister Juri Ratas often reads out responses written by others from his phone during live programs and Riigikogu question time. We had the impression that the same happened during yesterday's debate as well," Vaga said on Sunday.

"Contrary to the prime minister's claim [that he did not have his phone with him during the debate], it is also specifically visible from Delfi's photo gallery that the prime minister had his phone with him in the studio. We thought that it would be fair to other participants of the debate if we did not let the prime minister use external help in the debate, either. This definitely does not justify our behavior and we definitely did not wish to concern anyone," he added.

Prime Minister Juri Ratas received some dozen missed calls during a TV debate between the prime minister candidates of larger political parties organized by public broadcaster ERR on Saturday. The prime minister's office claimed this was an attempt by Reform Party members to troll the TV appearance of Ratas.