Former EKRE minister: Soon there'll be no country where apologies won't have to be made

TALLINN - According to former minister of foreign trade and IT Kaimar Karu, due to the statements of the leaders of the Estonian Conservative People's Party (EKRE), there will soon be no country in Estonia's neighborhood where apologies would not have to be made, the daily Postimees writes.

"In a sense, it is probably a good thing that it is complicated to travel at the moment, because soon there will be no country in the immediate neighborhood where, when meeting partners, one would not have to apologize wholeheartedly and face-to-face at the first informal moment for reasons not originating from one's own actions," Karu wrote on social media.

A new scandal involving EKRE leaders broke out on Sunday when, speaking on the "Raagime asjast" broadcast of the Tre radio, Mart and Martin Helme criticized the credibility of the Lithuanian parliamentary elections in October as well as those held in Romania and discussed other countries.

When the marriage referendum was discussed at some point in the broadcast, Mart Helme, talking about "creatures manipulated by the deep state" drew attention to examples in Europe -- he briefly mentioned the Netherlands and France, then more specifically Lithuania. "Let's look at what happened in the last elections in Lithuania -- it was such an obviously transparent deep state scheme that was launched there and that they managed to push through there," Mart Helme, former minister of the interior, said.

"The same was attempted in Romania. The pattern is exactly the same," Martin Helme, current minister of finance and EKRE chairman, added. 

In November, Mart Helme had to resign as interior minister after calling Joe Biden a dirt bag and, together with Martin Helme, saying the U.S. elections were rigged. On Sunday, too, the Helmes returned to the issue of alleged electoral fraud in the U.S. In particular, they were concerned about what the perspective of what they thought to be a communist administration could mean for the role of the United States in geopolitics. 

In April, EKRE recalled Kaimar Karu from the post of minister of foreign trade and IT within its government delegation, arguing that Karu did not share the party's main views. Although Karu was a minister nominated by EKRE, he never became a member of the party.

Raul Siem became the new minister of foreign trade and IT. Siem is the fourth minister of foreign trade and IT of the current government. Marti Kuusik, Kert Kingo and Kaimar Karu have previously held this position.