TALLINN - Although politicians have begun speaking about extraordinary elections, they are in no hurry to sign the Social Democrats' bill of no confidence in Prime Minister Juhan Parts.
Center Party chairman Edgar Savisaar sent a letter to the party's mailing list March 9, expressing his thoughts on the possibility of extraordinary elections.
Savisaar said there were weighty arguments in support of such an idea. He added that it was theoretically possible to provoke extraordinary elections, if at least four parties -- Reform, Social Democrats, the Pro Patria Union and Center 's supported the idea.
A Center Party spokesperson said that, because discussion over the extraordinary elections had only started, they had not signed the bill.
In his statement Savisaar asserted that the plan for removing Parts, which was published in the daily Postimees, was not true.
"I can tell you that I haven't spoken about this plan to either Postimees or my party colleagues, orally or in writing. The ideas attributed to me are Postimees' fantasy, only aiming to make waters murky and give the Reform Party time to hammer up an alternative coalition," Savisaar said.
Eiki Nestor, deputy chairman of the Social-Democratic Party, said Savisaar's proposal to provoke extraordinary elections had not been sincere.
"If the Center Party were actually against the present government, Centrist lawmakers would have long acceded to the Social-Democrats' bill of no confidence in Parts," Nestor said, adding that Savisaar had given a respective promise in a public ETV Foorum talk show three weeks ago.
Meanwhile, Nestor claimed that Savisaar was interested in the present inefficient government's continuation for as long as possible, because this would improve the opposition parties' outlooks.
Precisely one month ago SDE announced that it had started collecting signatures to a bill of no confidence in Prime Minister Juhan Parts. It made the move on Feb. 10 during the row between Res Publica and the Reform Party in connection with then Foreign Minister Kristiina Ojuland.
The Social Democrats said they made their move because the government failed to work out measures for additional financing in healthcare systems.
