TALLINN - In response to a letter by three former prime ministers who requested that Economy Minister Edgar Savisaar be dismissed over a "shady" real-estate deal, Prime Minister Andrus Ansip said he would take no action in the run-up to the Oct. 16 local elections.
The prime minister said that, while he sympathized with the three politicians, all of whom are in the opposition, he saw their letter as nothing less than an attempt to break up the government and attract attention.
"All of you have been in the center of scandals," Ansip, who leads the Reform Party, said. "All of you have experienced how critical it is for the government to work under stability and act correctly in a situation where a coalition party is implicated."
"When we're dealing with ethical, not political or legal arguments, a minister's dismissal has usually passed without pain if there has been a decision or agreement on the part of the minister or his party," the prime minister explained, adding that, if there was no such decision, the voter had to act as judge.
"I have declared that I do not consider it sensible to take that role on myself," he said.
Ansip reiterated that, in the present situation, it was his primary task as prime minister to ensure the government's continued ability to work.
The prime minister's tacit show of support to his economy minister came just days after he contested Savisaar's use of the term "inequality" in reference to Estonia. (See story on this page.)
Andres Tarand, Juhan Parts and Mart Laar, who come respectively from the Social Democratic Party, Res Publica and Pro Patria Union, suggested that, by allowing Savisaar to remain in office, the prime minister would be insinuating that the ruling parties were involved in criminal deals.
If Ansip was hiding behind the fact that no investigation has found any wrongdoing, they said, this signals his inability to cope with the duties of prime minister.
As leader of the Center Party, Savisaar has irked many right-wing politicians, particularly for the Centrists' cooperation memorandum with the Russia's pro-Kremlin party, United Russia.
Meanwhile, the media have reported extensively on the suspicious real-estate transaction. An allegedly Savisaar-owned company acquired property in Keila-Joa, a prestigious seaside area not far from Tallinn, from a firm that has long been of a sponsor of the Center Party.
The deal was closed at a measily 500,000 kroons (32,000 euros). Real estate experts said that the real value of the land and the villa is about five times the actual purchase price.
