Who is Kaja Kallas

Kaja Kallas, the Prime Minister of Estonia, has been proposed by the European Commission to succeed Josep Borrell as head of EU diplomacy. “The war in Europe, the growing instability in our neighbourhood and on a global scale are the main challenges of European foreign policy,” Kallas wrote in a statement to welcome the appointment (the liberal politician will have to pass the confirmation of the European Parliament).

Great belligerent with Russia – many media outlets have dubbed her “Putin’s scourge” – Kallas is one of the voices that most insists on redoubling military support for Ukraine and adopting tougher sanctions against Moscow and Vladimir Putin. So much so that the politician has increased taxes in her country to dedicate more to security due to the Russian threat. Last February, Moscow declared Kallas wanted for the demolition of Soviet monuments in the Baltic country.

Who is Kaja Kallas?

Kaja Kallas (Tallinn, Soviet Union, 1977) is the first woman to head a Government in Estonia. She took office in January 2021. With a degree in Law and postgraduate studies at the Business School, she is the daughter of former Estonian Prime Minister Siim Kallas (2002-2003), who was also Vice President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Transport.

Kallas’ political career began in 2010, when he joined the centre-right Estonian Reform Party (Reformierakond).

Kallas’ debut came a year later, when she won a seat in the 12th Riigikogu (the Estonian Parliament). She was chair of the Committee on Economic Affairs in 2011 and then chair of the parliamentary group in 2014. However, Kallas left the seat after being elected to the European Parliament.

• In the European Parliament, the Estonian representative was attached to the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), and was a member of the Budget and Industry, Research and Energy committees.

• After spending four years as an MEP (from 2014 to 2018) and returning to the Estonian parliament, Kaja Kallas became the first woman to head a Government in the Baltic country in which defense and security have been its main priorities.

The traumas of Stalinism. As Estonian media reported when she took over as Estonian prime minister, Kallas belongs to a family that was marked by the traumas of Stalinism. Her mother was deported to Siberia with her grandmother and her great-grandmother when she was six months old in a cattle car and she lived there until she was 10 years old. Her great-grandfather, a lawyer, headed the police after the founding of the Republic of Estonia in 1918 and was also the head of Kytseliit, a volunteer military formation that opposed the Red Army during the Estonian War of Independence. And her father, Siim Kallas, led independent Estonia’s monetary reform after the fall of communism and was the prime minister who guided the country’s entry into NATO.