The Isamaa party is prolonging Wednesday’s session of parliament, where several important bills are on the agenda, including prison outsourcing and the consent law.
Isamaa chairman Urmas Reinsalu told ERR that the party’s strategy is to slow down the session.
“To slow down the implementation of bad policy — firmly, but in good faith. That’s why we already proposed on Monday that the ruling coalition remove a number of highly controversial bills from today’s agenda. That was flatly rejected, and our parliamentary option is to express our protest by slowing down the work,” he said.
Reinsalu noted that the coalition has called an additional session for June 14 if the bills cannot be processed on Wednesday. “I urged the coalition not to do this on that date, and to instead hold it either next week or on Friday of this working week,” he said.
“Our choice right now is to submit inquiries and to deal very thoroughly with the bills on the agenda. It’s a way of sending a signal that this kind of style — pushing through policy by a government that has only a few months left in office — is not appropriate,” Reinsalu added.
Wednesday’s parliamentary session is expected to stretch into the following day, as many substantial draft laws are under discussion.
Among other things, parliament will vote on the consent law and on ratifying the prison rental agreement; a second reading will be held on judicial reform and changes to the national public broadcasting council.
By 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday, the Riigikogu had reached item 8 on the agenda—the draft law to ratify the agreement between the Republic of Estonia and the Kingdom of Sweden on the enforcement of Swedish prison sentences in Estonia. Earlier, under item 4, parliament approved the so‑called consent law, which establishes that clear consent is required for sexual relations. The measure passed with 69 votes in favor and eight against.
In total, the plenary session will consider 34 draft laws.
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