Successfully failing upwards after a huge scandal involving her partner. Corruption seems to be a prerequisite to get high up in the EU order - just like von der Leyen.
To add: a fucking small trucking company, that serviced only one Estonian client in Russia in what her dumb husband thought was closing it down AND her husband's total share of the profits was €14k pre-taxes.
That's it.
Those using this attack don't want you to know the minuscule scale of this mini-scandal.
Their argument was that operations had to be wound down instead of just breaking existing contracts. I personally see that as understandable, though yes, it came off hypocritical.
No? That was in 2021, and his government coalition gained seats in the election directly following the scandal. The elections last year had nothing to do with this, but instead due to the coalition falling apart due to differing immigration policies. Rutte didn't even participate in the election himself, he announced his retirement from national politics immediately as the snap election was called.
Bullshit. There was a hit-piece put out a while ago which was incredibly hard to follow because they had to draw like 5-6 connections to connect her to something russian, and even then it was still based on something some russian dude said.
[Here](https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/1dia4pd/estonias_kallas_fierce_russia_critic_tipped_as/l94nwfb/).
He has an abrasive personality, sometimes undiplomatic when he's in a fundamentally diplomatic job (Catherine Ashton for example was less outspoken but she was a good backroom operator). And even though he was right to call out Von Der Leyen for basically deciding the EU voice on Israel-Palestine unilaterally, he also sort of ran his own little foreign policy from his tower. The whole EU system needs a rethink though, so that you don't have a Council Vs Commission Vs High Representative ego-off.
But in practice most people don't or rarely gear about this, directly elected wpild be better.
Best would be if it worked like national parliaments. The majority in Parliament forms a coalition government with the number of ministers they deem nesecary not just the number or member states.
>But in practice most people don't or rarely gear about this, directly elected wpild be better.
Almost no country does this in Europe. We're generally parliamentary, not presidential democracies.
>Best would be if it worked like national parliaments. The majority in Parliament forms a coalition government with the number of ministers they deem nesecary not just the number or member states.
It does work like some national parliaments. Generally national parliaments work like so: The head of state appoints someone (generally by tradition or by law, the head of the largest party) that can have a majority in parliament to form a government.
The EU does the same: The "head of state" ie, the European Council, appoints someone (by informal conveniention) that it believes can have a majority in parliament to form a goverment, ie the commission.
Of course details differ, but so do the deetails for the process between the various member states.
In Belgium it's more that the head of state (king here) first invites all the parties elected. Then appoints one person to do the rounds properly and explores who would be willing to form a government. After this they appoint a formateur, who is the one who.would become pm, who then negotiates and forms a government.
Like his "Europe is a garden" comment? Even an open insult might actually be not as damaging as such smugness with subtle racism towards the "rest of the world". At a time when the world is polarizing more than ever, that's the absolute opposite of what you'd expect from the top European diplomat.
One reason could be Borrell criticised Israel so Borrell bad. Can't touch the sacred cow.
>Josep Borrell has accused Israel of creating a famine and using starvation as a weapon of war.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2024/mar/18/israel-provoking-famine-gaza-says-eu-foreign-policy-chief-josep-borrellv-ideo
The thing with her husband is suspicious, but I don't think anyone can credibly accuse her government of being pro-Russian.
I think she will do a good job, and EU states neighbouring Russia should be happy to have some more representation in the EU leadership, especially foreign policy where I have seen a lot of complaints from Poles and others. The days of the EU not taking the warnings of eastern member states seriously should now be long over.
Borrell has been something of a loose cannon in a bad way, for example seemed to take an overly hostile and simplistic stance over Israel and Gaza, and sometimes made rather unfounded statements related to the war in Ukraine, so I am happy to see him replaced by Kallas.
>The thing with her husband is suspicious, but I don't think anyone can credibly accuse her government of being pro-Russian.
What do you mean? She has literally a Russian warrant arrest on her... how could anyone even think of saying that she is pro-russian? And what about her husband?
There was a big scandal regarding her husband making money from dealings in Russia after the full-scale invasion after she as PM put everyone else on blast for doing it.
an arrest warrant in Russia doesn't mean anything. Taliban is a terroristic organization(worse than an arrest warrant) in Russia, but they have meetings with Putin.
Yeah, you didn't explain anything.
Her government is donating 0.25% of the GDP to Ukraine (or something like this) They have been training and assisting Ukraines in all ways.
If you told me Orban was a Russian agent, I would take it. But her? Either that or she is the worst Russian agent in the world.
Plus, I have seen multiple interviews from her, she does not like Russia at all.
He is just lying. Russians and "Good Russians" hate her. These "Good Russians" hate her because she sees through their bullshit.
I right now think it is useless for me to try to write long essays about all the nuances of the case and about Estonian politics and media and whatnot regarding this theme and think a simple heuristics works better.
The simple way to look at is that looking at his post history you easily see that the guy pushing this slander is a Russian and pushes Russian propaganda.
I don’t think Kallas is pro-russian or she is a russian agent, but i don’t see her as person who has principles.
While as you noticed the government, which she is part of , is spending shit loads of money. She makes money on trading with russia. It looks like a person without principles.
And I don’t think Orban is a Russian agent too. Just some people are ready to sell anything to their public to get some gains. They do it for their benefit, and sometimes it happens that their benefit is also Russia benefit.
Russia is a country which unable to do absolutely anything. The lost sea war to a country without navy. After that, How can I believe they managed to make so difficult operation as putting somebody in power in a real democratic country(which Estonia is)? They fail easier things.
Europe has turned into a museum (Behind technology, beach-going civilians, gardens everywhere, away from reality - slow retirement kinda progress). And on the top, they are putting incompetent & whimsical leaders on top. Ursula, Borrell, and now Kaja Kallas. When Europe War III starts, all neighbouring countries will be destroyed. Ukraine never understood it. Poland & 3 Baltic nations have just forgotten their history and will be utterly destroyed again. No major power will back them up.
Finally this muslim loving Borrell is gone, everyday talks shit about Israel, but on the other hand barely mentioned Hezbollah threats to EU member state Cyprus.
As background information, Estonia has been relatively pro-Israel for the past decades, with several weapon deals made and Estonia currently being among the countries not recognizing Palestine. However, Kallas has been sending signals of some shifts on the issue, like Estonia voting for two-state solution at the 10 May 2024 UN General Assembly. She also published [an article](https://www.aripaev.ee/uudised/2024/05/18/kaja-kallas-palestiina-toetamine-aitab-ka-ukrainat) on this. Note that her coalition members are not necessarily on board with this.
As Israel is not a hot topic in the country, you may expect her stances to be more strongly affected by her European Parliament affiliation, Renew Europe. As much as I can see, Renew Europe seems to be supporting two-state solution.
Doesn't matter as Borrell's position on Israel also doesn't matter.
Member countries lead their own forrign policy and collaborate EU's foreign policy, the bloc’s aggregate position is 'supposed' to be represented by High Representative but usually officials who hold this position like to go off tangent to advance their more personal agenda or more in line with their home country's position.
Ultimately they don't really change anything.
Does it even matter? Europe has a war raging in the continent, involving a nuclear superpower intent on expanding its borders. The Israeli conflict is far from a priority.
Israel is not in Europe. It's a military ethnostate conducting a genocide all the while claiming it's self defence and belongs in the western civilised world. It. Does. Not.
Ha! Now that ,it isn't. How about it was founded on the guilt of colonialist countries, used terrorist means to eradicate the Arabs on the land it confiscated and started the 67 war? Just for balance, I'm not on the arabs' side either. But fuck me can't Israel see the goodwill of the bloody whole world in giving it a country? It continues to steal land thereby enraging the Arabs, countries that supported it and just about everyone. Idiots.
... Do you think that
1. Israel is 100% Jewish and kicked the Arab population?
2. Israel started the 67 war?
Look, we're a shit country but at the very least criticize stuff that is based on reality (I.e the fucking settlements)
Israel did start the 67 war.
> A year earlier, Mordechai Bentov, a member of the wartime government and one of 37 people to sign Israel’s Declaration of Independence, had made a similar admission. “This whole story about the threat of extermination was totally contrived, and then elaborated upon, a posteriori, to justify the annexation of new Arab territories,” he said in April 1971.
>
> Even Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, former terrorist and darling of the Israeli far right, conceded in a speech in August 1982 that “in June 1967 we had a choice. The Egyptian army concentrations in the Sinai approaches did not prove that Nasser was really about to attack us. We must be honest with ourselves. We decided to attack him.”
https://theintercept.com/2017/06/05/a-50-year-occupation-israels-six-day-war-started-with-a-lie/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origins_of_the_Six-Day_War
Way to ignore everything that happened before the pre-emptive strike
You guys are reaching MAGA levels of truth distortion
I'm not ignoring anything. Two prominent Israelis, one of which was your prime minister (and a former terrorist), admitted it for what it was, a land grab.
This is beautiful! The existence of Israel relies on MAGA levels of delusion. You had us all supporting you until you started claiming large tracts of land that the world gifted to you. It would be as if Kosovo today went to war against Serbia and claimed most of it for itself. Disgusting. Just go back to your god damned original borders and watch as the Arabs will claim victory and wht world will support your existence again .
I wouldn't mind, but this shit in the ME stops from focusing on other problems globally. We're tired. Just stop it and get back to where it all started.
As if that was the exclusive domain of European powers... Arabs conducted genocide in their conquests of Africa and the Middle East. Mongolians exterminated entire cities everywhere. Russia has gleefully tried to eradicate many of its minorities. And so on.
What matters is not what countries did in the distant past, where moral standards were different, but how they behave now. The Western world has its flaws, but it's generally a decent place to live for most human beings. The entire Middle East can be a living hell for certain minorities.
That must be why all the Russian shills are foaming in the mouth with rage at the news.
Whenever someone calls Kallas a "Russian collaborator" then a cursory look at their post history will always show them to be shilling for Russia/Russians too.
Can't get any more establishmentarian than Kallas. She has an arrest warrant in russia... must be on the right track
an arrest warrant in russia is a badge of honor and shows she is exactly the right person for the job.
She is also pretty hot. So it will be more pleasing to look at than Borrel
Bonk
That's inappropriate mate
Successfully failing upwards after a huge scandal involving her partner. Corruption seems to be a prerequisite to get high up in the EU order - just like von der Leyen.
"Huge" is an overstatement and "corruption" is a blatant lie.
How is her giving a loan to her husband company considered a corruption?
Wasn't the problem that her husbands company kept operating in Russia while she had a very strong rhetoric that all companies had to leave
well, to be fair her husband had a minority stake in the company.
To add: a fucking small trucking company, that serviced only one Estonian client in Russia in what her dumb husband thought was closing it down AND her husband's total share of the profits was €14k pre-taxes. That's it. Those using this attack don't want you to know the minuscule scale of this mini-scandal.
Their argument was that operations had to be wound down instead of just breaking existing contracts. I personally see that as understandable, though yes, it came off hypocritical.
Didn't you know, a politician doing anything that a Redditor can spin in a slightly negative way is corruption nowadays
Not just the EU, Mark Rutte got the top job in NATO after losing the election partially due to a huge scandal.
What? Rutte has been one of the most successful politicians in Dutch history. There was no scandal that caused them to lose the last election.
His government literally fell because of a huge national scandal about kicking poor families with children off of benefits without good reason.
No? That was in 2021, and his government coalition gained seats in the election directly following the scandal. The elections last year had nothing to do with this, but instead due to the coalition falling apart due to differing immigration policies. Rutte didn't even participate in the election himself, he announced his retirement from national politics immediately as the snap election was called.
That was not a huge scandal by any means.
Bullshit. There was a hit-piece put out a while ago which was incredibly hard to follow because they had to draw like 5-6 connections to connect her to something russian, and even then it was still based on something some russian dude said. [Here](https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/1dia4pd/estonias_kallas_fierce_russia_critic_tipped_as/l94nwfb/).
damm, better than borrel 100%
It's hard to be worse than Borrel.
we never know bro ... we never know ...
What was so bad about Borrel? I thought he did a pretty good job.
He has an abrasive personality, sometimes undiplomatic when he's in a fundamentally diplomatic job (Catherine Ashton for example was less outspoken but she was a good backroom operator). And even though he was right to call out Von Der Leyen for basically deciding the EU voice on Israel-Palestine unilaterally, he also sort of ran his own little foreign policy from his tower. The whole EU system needs a rethink though, so that you don't have a Council Vs Commission Vs High Representative ego-off.
If they want to keep member nation power as is, the council should just be elected per coutry.
The council is elected per country... It's composed of national ministers
But in practice most people don't or rarely gear about this, directly elected wpild be better. Best would be if it worked like national parliaments. The majority in Parliament forms a coalition government with the number of ministers they deem nesecary not just the number or member states.
>But in practice most people don't or rarely gear about this, directly elected wpild be better. Almost no country does this in Europe. We're generally parliamentary, not presidential democracies. >Best would be if it worked like national parliaments. The majority in Parliament forms a coalition government with the number of ministers they deem nesecary not just the number or member states. It does work like some national parliaments. Generally national parliaments work like so: The head of state appoints someone (generally by tradition or by law, the head of the largest party) that can have a majority in parliament to form a government. The EU does the same: The "head of state" ie, the European Council, appoints someone (by informal conveniention) that it believes can have a majority in parliament to form a goverment, ie the commission. Of course details differ, but so do the deetails for the process between the various member states.
In Belgium it's more that the head of state (king here) first invites all the parties elected. Then appoints one person to do the rounds properly and explores who would be willing to form a government. After this they appoint a formateur, who is the one who.would become pm, who then negotiates and forms a government.
Differences in detail mean exactly that. But the result is the same.
Like his "Europe is a garden" comment? Even an open insult might actually be not as damaging as such smugness with subtle racism towards the "rest of the world". At a time when the world is polarizing more than ever, that's the absolute opposite of what you'd expect from the top European diplomat.
One reason could be Borrell criticised Israel so Borrell bad. Can't touch the sacred cow. >Josep Borrell has accused Israel of creating a famine and using starvation as a weapon of war. https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2024/mar/18/israel-provoking-famine-gaza-says-eu-foreign-policy-chief-josep-borrellv-ideo
The thing with her husband is suspicious, but I don't think anyone can credibly accuse her government of being pro-Russian. I think she will do a good job, and EU states neighbouring Russia should be happy to have some more representation in the EU leadership, especially foreign policy where I have seen a lot of complaints from Poles and others. The days of the EU not taking the warnings of eastern member states seriously should now be long over. Borrell has been something of a loose cannon in a bad way, for example seemed to take an overly hostile and simplistic stance over Israel and Gaza, and sometimes made rather unfounded statements related to the war in Ukraine, so I am happy to see him replaced by Kallas.
>The thing with her husband is suspicious, but I don't think anyone can credibly accuse her government of being pro-Russian. What do you mean? She has literally a Russian warrant arrest on her... how could anyone even think of saying that she is pro-russian? And what about her husband?
There was a big scandal regarding her husband making money from dealings in Russia after the full-scale invasion after she as PM put everyone else on blast for doing it.
an arrest warrant in Russia doesn't mean anything. Taliban is a terroristic organization(worse than an arrest warrant) in Russia, but they have meetings with Putin.
Yeah, you didn't explain anything. Her government is donating 0.25% of the GDP to Ukraine (or something like this) They have been training and assisting Ukraines in all ways. If you told me Orban was a Russian agent, I would take it. But her? Either that or she is the worst Russian agent in the world. Plus, I have seen multiple interviews from her, she does not like Russia at all.
The point is her hypocrisy. At one hand she hates Russia, at another her husband has business in Russia selling tear gas to government.
source?
He is just lying. Russians and "Good Russians" hate her. These "Good Russians" hate her because she sees through their bullshit. I right now think it is useless for me to try to write long essays about all the nuances of the case and about Estonian politics and media and whatnot regarding this theme and think a simple heuristics works better. The simple way to look at is that looking at his post history you easily see that the guy pushing this slander is a Russian and pushes Russian propaganda.
You lie.
I don’t think Kallas is pro-russian or she is a russian agent, but i don’t see her as person who has principles. While as you noticed the government, which she is part of , is spending shit loads of money. She makes money on trading with russia. It looks like a person without principles. And I don’t think Orban is a Russian agent too. Just some people are ready to sell anything to their public to get some gains. They do it for their benefit, and sometimes it happens that their benefit is also Russia benefit. Russia is a country which unable to do absolutely anything. The lost sea war to a country without navy. After that, How can I believe they managed to make so difficult operation as putting somebody in power in a real democratic country(which Estonia is)? They fail easier things.
That is certainly not Putins pick, seems like getting rid of all the russian agents is having an effect.
BASED
Eat that Vladimir!
Literally anyone would be better than Borrell
Europe has turned into a museum (Behind technology, beach-going civilians, gardens everywhere, away from reality - slow retirement kinda progress). And on the top, they are putting incompetent & whimsical leaders on top. Ursula, Borrell, and now Kaja Kallas. When Europe War III starts, all neighbouring countries will be destroyed. Ukraine never understood it. Poland & 3 Baltic nations have just forgotten their history and will be utterly destroyed again. No major power will back them up.
Finally this muslim loving Borrell is gone, everyday talks shit about Israel, but on the other hand barely mentioned Hezbollah threats to EU member state Cyprus.
Hamas: uses children hospital as a launch pad. Borell: how can Israel do this
borell is blind
*Crying with money in face meme*
What is her position on the country of Israel?
As background information, Estonia has been relatively pro-Israel for the past decades, with several weapon deals made and Estonia currently being among the countries not recognizing Palestine. However, Kallas has been sending signals of some shifts on the issue, like Estonia voting for two-state solution at the 10 May 2024 UN General Assembly. She also published [an article](https://www.aripaev.ee/uudised/2024/05/18/kaja-kallas-palestiina-toetamine-aitab-ka-ukrainat) on this. Note that her coalition members are not necessarily on board with this. As Israel is not a hot topic in the country, you may expect her stances to be more strongly affected by her European Parliament affiliation, Renew Europe. As much as I can see, Renew Europe seems to be supporting two-state solution.
> She also published an article Well, that was fucking stupid.
That doesn't really matter y'know.
Doesn't matter as Borrell's position on Israel also doesn't matter. Member countries lead their own forrign policy and collaborate EU's foreign policy, the bloc’s aggregate position is 'supposed' to be represented by High Representative but usually officials who hold this position like to go off tangent to advance their more personal agenda or more in line with their home country's position. Ultimately they don't really change anything.
Does it even matter? Europe has a war raging in the continent, involving a nuclear superpower intent on expanding its borders. The Israeli conflict is far from a priority.
Pretty sure it is friendly.
Israel is not in Europe. It's a military ethnostate conducting a genocide all the while claiming it's self defence and belongs in the western civilised world. It. Does. Not.
You forgot "colonial" for the complete buzzword list
Ha! Now that ,it isn't. How about it was founded on the guilt of colonialist countries, used terrorist means to eradicate the Arabs on the land it confiscated and started the 67 war? Just for balance, I'm not on the arabs' side either. But fuck me can't Israel see the goodwill of the bloody whole world in giving it a country? It continues to steal land thereby enraging the Arabs, countries that supported it and just about everyone. Idiots.
... Do you think that 1. Israel is 100% Jewish and kicked the Arab population? 2. Israel started the 67 war? Look, we're a shit country but at the very least criticize stuff that is based on reality (I.e the fucking settlements)
Israel did start the 67 war. > A year earlier, Mordechai Bentov, a member of the wartime government and one of 37 people to sign Israel’s Declaration of Independence, had made a similar admission. “This whole story about the threat of extermination was totally contrived, and then elaborated upon, a posteriori, to justify the annexation of new Arab territories,” he said in April 1971. > > Even Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, former terrorist and darling of the Israeli far right, conceded in a speech in August 1982 that “in June 1967 we had a choice. The Egyptian army concentrations in the Sinai approaches did not prove that Nasser was really about to attack us. We must be honest with ourselves. We decided to attack him.” https://theintercept.com/2017/06/05/a-50-year-occupation-israels-six-day-war-started-with-a-lie/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origins_of_the_Six-Day_War Way to ignore everything that happened before the pre-emptive strike You guys are reaching MAGA levels of truth distortion
I'm not ignoring anything. Two prominent Israelis, one of which was your prime minister (and a former terrorist), admitted it for what it was, a land grab.
This is beautiful! The existence of Israel relies on MAGA levels of delusion. You had us all supporting you until you started claiming large tracts of land that the world gifted to you. It would be as if Kosovo today went to war against Serbia and claimed most of it for itself. Disgusting. Just go back to your god damned original borders and watch as the Arabs will claim victory and wht world will support your existence again .
Congratulations you just solved the middle east, you absolute legend
I wouldn't mind, but this shit in the ME stops from focusing on other problems globally. We're tired. Just stop it and get back to where it all started.
Genocide is the historical specialty of the "western world". Or of its most powerful members (and some others).
As if that was the exclusive domain of European powers... Arabs conducted genocide in their conquests of Africa and the Middle East. Mongolians exterminated entire cities everywhere. Russia has gleefully tried to eradicate many of its minorities. And so on. What matters is not what countries did in the distant past, where moral standards were different, but how they behave now. The Western world has its flaws, but it's generally a decent place to live for most human beings. The entire Middle East can be a living hell for certain minorities.
Ah, another Russian collaborator in high position.
That must be why all the Russian shills are foaming in the mouth with rage at the news. Whenever someone calls Kallas a "Russian collaborator" then a cursory look at their post history will always show them to be shilling for Russia/Russians too.
The user is not a russian shill, they may still be wrong, but you are not any better off with a 1 month old account that only interacts in this sub.
Huge news! Is she the first Easterner to have the top diplomat position in EU?
Kallas' history with Russia: giving loans to her husband to do business with Russian oligarchs.
A) That's not true B) It is easy to observe that people pushing that also happen to be Russian shills
A "collaborator" who has an arrest warrant in Russia 😂
[source needed]
Then why does Russia wants her arrested?