Estonian government financing anti-abortionists
Parliamentary groups in Estonia are allowed to spend six million euros a year on "regional investments". With this money the parties usually support projects that they consider a good cause. Now the country's three coalition partners want to pay 171,000 euros to a newly established association of anti-abortionists. A politicised issue!
The government is polarising society
Once again, Estonia's Prime Minister Jüri Ratas is trying to pretend that he is distancing himself from his far-right coalition partner Ekre, notes Õhtuleht:
“It appears that the state has decided to provide financial support to the side whose ideology it considers to be right. Jüri Ratas has probably also understood that it is considered a common position of the coalition, as he hastened to affirm that he and his Centre Party are against abortion bans and that such a step will not be considered under his government. Ratas can declare that he is against banning abortion, but the anti-abortionists are being financed with the support of the Centre Party, thus fuelling an issue that polarises society.”
Hypocritical liberal criticism
In Eesti Päevaleht, MEP Jaak Madison of the far-right Ekre party admonishes those who criticise the decision:
“Every year, several hundred thousand euros in taxpayers' money are spent on abortions. Most of them are performed at the woman's request without any medical reason. Hey, comrades, why don't you fight for this money to be used for better causes, such as cancer and child poverty? No, because you are hypocritical Pharisees. And stupid too. The leftists and liberals love to finish off their wailing with the sentence: 'This is not my Estonia'. Well, so be it, the world is open to you, even in these coronavirus times, so get going. I say that this is very much my Estonia, a country where people campaign for unborn children.”