© Office of the Government of the Republic of EstoniaJüri Ratas congratulates newly-elected Finnish premier Sanna Marin in Brussels on Thursday.
"What has happened in Finland now still makes the hair stand on end," speaking on TRE Raadio broadcast Räägime asjast on Sunday, ERR's online news in Estonian reports.
Sanna Marin was elected new prime minister-in-waiting on Tuesday, following the resignation of her predecessor Antti Rinne, and should head up a center-left coalition of five parties, all of which are led by women, making Marin, 34, the youngest prime minister worldwide.
The five parties remain unchanged from the Rinne administration: Marin's Suomen Sosialidemokraattinen Puolue (SDP), is joined by the Centre Party (Suomen Keskusta), the Green League (Vihreä liitto), the Left Alliance (Vasemmistoliitto) and the Swedish People's Party (SFP/RKP).
Rinne stepped down following a vote of no-confidence proclaimed by the Centre Party in his government over the handling of a postal workers' strike which recently ended.
Sanna Marin had been Minister of Transport and Communications in the previous government.
Mart Helme questioned the competence of both the new prime minister and her cabinet.
"I would still recall [Soviet leader] Vladimir Ulyanov-Lenin's saying that every cook could become a minister, or something to that effect," he said. "Now we can see that a salesgirl has become prime minister and some other street activist and uneducated person has also become a member of the government."
He commented more broadly on the Finnish government as well.
"Now we can actually see to some extent how the historical revenge of the reds on the whites is taking place — that is to say, the reds who wanted to liquidate the Finnish state in the [Finnish Civil War of 1918] already have now come to power and are now desperately trying to liquidate Finland, turning it into some kind of europrovince which may still be called Suomi or Finland as a territory, but which in fact completely drags along the tail of the ideological philosophy of the so-called fukuyama-esque end of history."
Yoshihiro Francis Fukuyama is an American political scientist, political economist, and writer, known for his book The End of History and the Last Man (1992), which argued that the worldwide spread of liberal democracies and free-market capitalism of the West and its lifestyle may signal the end point of humanity's sociocultural evolution and become the final form of human government.
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Helme also predicted that the next Finnish prime minister, i.e. Marin's successor, would be Jussi Halla-aho, leader of the largest opposition party, the Finns Party (Perussuomalaiset), also somewhat of a sister party of Helme's Conservative People's Party of Estonia's (EKRE), ERR reports.
"Something as unintelligible as what is happening in Finland has probably not happened there for centuries," Helme said.
Ratas: Always have good cooperation with Finnish governments
Estonian prime minister Jüri Ratas (Centre) called his new Finnish counterpart on Wednesday to offer his congratulations and inviting her on an official visit to Estonia, and the pair met face-to-face just a day later at the Nordic-Baltic meeting in Brussels (see picture).
Writing on his social media page on Sunday evening, Ratas said that: "Finland is our close friend and companion, with whom all of Estonia's government has worked with good and close cooperation."
"This has not been affected by what kind of democratic parties belong to, or are run by, the coalitions in both countries."
"I personally had a very good cooperation with both the previous two prime minister of Finland (Antti RInne and Juha Sipilä-ed.), as well as positive initial contacts with their new government leader already."
"Last time, I discussed with Sanna Marin our common interests in the EU and closer Nordic-Baltic cooperation, on Thursday, prior to the European Council [session]."
"I am looking forward to a meaningful and honest cooperation with our Finnish professional members from all members of the Estonian government," Ratas added.
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