Estonian parliament fails to pass vote of no confidence in PM Michal

TALLINN. Feb 12 (Interfax) - The parliament of Estonia has failed to pass a vote of no confidence in Prime Minister Kristen Michal initiated by three opposition parties out of the six parties holding the parliamentary seats on Wednesday.

A total of 28 parliamentarians voted for the opposition's proposal, while the members of the ruling coalition did not participate in the voting. There are 101 seats in total in the Estonian parliament. The opposition needed at least 51 votes for the vote of no confidence to pass.

The opposition put the blame for Estonian residents being forced to pay over a billion euros in new taxes due to a drastic increase of the fiscal burden upon the prime minister.

The premier was also accused of lying about his role in the decision-making regarding the funding of the now-bankrupt Nordica national airline.

Isamaa party leader Urmas Reinsalu, speaking at the parliamentary session on behalf of the opposition, said that the policy of Michal's government "does not meet the people's interests." "The most of the society does not trust your fundamental decisions because of their content. [...] The government violated not only the legal legitimacy, but also the legitimacy of trust," he said, addressing the prime minister.

"Subsidized energy solutions imposed on the public will result in high costs of electricity and risks of reliability of supplies and energy security for the entire generation," Reinsalu said.