Kaia Callas: A woman at the head of NATO for the first time – everything we need to know about the 45-year-old

his tenure Jens Stoltenberg In the NATO It ends on September 30, 2023, and next June the coalition will elect its successor.

NATO member states and their leaders have already begun to think Anyone is the right person To take the helm at a difficult time for the entire planet.

Mario Draghi’s name “plays” out loud, while Kaia Callas is a candidate for general secretary.

This is the 45-year-old Prime Minister of Estonia, who stands by Ukraine and strongly condemns the Russian invasion. “Only Russia’s defeat in the Ukraine war can bring peace,” he says.

Indeed, since February when Moscow invaded the Ukrainian lands, Tallinn has been helping Kyiv in its own way. To date, Estonia has provided the largest international military assistance to Ukraine in proportion to its GDP.

In particular, he provided money and equipment equal to 1% of GDP, while constantly urging NATO to take a tougher stance against Vladimir Putin, stressing that he represents the most urgent threat to European security at the moment.

So who is Kaia Callas?

She was born in Tallinn on June 18, 1977, the daughter of Sim Kallas, who served as the 14th Prime Minister of Estonia and later European Commissioner. During the Soviet deportations from Estonia, her mother Kristi, then six months old, was deported to Siberia with her mother and grandmother in a cattle cart and remained there until she was 10 years old.

Her grandfather was Eduard Alfer, one of the founders of the Republic of Estonia on February 24, 1918 and the first chief of the Estonian Police from 1918 to May 24, 1919.

Graduated from the University of Tartu in 1999 with a law degree. Since 2007 he has attended Estonian Business School and obtained his MBA in 2010.

Before entering the world of politics, Klass worked as a lawyer.

In 2011 he became a member of the Reform Party and in the same year was elected to the Estonian Parliament where he headed the Committee on Economic Affairs until 2014.

In 2014 she was a candidate for the European Parliament and received 21,498 votes. In Brussels, he dealt with the EU’s digital single market strategy, consumer policy, and energy issues, as well as the union’s relations with Ukraine.

She has championed the rights of small and medium businesses, maintaining that boundaries in the digital world prevent the emergence of innovative companies. He has supported (and continues to support) innovation and has often emphasized that regulations cannot and should not impede the technological revolution.

It is noteworthy that Politico magazine chose in 2019 as one of the 40 MEPs “who were important in the period 2014-2019”. Politico noted that “Callas, a competitive lawyer, shone during her tenure as a Member of the European Parliament, developing a high profile in the technical debates that dominated the Parliament’s agenda.”

In late 2017, the Islah party was in turmoil. A year ago, he lost the elections and for the first time since 1999 he did not participate in the government after the Christian Democrats and Social Democrats formed a coalition.

Taavi Ruivas, Prime Minister of Estonia from 2014 to 2016, resigned as party leader and was replaced by Hanno Pevkor. However, conflicts within the party forced him to leave. He announced that he would not run for party leadership in January 2018 and suggested that Callas replace him. This is what happened.

On March 3, 2019, the Reform Party led by Kallas won about 29% of the vote, while the ruling Center Party got close to 23% of the vote.

He was expected to become prime minister, but Yuri Ratas’ party with Ismaa and EKRE managed to form a government coalition, which lasted until January 13, 2021, when it collapsed. Now, it was Kala’s turn to take over the reins of the country.

Thus, on January 26, 2021, she became the first female Prime Minister of Estonia.

In the “Upcoming and Upcoming 100” list

In September 2022, Time magazine included the Estonian prime minister in its annual “Time100 Next” list.

This is a list of “100 rising stars from different fields and from all over the world”. The work of the characters included in it is described by their friends or colleagues in one paragraph.

Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin wrote, among other things, about the 45-year-old politician: “I was first contacted by Kaia Kallas a few hours after she took office as Prime Minister of Estonia in January 2021. Since then, we have been working closely together, promoting Our bilateral relations as well as those within the European Union.We share an ambitious climate policy agenda and a shift in our energy policy, focusing on renewables while reducing our dependence on Russian fossil energy.

Kalas is a strong voice within the union, having supported Finland’s candidacy for NATO membership. She herself leads her country with a strong European faith, which will undoubtedly become even stronger with the common defense of our region. ”