Estonian Center Party refuses to form coalition with Reform Party

The Estonian Center Party, the major party in the current ruling coalition, on Friday rejected the offer to form a new coalition with the election-winning Reform Party.

Juri Ratas, incumbent Estonian Prime Minister and chairman of Center winning 26 seats after Reform's 34 seats out of the total 101 parliamentary seats, said that the Center Party board decided not to launch coalition talks with Reform due to differences of opinion on tax matters, the red line issue, the Estonian Public Broadcasting Corporation reported.

Ratas noted that his party board Friday morning held one of the most complicated and serious meetings they had ever had, which pushed the ball back in Reform's court to face the difficult task to form a coalition government.

The board of the Reform Party decided on Wednesday to invite the Center Party to launch coalition talks, and Kaja Kallas, chairwoman of Reform later insisted on her party's promise to extend the 500 euros (about 561 U.S. dollars) per month basic income tax exemption to everyone.

Reform's planned tax reform was alleged not to allow for Center's planned extraordinary pension hike, it was reported.

In the parliamentary election held on Sunday, three other political parties out of the total five elected to the 14th Estonian parliament are Conservative People's Party, Isamaa Party and Social Democratic Party, winning 19 seats, 12 seats and 10 seats separately.

Both Isamaa and the Social Democrats are in the current coalition with the Center Party, and was in the coalition with the Reform Party in 2015.