1. Kaja Kallas was the first female prime minister of Estonia, a role she held from 2021 until 2024, when she resigned in advance of her appointment as High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.
57 Facts About Kaja Kallas
1. 2.
Kaja Kallas's mother, Kristi Kallas, nee Kartus, is a physician.
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Kaja Kallas has an elder brother, Ulo Kaja Kallas, a financial executive.
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Kaja Kallas's mother was allowed to return to Soviet-occupied Estonia in 1959.
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Apart from Estonian, Kaja Kallas patrilineally has some distant Latvian and German ancestry, as discovered by journalists researching her father's family roots after his premiership.
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Kaja Kallas attended primary school at the Tallinn Lillekula Gymnasium and secondary school at the Tallinn Secondary School No 7.
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Kaja Kallas graduated from the University of Tartu in 1999 with a bachelor's degree in law.
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In 2007, Kaja Kallas began studying towards a Master of Business Administration at the Estonian Business School, which she did not complete.
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Kaja Kallas went on to obtain a one-year Executive Master of Business Administration from EBS in 2010.
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From 1996 to 1997, Kaja Kallas worked as advisor to the director of Vanemuine Theatre in Tartu.
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Kaja Kallas became a member of the Estonian Bar Association in 1999, and an attorney-at-law in 2002.
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Kaja Kallas worked as an executive coach at the Estonian Business School.
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Between 2003 and 2010, Kaja Kallas was a council member of several Estonian private and public limited companies: LHV-Seesam Varahaldus, Pakri Tuulepark, Viru-Nigula Tuulepark, Hiiumaa Offshore Tuulepark, Paldiski Tuulepark, Tooma Tuulepark, Roheline Ring Tuulepargid, Biofond and 4E Tehnoinvest.
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In 2008, Kaja Kallas was a board member of Nelja Energia.
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From 2009 to 2010, Kaja Kallas was a board member of the Estonian Wind Power Association.
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Kaja Kallas was a member of the 12th Parliament of Estonia and chaired the Economic Affairs Committee from 2011 to 2014.
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Kaja Kallas is a proponent of innovation and frequently emphasises that regulations cannot and must not hinder the technological revolution.
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Kaja Kallas served as rapporteur for six reports: opinion on the ePrivacy Regulation, civil law rules on robotics, on the Annual report on EU Competition Policy, and on Delivering a New Deal for Energy Consumers, legislation on Custom infringements and sanctions, and the own-initiative report on the Digital Single Market.
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In November 2018, Kaja Kallas published her memoir MEP: 4 aastat Euroopa Parlamendis, in which she described her life and work in Brussels from 2014 to 2018.
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On 13 December 2017, the Reform Party leader Hanno Pevkur announced that he would no longer run for the party leadership in January 2018, and suggested that Kaja Kallas should run instead.
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Kaja Kallas won the leadership election held on 14 April 2018 and became the first female leader of a major political party in Estonia.
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On 14 November 2020, Kaja Kallas was re-elected as leader of the Reform Party at a Reform Party Assembly.
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In June 2021, Kaja Kallas confronted German Chancellor Angela Merkel at a European Council meeting opposing Merkel's plan to invite Russia's President Vladimir Putin to a summit of European leaders.
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Later in the year Kaja Kallas stated that Russian military pressure should not influence the decision of which countries can join the European Union or NATO, and she did not like US President Biden's outreach to Putin.
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Kaja Kallas initially resisted calls for government aid, suggesting that the government should search for long-term solutions rather than handing out benefits, and that a free market should not require consistent government intervention to keep people afloat.
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Kaja Kallas observed in a speech that the high cost of natural gas coupled with the Russian invasion of Ukraine was driving the increase in energy prices, and that the green energy measures Estonia adopted limited what the government could do to handle the crisis.
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In January 2022, Kaja Kallas announced a 245 million euro plan to reduce the cost of energy from September 2021 to March 2022.
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Kaja Kallas stated that Europe's dependence on Russian natural gas was a significant political problem.
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In January 2022, Kaja Kallas committed Estonia to donating howitzers to Ukraine to assist in its defence against a possible Russian invasion, pending German approval as the howitzers were originally purchased from Germany.
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Kaja Kallas was praised domestically for her leadership during the Russia-Ukraine crisis.
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Kaja Kallas pledged to support Ukraine with political and materiel support.
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Kaja Kallas has been praised both in Estonia and internationally as a leading pro-Ukrainian voice in the war, with the New Statesman calling her "Europe's New Iron Lady".
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Kaja Kallas strongly supported the admission of Ukraine to the European Union, saying that there was "a moral duty" to do so.
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On 3 June 2022, Kaja Kallas dismissed all Centre Party ministers, after the Centre Party had sided with the opposition to vote down the preschool education bill, that would have made teaching Estonian language mandatory in preschool.
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Kaja Kallas symbolically resigned on 14 July 2022, to form a new coalition with Social Democratic Party and Isamaa.
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Kaja Kallas rejected any peace agreement that would cede part of Ukrainian territory to Russia.
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In March 2023, Kaja Kallas led the Reform Party to a decisive victory in the 2023 parliamentary election, increasing the party's seat count in the Riigikogu by three seats.
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Kaja Kallas is a transatlanticist and was frequently named as a potential candidate to succeed Jens Stoltenberg as Secretary General of NATO, a role she has expressed interest in.
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Kaja Kallas supported the legislation to remove Soviet-era monuments that glorified the Communist terror regime and the Soviet invasion of Estonia during World War II.
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Kaja Kallas later admitted to her husband's share in the company, but denied wrongdoing on the part of herself or her husband and stated that the company's business in Russia was to assist an Estonian client, identified by the Estonian media as the company Metaprint, end its production in Russia, adding that "not a single euro, dollar or ruble" was spent in Russia as part of the activity.
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Kaja Kallas collaborated with sanctioned individuals, such as Polish-sanctioned Sergei Kolesnikov.
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Kaja Kallas continued to refuse to resign in September 2023, calling the controversy a "witch-hunt" by political opponents.
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On 13 February 2024, the Government of Russia issued a statement that Kaja Kallas had been put on the Russian interior ministry's list of wanted criminals.
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Kaja Kallas is the first head of government known to be added to the register by Russian authorities.
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Kaja Kallas dismissed the warrant as a "scare tactic" by Russia.
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On 28 June 2024, Kaja Kallas was nominated to become High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.
47.
On 1 December 2024, her first day in office as High Representative, Kaja Kallas visited Ukraine along with European Council President Antonio Costa and Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos.
48.
Kaja Kallas expressed strong support for a Ukrainian victory, stating that "the European Union wants Ukraine to win this war".
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On 20 February 2025, Kaja Kallas expressed doubts about Donald Trump's attempts to negotiate a peace deal in the Russia-Ukraine war, warning that "if we are giving everything on the plate to the aggressor, it sends a signal to all the aggressors in the world that you can do this".
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Kaja Kallas welcomed the ceasefire agreement between Israel and the militant group Hamas.
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On 24 February 2025, Kaja Kallas announced that the EU lifted sanctions against Syria in some key sectors, such as energy, transport, and banking.
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From 2002 to 2006, Kaja Kallas was married to Roomet Leiger.
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Kaja Kallas lived together with former finance minister and businessman Taavi Veskimagi.
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Apart from her native Estonian, Kaja Kallas is fluent in English, Finnish, Russian and French.
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Kaja Kallas is known for reading history books, and is friends with historians Timothy Garton Ash and Timothy Snyder.
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Since 2020, Kaja Kallas has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the Friends of Europe.
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Kaja Kallas is a mentor of the European Liberal Youth, a member of the European Young Leaders, a MEP ambassor of Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs, a member of the MEP Library Lovers Group, a political member of the European Internet Forum, a member of the extended board of the European Forum for Renewable Energy Sources, a member of the Global Young Leaders, a member of the Women Political Leaders, and a MEP ambassador of the European Entrepreneurship Education Network.