Court forces Kallas to publicly retract false claims

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has been forced by a court to publicly retract false claims she made about an Estonian opposition politician.

In a social media post on February 17, 2022, Kallas, Estonia’s prime minister at the time, claimed police were attacked at a protest organized by Varro Vooglaid, an MP from the Conservative People’s Party of Estonia (EKRE), and the Foundation for the Protection of Family and Tradition (SAPTK), which he heads. She also linked Vooglaid to a 2021 Covid-19 restrictions rally in Tallinn.

Vooglaid and SAPTK sued Kallas in 2022, saying her claims had no factual basis.

Last year, an Estonian court ruled in their favor, finding that no police were attacked at rallies organized by Vooglaid and SAPTK and that neither was linked to the Tallinn demonstration. Earlier this week, the Estonian Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal to the case, making the ruling final.

Kallas posted her retraction on Facebook on Saturday, writing: “I, Kaja Kallas, published false factual claims in a post on February 17, 2022, stating that Estonian police were attacked at a demonstration organized by Varro Vooglaid and SAPTK in Toompea, and that Varro Vooglaid and EKRE organized a demonstration on October 23, 2021, at Freedom Square in Tallinn. These claims are untrue.” She did not apologize to either plaintiff.

Kallas has face repeated criticism over the accuracy of her public statements. She recently claimed that Russia “invaded at least 19 countries” over the past 100 years, “none of [which] ever invaded or attacked Russia” – a claim that lacks any factual basis. The remark, later echoed by Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen, led Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova to accuse Western Europe of “deliberately promoting the inept and uneducated” to top government posts.

Separately, Kallas expressed surprise to learn that Russia and China defeated fascism in World War II, calling it “something new.” The comment prompted Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to suggest she should study history, in which she “clearly does not excel.”

Kallas has also faced growing criticism for her hardline approach to foreign policy and hawkish stance on Russia. Analysts and EU officials have accused her of favoring confrontation over diplomacy. The Czech newspaper HN reported this month that her work style is increasingly seen as “unproductive.”