While the state budget strategy for 2022-2025, which austerity measures totaling cuts of €61 million in a year, may have passed government approval this week, the document is interim in nature and unlikely to form a solid basis for government activities going forward, senior ERR journalists Anvar Samost and Toomas Sildam say.
"For these cuts to total €61 million in a year seems artificial and pointless in the extreme," Anvar Samost said Sunday afternoon, appearing on regular head-to-head politics radio talk show "Samost ja Sildam".
"The whole effort undertaken in order to demonstrate how swingeing the cuts are is a type of self-delusion, regardless of which side of things the government looks at. As former long-term prime minister and former Reform Party chair Andrus Ansip told ERR yesterday, this €60 million in cuts will not affect the bigger picture, and there is no point talking about a balanced budget," he went on.