Estonia: The only country in the world led by women elected by vote

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With President Kersti Kaljulaid and the recent appointment of Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, Estonia has become the first country in the world to be currently led by two women who were elected to their positions, report local media.

Although New Zealand, Barbados and Denmark have female heads, in their cases one of them is a monarch. Instead, the two Estonian civil servants are the decision of the citizens, who have opted for a 46.7% female representation in the cabinet of the new Government.

In 2016, Kalijulaid took over as the country's first president since its independence in 1991. And Kallas was sworn in on Tuesday, January 26, as Prime Minister, after his center-right Reform Party reached an agreement with the Center Party, of the president.

The decision is due to the fact that the previous prime minister, Juri Ratas , was involved on January 13 in a corruption scandal: the alleged donation that an official received in exchange for a favor in the regulation of real estate in the port district of Tallinn, the capital of the country.

We will rebuild our relationships with our allies, our neighbors, and we will try to restore our name as a good country to invest in, Kallas told Reuters after being sworn in. The official will be part of a government with 14 other ministers, half of them women, such as Keit Pentus-Rosimannus, Minister of Finance, and Eva-María Liimets, of Foreign Relations, among others.

"The idea behind the composition of my Government is to achieve a balance between men, women, experience and novelty"added Kallas, 43, a lawyer and former European parliamentarian.

The decision to nominate her did not surprise anyone, her party won the 2019 general elections and she was its leader from the previous year. And although the Center Party made a political maneuver by which it formed a coalition with other forces - the Conservative Party of the People, on the far right, and Patria, on the right populist - the situation changed during 2020 in this nation of almost 1.5 millions of inhabitants.

Kallas' main challenge will be to control the worsening of the COVID-19 pandemic , rather than corruption in this Baltic country. In addition to the health situation, the economic crisis has recently deepened.

It is not yet known how long the conjunction of women in power will last, since the presidential elections will be held in Estonia in September. For its part,Kaljulaid has not reported whether or not he will stand for re-election.