Every day I ask myself, “So, what government will fall today?” Because literally, in 2005, that’s what seems to be happening. Estonia is no exception.

TALLINN, Estonia — Estonia’s prime minister announced his resignation and dissolved his government Monday after lawmakers said they had no confidence in his justice minister because of a controversial anti-corruption plan.

Prime Minister Juhan Parts, 38, said the government coalition could no longer effectively lead the ex-Soviet Baltic country of 1.4 million people.

“The time of this government is over,” Parts said in remarks to the Riikogu, or parliament, adding that his resignation would take effect Thursday.

The unexpected move came after legislators approved a no-confidence motion against Justice Minister Ken-Marti Vaher. They had wanted Vaher to step down because of his unpopular proposal to set up a system of quotas for the number of corruption cases regional prosecutors would have to meet annually.

The prime minister has stood by Vaher, praising his work and saying he did nothing to deserve losing his post. The no-confidence motion was approved by 54 legislators, with 32 abstaining and 15 absent.

After Parts’ resignation takes effect, President Arnold Ruutel will have two weeks to nominate a prime minister, who then would have to present a Cabinet to parliament for approval.

Parts, who leads the Res Publica party, told reporters Monday afternoon he would work to form a new government.

“Work is in progress, there is much to do, and at present the president holds the reins to give powers to the right person,” he said, voicing the hope the next government will manage to steer Estonia until general elections scheduled for 2007.

He said Res Publica, the Reform Party and the Pro Patria Union could try to forge a new center-right coalition.

“Our values are some distance apart, but I wouldn’t say it’s impossible. We are Christians, we have to know how to forgive, and time is bound to take care of everything,” the outgoing premier said.

Parts took office two years ago and helped shepherd Estonia into the European Union and NATO, which the country joined last year.

He had pledged to bring a new style of politics to the country – more open, honest and responsible. He also said he would have zero tolerance for corrupt officials, but many lawmakers said they believed Vaher’s proposed quota system harkened back to the Soviet era.

It says at the beginning of the article that the controversy surrounds the Justice Minister, who was recently voted no-confidence. The quota system he was going to apply was that a certain amount of officials had to be investigated for corruption each month. People likened it to the Soviet Union, of which I doubt it positively correct. Note, however, that Prime Minister Juhan Parts was not voted no-confidence; he dissolved the cabinet himself. This is widely seen has sticking with his man, and he has hinted on being prepared to step up to the job to form a new cabinet.

Scott from Baltic Blog notes that this event highlights the friction between the governing coalition.

The events that have precipitated this is friction between the two main governing coalitions, Parts’ Res Publica party and the Reform Party.
…
The two parties haven’t been getting along the last couple months since Parts demanded, and got, the resignation of foreign minister Kristina Ojuland, also from the Reform Party. Secret documents disappeared during Ojuland’s watch from the foreign ministry. She didn’t help her cause by missing the funeral of Georgia’s prime minister, even though she was in the country

Instead she flew back early so she could act as a studio groupie for Estonia’s runoff contest for this year’s Eurovision song contest. Not exactly the kind of diplomat Estonia’s looking for in its foreign minister.

The country’s new foreign minister is Rein Lang. But with elections less than a year away, whatever comes out of this new coalition government will probably be in a caretaker role.

I found an article with the latest polling data concerning the party’s stature for parliamentary elections, scheduled for March 2007. They are quite a long way off, but this shows relative popularity at the moment amid this resignation.

(Angus Reid Consultants – CPOD Global Scan) ???????? The Estonian Reform Party (ER) is the top political organization in the Baltic nation, according to a poll by TNS Emor. 19 per cent of respondents would support the ER in the next parliamentary election.

The Estonian Centre Party (KESK) is in second place with 17 per cent, followed by the Social Democratic Party (SDE) and the Fatherland Union (EI) with eight per cent each; and the Estonian People????????s Union (ER) and the Union for the Republic – Res Publica (RP) with six per cent. The next election is tentatively scheduled for March 2007.

Interesting that the now ex-Prime Minister’s party is the lowest on that list. Finally, it needs to be noted that no government except for one has lasted in Estonia for more than two years since the breakup of the Soviet Union.

UPDATE: Tim in the comments notes:

Estonia????????s government falling is not part of the dominos falling. Estonia is one of the few post soviet republics with a functioning democracy that actually elects governments without fraud. What you are reporting is, essentially, the normal functioning of a parliamentary democracy.

And Eugene Volokh points out humorously:

“The Government Has Collapsed” can have very different meanings. The goal of many emerging parliamentary democracies, I think, is for citizens to be able to say “The government has collapsed. Now, which movie do you want to go see tomorrow?,” rather than “The government has collapsed; what street are the tanks coming down?” (or even “The government has collapsed; those 100,000 protesters on the main square did a great job”).

I much hope that the Estonian government’s collapse is of the (say) modern Western European variety.

Yes, to clear up any confusion about this (if there was any), this is of the Western European type. No protests, no tanks, no dominoes. Just the parliament readily reacting to the desires of its constituents.