Juhan Parts

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Juhan Parts, 2003

Juhan Parts (born 27 August 1966 in Tallinn) is a former Prime Minister of Estonia, and former chairman of the Res Publica Party.

1 Education
2 Career
3 Personal life
4 External links

[edit] Education

Juhan Parts completed Gustavus Adolphus Grammar School in Tallinn (then Tallinn Secondary School No. 1). Afterwards, he studied law at the University of Tartu in Tartu, Estonia.

[edit] Career

After completing his university education, Parts instantly joined the Ministry of Justice. He soon became known as a young, dynamic figure who wanted to push for reforms. As an ally of Deputy Minister Mihkel Oviir, he was appointed Auditor General in the spring of 1998. He held this office until 2002. From this virtually unimpeachable office, unique in the Estonian Constitution, he frequently criticised the government and became somewhat of a popular figure in Estonian politics.

Parts became the chairman of a new party, called Res Publica, which he was instrumental in starting. It is an ideology-free, largely technocratic party which can be described as an economically liberal party of young administrators. Res Publica now is a member of the right-of-centre European People's Party organisation.

In the Riigikogu (Estonian parliament) elections in 2003, Parts surprisingly gained a majority among the right-of-centre parties, and as a result, he was charged to form a new government coalition and became Prime Minister of Estonia. The new government took office on 10 April 2003.

On 24 March 2005, Parts stepped down as Prime Minister after a vote of no confidence against Minister of Justice Ken-Marti Vaher had passed the Riigikogu. Vaher had established a quota system of how many civil servants had to be prosecuted every year (per county), which is seen as reminiscent of Stalinist purges by many Estonians, a measure that Parts had endorsed.

Parts' term as Prime Minister officially ended on 12 April 2005 when the Riigikogu confirmed his successor Andrus Ansip.

[edit] Personal life

He has been married to judge Merle Parts and has a son Toomas-Hendrik and a daughter Pille-Riin from that marriage. He is currently involved with Daisy Tauk, a lawyer who is some 10 years younger.