By Months: Tõnis Lukas
Total Months: 19
Fully Profiled: 19
10.2025
1 Speeches
Economic perspectives advocate for increased public sector spending on education, focusing particularly on raising teachers' salaries and increasing the proportion allocated to the differentiation fund. The speaker criticizes the government's failure to demonstrate long-term fiscal discipline when budgeting for these essential expenditures within the State Budget Strategy.
09.2025
10 Speeches
Economic perspectives focus on labor market regulation, demanding stricter language proficiency requirements in the service sector and in new forms of employment (platform work, temporary agency labor). It is emphasized that the absence of language requirements fosters the understanding that the Estonian language is unnecessary.
06.2025
47 Speeches
Economic viewpoints center on the state providing financial guarantees (minimum teacher salaries, basic funding for science) and systematic infrastructure planning aimed at preventing waste. Regarding the labor market, the preferred solution for the labor shortage is improving the employment of people of retirement age, while maintaining skepticism toward large-scale immigration.
05.2025
11 Speeches
The speaker is firmly opposed to importing cheap labor from third countries, arguing that it drives down wages and forces local people to emigrate. He stresses that for the economy to function properly, it is vital to ensure adequate birth rates, and the labor market must be secured by relying on our own people. He also criticizes the unequal distribution of investments and government institutions, which concentrates taxpayer-created jobs in Tallinn.
04.2025
4 Speeches
Strongly advocates for market economy principles and opposes state subsidies in economic sectors where investments should be recovered directly from consumers. Supports increasing tax incentives for philanthropy and extending benefits to cover donations made to the Cultural Endowment (Kultuurkapital), in order to attract private funding into culture and sports.
03.2025
20 Speeches
The economic platform focuses on protecting domestic labor and wage levels. They are strongly opposed to increasing the quota for foreign workers, arguing that it would drive down wages. They support the current requirement that foreign specialists must be paid at least 1.5 times the average salary, and they criticize employers who are unwilling to pay market-rate wages. Furthermore, they criticize routine budget cuts that affect priority social sectors.
02.2025
16 Speeches
He/She strongly supports increasing defense spending and rapidly developing the defense industry, viewing this as an opportunity to manufacture both for the domestic market and for export. He/She is skeptical of the savings figures cited for the education reform (300,000 euros), noting that the calculations show that such a large sum will not actually materialize. He/She stresses the necessity of guaranteeing adequate salaries and social benefits for Defense Forces specialists.
01.2025
5 Speeches
Economic viewpoints center on national defense expenditures, strongly advocating for their increase to the 5% GDP level to ensure the country's defense capability. Concern is expressed that new legislation could be used to import cheap labor, which suggests a cautious attitude regarding the economic motives of migration.
12.2024
10 Speeches
The speaker underscores the need to secure additional financing for massive reforms, criticizing the underfunding of vocational education and the practice of implementing changes at the expense of internal reserves. He considers culture an indispensable driving engine for the economy and the tourism sector, criticizing its classification into the "leisure category."
11.2024
26 Speeches
Supports reducing state administrative expenditures to fund priority sectors such as education and culture, offering this reduction as a source of coverage for proposed budget amendments. It criticizes the cumulative impact of tax hikes (e.g., the car tax) and demands that the objective of reducing bureaucracy be met. It supports the tax exemption for land beneath one's home, dismissing claims that this would stifle the economy.
10.2024
12 Speeches
The speaker is fiscally prudent, criticizing the zero-based budget as unproductive busywork that fails to deliver savings, and demanding responsiveness to shifts in economic forecasts. They are strongly opposed to the importation of labor when it involves acquiring low-wage workers, a practice which drives down local wages. Furthermore, they support raising teachers' salaries and criticize taxes that exacerbate regional disparities.
09.2024
9 Speeches
The economic positions, within the context of the budget debate, center on equalizing the salary conditions for culture and education workers, referencing previous paired initiatives. Furthermore, there is an emphasis on the need to protect consumers from the bureaucratic pressure and profit-driven focus of state-owned monopolistic enterprises (such as Elektrilevi).
07.2024
13 Speeches
The speaker opposes new taxes, particularly the car tax, viewing it as a budget-filling measure that disproportionately burdens families in rural areas. Criticism is also leveled at the postponement of abolishing the tax bulge, which negatively impacts teachers' salary increases. Furthermore, questions are being asked about the plans to dismantle the funding basis of the Cultural Endowment of Estonia (Kultuurkapital).
06.2024
5 Speeches
The speaker points out that proficiency in Estonian is essential for the economic advancement of children from non-Estonian-speaking homes within Estonian society, but no direct stance is taken on taxes, the budget, or trade.
05.2024
23 Speeches
Supports fiscal discipline and demands a negative supplementary budget to cut administrative costs, citing the overextension of state administration. He criticizes the government for failing to deliver on the promised teacher salary increase and considers Tallinn's income tax revenue a privilege afforded to the capital. He opposes the interests of entrepreneurs (such as Bolt) that obstruct the implementation of language requirements in the service sector.
04.2024
23 Speeches
Economic views call for stable and increased state funding for education, contrasting this with the use of one-off sums to cover teachers' salaries. The speaker is strongly opposed to importing cheap labor by raising the immigration quota, asserting that this will not solve the shortage of top specialists but will instead create social problems. The necessity of reducing consumption and waste in the context of climate policy is also briefly mentioned.
03.2024
19 Speeches
The economic viewpoints center on public sector wage policy, specifically demanding that teachers' salaries be raised to 120% of the Estonian average wage, as stipulated in the coalition agreement. The speaker considers education spending (which makes up a significant portion of the GDP) a worthy and necessary investment. Furthermore, the government is criticized for failing to fund its budgetary promises.
02.2024
13 Speeches
The speaker is strongly opposed to raising the immigration quota, arguing that it is designed to import "cheap labor," which puts downward pressure on the wages of Estonian employees and increases unemployment. They also oppose the proposed car tax, deeming it detrimental to the economy and the financial well-being of the populace. The priority is the protection of domestic labor and wages.
01.2024
17 Speeches
Economic perspectives focus on the necessity of state investments in education and research to ensure competitive salaries for highly educated specialists and stable funding for science. Support is given to adhering to the agreement to fund science at 1% of GDP, but the impact of the 40:40:20 distribution on basic research is criticized. Opposition is voiced against creating an "immigration pump" for lower-skilled jobs, but the attraction of foreign researchers and "brains" (talent) is supported.