(Bloomberg) -- Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas ended her 16-month governing coalition after weeks of political squabbling, saying she’ll seek to form a new alliance as the Baltic nation confronts its biggest security threat in decades. 

“Estonia needs a stable government that can deal with the great challenges facing the country,” Kallas, the 44-year-old leader whose popularity has soared with her hard line on President Vladimir Putin, said in a statement on her website on Friday. 

The moves comes hours after the Estonian president, who holds a largely ceremonial role, urged the ruling party members to drop their differences or find a new alignment. The standoff in Tallinn had hobbled the ability of the nation, which shares a border with Russia, to confront the threat posed by the invasion of Ukraine, he said. 

Kallas responded by firing her cabinet members belonging to the Centre Party under former premier Juri Ratas, who had unilaterally sought legislation Kallas rejected. Kallas said she’ll instead seek to form a majority with Estonia’s Social Democrats, who immediately said they’re open to talks, and the nationalist Pro Patria party. 

The premier had struggled to end the crisis. During a meeting with European Union leaders this week, she pledged to pull the plug on the coalition if Ratas’s party pushed through legislation without her consent. That draft bill later cleared a key hurdle, while Ratas’s faction rejected a separate bill that had already been agreed on with Kallas’s Reform Party. 

The legislative jousting was too much for Kallas, who cited divisions within the Centre Party, with whom Kallas has governed since January 2021. Should Kallas’s attempt fail, Ratas would have an avenue to form a government with Pro Patria and the far-right EKRE party. 

The political maneuvering would put off any early election, with the next contest scheduled for 2023 at the latest. But if a vote were held in the near term, polls show Kallas’s popularity would lift Reform. A June 1 Norstat survey showed 34.7% of voters backing Reform, well ahead of Centre at 16.3%. EKRE would come in second with 19.4%. 

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