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 | Speeches | | |
The President of the Republic Welcoming Address to the Finnish Eduskunta on November 20, 200120.11.2001
Dear Mrs. Speaker,
Besides other qualities uniting the Finnish Eduskunta and the Estonian Riigikogu to all the people's representations of the democratic world, they have one more trait in common - both our legislative bodies are situated on hilltops: the Eduskunta on the Arkadia Hill and the Riigikogu at Toompea.
In reality these hills are merely conditional, but this only underlines their great symbolic significance in the history and also in the present day of our nations. You see - one ascends to these hills. For people's representatives in Finland and in Estonia, being elected is like being lifted up to the Parnassus. Parliament is indeed the Parnassus of power, and as we know from ancient Greece, Delphi was situated on the south-western border of the Parnassus. The rostrums of the Eduskunta and the Riigikogu are a distant echo of the oracles of Delphi.
One ascends to the hills to proclaim the truth and the laws. This is the privilege of people's representatives. Both the Eduskunta and the Riigikogu have issued laws and proclamations that have shaped the fate of our nations.
I remember myself and my colleagues in Estonia ten years ago, when the Estonian Riigikogu declared Estonia's independence to be restored on August 20, 1991. But in everyday life, our responsibility to our past and our future is often dispersed. Pondering over the paragraphs of laws tends to make a routine job out of the work of people's representatives; it becomes a means for earning one's daily bread like any other profession. And yet, for the people, the privileges of the delegates are still there.
You, Mrs. Chairman, have in your speeches constantly emphasised the sacred duty of the people's representatives to their electors.
The people's trust in their representative body is not only tested on the election day. Democracy must prove itself every day and through all institutions of government. The Finnish Eduskunta, to whom passionate disputes over the state budget and the amendment of existing legislation are by no means unknown, has been admired for its high political culture: if a decision has been passed, it has also become a fact respected by all political powers.
Mrs. Speaker, dear Chairmen of the Committees of the Eduskunta. Once more, I would like to return to the simile of hills I at the beginning of my speech. The fact that the Eduskunta is at the Arkadia Hill and the Riigikogu at Toompea, proves how important our peoples have considered their bodies of representatives, to give them residence on hills. It ought to be our daily care to deserve this trust, the expectations and the hopes of the people. I have not the slightest doubt that the Finnish Eduskunta is capable of this.
I wish the representative bodies of both our countries a lot of strength and a patient mind in creating such a social and state legislation framework that would enable our nations to feel free and safe.
In Finnish:
Viron Tasavallan presidentti Arnold Rüütel Eduskunnassa 20. marraskuuta 2001
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