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Statement by the President of the Republic calling the election to the Riigikogu, 10th parliamentary term, on November 26, 200226.11.2002
After having just signed the resolution to call the election to the Riigikogu, the 10th parliamentary term, I would like to stress the following points:
The existence of a parliament and its direct, uniform and regular re-election belong to the basic attributes of a democracy.
An election, rather than being an act of measuring the might of political parties contesting for electors' mandate, is this very exercise of rights guaranteed to the people by the Constitution. However, this right can be enjoyed only in the case that the voters are properly informed. Therefore, I would like to urge leaders of our political parties and public figures to prevent from recurring what we had to witness during the last local elections, when the dialogue between political parties and the people frequently turned into a trial of strength between advertising agencies and image-managers.
The run-up to the election should become a time filled with serious debates about the basic questions of Estonian life, the most important of which, in my view, are as follows:
How to avert the demographic crisis threatening Estonia?
How to combine the liberal market economy with a wide network of social guarantees?
Which decisive steps should be taken to ensure the sustainability of the Estonian education system?
How to safeguard a sustainable and functional use of land considering free movement of capital?
How to preserve in Estonia the environment reproducing the traditional Estonian way of life?
What should be done for our national culture in the face of cheap mass culture`s offensive?
How to restore between the people and their representative body the trust having plummeted over the last years?
What measures should be taken to safeguard the security of both Estonia`s own residents and our guests?
How to enhance the cohesion of Estonian society?
I have listed only some of our basic questions. Yet, clear-cut answers to these questions would create prerequisites for concluding a new national accord, which at the same time would signal our willingness to carry through our shared will for the sake of a sustainable and balanced development of Estonia.
I do hope that the new membership of the Riigikogu to be elected in a few months` time would proceed on these very basic values, which have helped our people throughout times to live a happier and richer life. I also hope the political culture in Estonia to become more tolerant and to give our national interests priority over personal and group interests.
The next Riigikogu, in all probability, is going to become parliament of a member state of both the European Union and NATO. With it, the right to a say, but also the duty to take responsibilities of every voter and those elected will expand. I believe that the people will not fail to use the opportunity of selecting as their representatives individuals whom they can safely entrust with leading Estonia for the next four years, individuals whose promises would not exceed the sum of their capabilities.
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