President of the Republic upon Acceptance of the Song Festival Fire in Kadriorg on July 3, 1999
03.07.1999

Dear Estonian singers! Men, women, children and today also the Tori horses here in the yard of the Kadriorg Palace. First of all I would like to thank you for keeping this fire and for carrying it all through Estonia; for taking it up to the tower now where it can break into flames.

I have my own relationship with fire. Right now I hope and pray for this fire to keep burning in the hearts of all Estonians. Today and tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow, when the fire has been extinguished and we go back to work. For this sacred fire to warm us when it is cold. For it to show us the solutions when it is dark. That it would unite us around a common fire when we feel that there are too few of us and we are weak. In the glow of this fire we will show what being together means. And I am especially pleased to say this in the presence of the delegation from Italy, our future partner in the European Union and NATO, and Umberto Rainineri, Minister of Europe.

My thanks go to the Estonian Association of Male Choirs and to everybody who came here today. Take this fire and take it up to the tower with care and love, so that it would break into flames all over Estonia at the right time, not too early and not too late.