President Lennart Meri this morning gave a live interview to the BBC Five morning programme. Reporter Adel Armstrong’s questions to the President were based on the news from January 13 in the Estonian press, implying that the President had helped a substantially-sized man from Saaremaa to order underwear.

In the interview that concluded the audial morning programme, the President said that this kind of news was the news of St. Canute’s Day. St. Canute’s Day is celebrated on January 13th as a memorial day of a Scandinavian duke who died in 1131, and according to the Estonian tradition, on that day, marking also the end of the Nordic Yuletide or European Christmas, you had the right to make all sorts of jokes, express wishes and ask about your future.

The President advised that the news coming from Estonian news agencies on St. Canute’s Day and April Fool’s Day should never be taken too seriously. Estonians are a very Nordic and phlegmatic nation, taking seriously only the accession to the EU and NATO and their national holidays, President Meri said.

On these two days, nothing is impossible, not even the news that the Estonian President is looking for underpants for the tallest man in the country. As the President said, European Union would be less dull with Estonians and their practical jokes.

The interviewers were also interested in the effect of Russia’s current situation on the economic developments in Estonia; according to the President the effect has been negligible, as Estonia’s main partners in trade are Great Britain and other countries of the European Union. The authors of the BBC Five concluded the morning broadcast promising that they would be looking forward to Estonia’s accession to the EU.


Press Service of the Office of the President
Kadriorg, January 18, 1999

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