The Office of the President of Estonia has to impart the following:

The President’s Office makes a point of announcing that the news disseminated by the Reuters news agency about President Lennart Meri’s speech at the Budapest Economic University contains in its lead Reuters’ arbitrary interpretation which is not grounded on the President’s words. Here is the relevant paragraph of the speech:

“For this reason I would like together with you, dear colleagues and friends in this academic audience to be a confident optimist and to demand of those who hold in their hands the power to make the EU’s pressing decisions and who bear the shiny swords and helmets in NATO: do not proceed blindly along the path of former compromises, because you were not the ones who had to pay their full price. I do not speak of money. Look at the efforts of our peoples. You will see evidence of our hard work, which should be the sole point of reference in today’s world. Let the speed with which the reforming states find acceptance in the European Union and NATO be determined solely based on objective and individualized criteria. Regardless of how many there are and of their so-called geopolitical significance. Let us adhere to our agreements and present an uncompromising challenge to the empire of evil or, more accurately, to the shadow of its former self, which of its own will did not before nor would today relinquish its hold on any one of us.”


We find it essential to explain that the empire of evil used as a metaphor refers to the common past experience of Estonia and Hungary under the rule of a totalitarian regime - a motif that was already introduced and expanded at the beginning of the speech. The paragraph in question, towards the end of the speech, stresses, on the contrary, that geopolitical decisions have no place in today’s world.


Press Service of the President’s Office
Kadriorg, 16 May, 1997

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