Dear compatriots!
Dear Riigikogu, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen!

First, I want to thank all the citizens of the Republic of Estonia home and abroad who shaped Estonia's face for the next four years on the recent elections. You had a choice between many different parties and party programmes. Those who did not participate in the elections also made their choice. This may not have been the best way to express your preferences, as it gave more weight to your neighbour's vote. And yet refraining from elections also means electing, and so today, the men and women have gathered in this historic Riigikogu Hall are the ones whom the Estonian people have trusted with Estonia's fate for the next four years.

Dear compatriots, I thank you.

Dear ninth Riigikogu, I congratulate you and wish you strong will to work and a sharp statesman's eye that would see much farther than the coming four years. The people have bought you a ticket for four years, but the Estonian train has a much longer ride ahead. Those who do not understand this will get off at the next whistle-stop.

Dear eighth, previous Riigikogu!

I thank you with all my heart for the work you have done. And there is something important I would like to add to these words of appreciation. The world that Estonia inhabits is changing constantly. The world is growing together, it becomes more complex, and at the same time, unbelievable as it may seem, also simpler, as there are less and less choices left. Your legislative work, my dear departing Riigikogu, was more complicated than that of the seventh Riigikogu elected in 1992, but the Riigikogu who has convened to the opening session today will have even more complex legislative tasks to attend to. Therefore, let me point to a major shortcoming in the evolution of our statehood. In the future, not a single Estonian legal act must remain unclear for the people. Each citizen must have a clear answer to three questions: why, how, and wherefore the law. What we need is a constant and honest dialogue with the people. A dialogue as intensive as we had during the election campaigns, only with more content to it, and more contemplation, and no flowery fantasies. Time has given us a strong ally - the Estonian media. Trust the media with the hardest tasks we are facing, and I am certain that you fill find the media a reliable ally in fortifying the democratic and spiritual values in our country. The Estonian journalism is looking back at the tradition of two and a half centuries. It's self-image is not that of a profitable enterprise, oriented towards market, hedonism, and horror stories - rather, the Estonian media have always been the vanguard that even at the most difficult times has brought to the country people the notion of the inevitability of the Estonian State. If we want our state to last, and to stay strong, it must rest on trust, which means dialogue, co-operation and transparency.

Secondly.

When your mandate expires, the domestic organisation of the Republic of Estonia must be in accordance with the standards of the European Union. The European Union and NATO are our two foreign policy goals. The challenge is not an easy one. This commits all of us, all the Estonian constitutional institutions to a constant process of learning, and first and foremost, to the perception of the rule of law and the understanding of the balanced separation of powers, the correct understanding of the role of the State. The government is not the State. The government is the executive power, and the legislative power's control over the executive power is one of the cornerstones of the rule of law. The rule of law has unfortunately been the weakest link of the Estonian State. According to the Estonian constitution, the State must be arranged so that no constitutional institution can gain the upper hand. Once more, I repeat the basic truth of our constitution: there must be balance and separation of powers in Estonia. Balance and dialogue between the constitutional institutions, balance and dialogue between the State and the Estonian citizens. Not the racecourse spirit of who outruns who. First and foremost, no party or government must be allowed to speak on behalf of the State. We know the outcome that is bound to follow. In order to attain Estonia's foreign policy priorities, and to maintain Estonia's continuity, we must first and foremost make the rule of law much more efficient. I am glad that the need to correct our Constitution was not mentioned in the bustle of the election campaign. For this, a dispassionate analysis of the strong and weak points of our statehood is necessary, independently of day-to-day politics. As the Head of State, I have intention to use my right to initiate the amendments to the Constitution, and I hope that my successor will take this task to a successful end with your support based on consensus.

Thirdly.

I spoke of the statesmanly eye that must reach much farther than your mandate lasts. In other words, I spoke of the tactical tasks of the government and the long-term strategic goals of the State. For years, we have successfully sold the novelty and freshness of the Republic of Estonia. Today, this is almost over. We are an old hand in Europe, there are others who are newer and fresher. Now, we must rely on quality. Estonia has little natural resources and a scanty labour force. It is our brains that will have to make the living for us and our children in the future. We have spoken of high-technology production, I have asked you what is the "Nokia" of Estonia. Yet we have no practical development programmes, except the "Tiger Leap" perhaps. The Estonian education, foreign investments, production reforms - everything must be directed to this goal. "Nokia" was not built into the woods, it was born of the skilful work of the Finnish carpenter's axe, of the Finnish working culture, of Finland's long-time readiness to develop high-technology production. It was born of Finland's national technical culture, which valued the usage of high technology both in the life of a housewife and in production. I am talking of a completely new way of thinking, which it shall be our Government's and the following Governments' task to implement. These problems extend much farther than the election periods, they extend over decades. If we are unable to think strategically, we will be also unable to compete our neighbours and our more distant neighbours on the market, and shall be condemned to slow and weary progress, and young people will be tempted to leave Estonia.

Fourthly. I thank Prime Minister Siimann's government.

Very soon, I will make a proposal for the formation of government. We all expect that government to take energetic steps in order to confirm the people's faith in democratic power as something that can help solving complicated, acute, permanent problems. Hopefully, this will summon more voters to the next elections and the ones after that. Improving the prestige of the Estonian state authority is the common task of the future government and the opposition. It is the task of the government in the sense that we can already foresee a difficult period of administration and the forthcoming complicated, but hopefully also substantial, arguments concerning the future of Estonia. It is important to realise that destroying the integrity of the government for the sake of personal gain would be very short-sighted. The coalition government will either succeed or fail together. If they have come to the same government, they are bound to each other for the next four years and no political manoeuvre can conceal this fact. If you have sailed out together, you also must act as a crew. I assure you I will do everything depending on the President of the Republic for the new government - whichever one - to last for four years and implement its programmes. Also the long-term strategic programmes that are not always explained in the ten seconds of the "Aktuaalne Kaamera". Such long-term consistency would be a revitalising change for Estonia.

I would like to remind the opposition - whoever and whatever that may be - that personal attacks against the government, which certainly undermine its popularity, do not necessarily increase to popularity of the opposition. Rather, it will result in loss of faith in the Estonian state as a whole, and bring more disappointment. It is more important to work out alternative programmes, and if necessary, criticise the government for their actual failures. This will determine the voters' choice for the next elections, and the Estonian political life will acquire this calm, maybe even boring, a bit routine form so common with our Northern neighbours. Stability of domestic policy, as we see it in our northern neighbours, will grow into foreign policy stability, which will considerably enhance our security and add optimism to our view to the future.

Ladies and Gentlemen, dear compatriots;

Allow me once more to thank the eighth Riigikogu for their work. The ninth Riigikogu will continue from the point where you stopped. Here we see the continuity of the Republic of Estonia, the bond between times linking us both to the past victims and their dreams, and the present voters and our future hopes and goals.

I hereby declare open the first session of the ninth Riigikogu.

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