Thank you, Mr Chairman of the Election Committee.

Esteemed Riigikogu,
Dear Ambassadors, Ministers and the Diplomatic Corps,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

On this first day of the spring I would like to start by recalling our election day on the 5th of March and to thank the citizens of the Republic of Estonia for their active participation in the election of the Eighth Parliament. An election day is the day when the exercise of the supreme state power is directly vested in the people: it is on an election day that the people manifest their political will. It is precisely at such instants that the quality of democracy is revealed, in how smoothly the power passes into the hands of the people, how free and how large is the turnout of the people to take part in making all of the most important decisions concerning the state, how strong and sturdy is the democratic establishment of the state to match the spirit and tradition of our people. A democratic establishment is like a tree growing continuously yet invisibly from day to day. The outcome of its growth can only be appraised at certain moments, on the evidence of tender shoots in spring and golden fruits in autumn, and today is one such day. Today we can declare: the Estonian citizens have had their say, the Estonian people have expressed their will, and the will of the people has assembled you in this hall. In this respect we are a mature state, equal among the world community of democratic states. There have been prior occasions that I have spoken about the world tree of the Estonian people from this rostrum, and I would like to elaborate one of my pet metaphors in front of you here. The Estonian world tree will grow for ever, and the Estonian state will grow forever. All that happens is that new annual rings are added. Some of them are more potent, some others are punier. They tell us, much like the present election returns, where we've been successful in the past years and also where we've gone wrong. In other words, on this day they point out and recall, in a resonant voice of the people, the essential prerequisite of the Estonian state --and any state, for that matter: the state's continuity. In today's power switch the essential value is our continuity.
The Eighth Riigikogu will take over where the Seventh Riigikogu stopped.

At this point, Ladies and Gentlemen, I feel obliged to reiterate from this rostrum my thanks which I have already extended to the Seventh Riigikogu by letter. Many thanks to you all! And many thanks to those of you, dear members of the Seventh Riigikogu, who are willed by the people to carry on your work in the Eighth Riigikogu. Your presence symbolically underlines the continuity of the state, which I consider particularly significant -- as well as difficult! -- for a nation so small as the Estonian nation. Least of all may we act like the ant on the slope of the fairy-tale glass hill who slid back nightly and was forced to set out again at the foot of the hill every morning. It is not casually that I use these metaphors. Each state has a face of its own, and each state has to settle its state affairs in a way that is appropriate to it, and to it alone. Estonia is among the smallest states of democratic Europe, which implies that we have to be especially economical with the assets that history and nature have bequeathed us so scantily -- with the civil servants who are competent and devoted to their country. We have to hold them as the greatest wealth. The reverse side of this coin must be still more uncompromising exactingness towards the incompetent and corrupt civil servants whom we have inherited from the totalitarian past. This, Ladies and Gentlemen, is directly and immediately related to the priority of safeguarding Estonia's national security. With your support, dear members of the Riigikogu, I intend to come back to this central task again and again. In balanced interoperation with other constitutional instances and institutions, with the country's other powers, this will remain our central task while we settle the life of the people and build our state --throughout the term of this Riigikogu as well as the next one. The constitution has given you far-reaching rights, and to no lesser extent far-reaching responsibilities. According to the spirit of the constitution the rights we exercise, while being personal rights, are at the same time the property of the state, and we are called upon to exercise them in a constitutional way through constitutional institutions: our rights are our responsibilities. I would be grateful to you if you could take this simple sentence from this hall to every county, every town, every village, to the hearts of every Estonian citizen, because this is what the fate of our own country, our own people and our own state depends on. This is our supreme value that we are called upon to serve.

The new membership of the Riigikogu and the new Government to be formed presently will sustain the continuity of the previous years and the earlier decades, but it will also bear something new. Life has moved on and raised new problems to the agenda. Our own experience has grown and made us aware of the need to make amendments where problems have been underestimated. It is not the duty of a constitutional president to point out the possibility or the direction of, or the need for, change. The votes cast in the election themselves speak for the will of the Estonian people to improve and strengthen their state.

For this work, for the forthcoming long period of composed work for the good of our state I wish you all and everybody a hot heart, cool judgment, a maximum of willingness to cooperate, and good Estonian grit.

I declare the first session of the Eighth Riigikogu open.

back | archive of speeches | main page