the Scenes on Monday afternoon in the Riigikogu, the Estonian parliament, caused many to raise eyebrows.
When the country’s new government sworn in appeared president Kersti Kaljulaid in a shirt with the text ”Atone on vaba”, which means ”the word is free”. A moment later, when the new utrikeshandelsministern Marti Kuusik would swear his oath, she left the hall.
the President’s action was a clear demonstration against Ekre, the right-wing populist party, which now takes place in the country’s government with five ministries.
President Kersti Kaljulaid wore a shirt with the text ”the word is free” as a protest against the new ruling party Ekre. Photo: Ints Kalnins/Reuters
invandringskritiskt and want to tear up a reform that has introduced partnership for homosexuals in Estonia. It also has a baggage of racism and anti-semitism. Prospective finance minister, Martin Helme has said that ”Estonia should be a white country” and newly elected mep Ruuben Kaalep has had frequent contacts with the white power movements in other countries.
But the president objected to was, first, the new Ekre-minister Kuusik, who is being investigated for suspected abuse of his former wife. And secondly, and above all, what she perceives as undemocratic tendencies in Ekre.
party Leader Mart Helme – the father of Martin Helme – often repeat that he looks the governments of Hungary and Poland as models. And when the younger Helme recently demanded that the ”biased” journalists in the public service-the company, the ERR would be kicked out, saw many a parallel to these countries, where the government media has transformed into pure propagandaorgan for the government, while the ”disloyal” employees have been cleared out.
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Viktor Orbán and Jaroslaw Kaczynski is the father and the son Helme angry at journalists who ask critical questions to the right-wingers. These will be pointed straight out to the left, or even by communists, and calls for ”balance” – which in practice means to remove the stroke.
Recently, the well-known journalist Ahto Lobjakas ERR-station Raadio 2 with reference to the pressure from the incoming government.
”I was not fired. I got a choice between self-censorship and to resign,” he wrote on Facebook on Saturday.
”Nothing changed after the elections. It asked for less confrontation, more focus on the new coalition’s program… the Importance of ‘balance’ was stressed. Logically should mean that we have to find the racists, anti-semites and neo-nazis are also in other parties,” wrote Lobjakas with reference to the revelations about Ekre.
reached Ekre 17.8 per cent of the votes and became the country’s third largest party. The figures were the party never been near before, and despite the fact that most of the established parties has sworn not to cooperate with the Ekre find it now in government together with the Centre party and the Fatherland, a moderate nationalists.
When father and son Helme came in to Monday’s ceremony, they made both a triumphant ok gesture with hands, which ended up on the photos quickly spread in social media.
the Gesture, with the thumb and index finger shaped like a ring and the other fingers sprawling, because for the past two years has increasingly come to be used by right-wing extremists and white supremacists the world over. For example, did Brenton Tarrant, the alleged terrorist who murdered 50 people in new zealand Christchurch, just this gesture when he was taken into a courtroom after the deed.
the former Estonian president, were among those who reacted to the gesture, just as the former prime minister Carl Bildt, writing on Twitter that he is ”genuinely concerned”.
https://twitter.com/carlbildt/status/1122882077500805122
the Debate around Ekre has only just begun, and the usually peaceful political scene in Estonia can look forward to some stormy years.
