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🇪🇪 Estonia /Elections & Politics

JAANUS KARILAID | Reform Party moving into opposition is no security threat to Estonia

From Postimees · () Estonian

Translated from Estonian and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Opinion Named sources Context piece
  • Isamaa lawmaker Jaanus Karilaid argues that the Reform Party’s move into opposition would not threaten Estonia’s security.
  • He compares the current governing party’s attachment to power with Estonia’s 1934 political crisis, while acknowledging that the periods and methods differ.
  • Karilaid says the desire to retain power and leaders’ belief in their indispensability remain persistent features of politics.

Power has one bad quality: it is difficult to give up, even when those who hold it no longer know what worthwhile use to make of it. That is the starting point of Isamaa MP Jaanus Karilaid’s argument that the Reform Party’s move into opposition would not pose a security threat to Estonia.

Karilaid says today’s prime minister’s party brings to mind 1934, when the Veterans’ movement had become a serious political force and a competitor to the established political order. The authorities responded by imposing a state of defence, closing the veterans’ organizations, arresting their leaders and postponing elections.

The voters’ decision never came. A period of political silence began. Karilaid acknowledges that times and methods change, but argues that the hunger for power and the conviction among those in government that they are indispensable are far more stubborn phenomena.

About this summary

Originally published by Postimees in Estonian. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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