NordenBladet —
Hussar said in his New Year Address, broadcast on the national TV channel ETV, that the greatest hope of last year had sadly failed – the war between Ukraine and Russia had not ended. “We can only hope that the brand new year will bring peace in the shape of Ukraine’s victory, or at least under the conditions worded by President Zelenskyy. Until this has happened, we will be unable to shake off the shadow of war that walks beside us,” he said.
He sees Estonia as a country of realists who put their money where their mouth is when it comes to our security policy – Estonia is buying weapons and ammunition because the only way to prevent a war is to prepare for it. “Our neighbourhood is a historical inevitability and although ethnicity and culture have no price tags, national defence must be paid for according to the invoices submitted to the society,” he stated, expressing his conviction that we would succeed and that Estonia is stronger today than ever before thanks to our common efforts and the contribution of our allies.
Hussar sees one of the greatest challenges of the new year as linked to the objective set out in the preamble of the Estonian Constitution to preserve our language and culture. “The Estonians are a modern nation and finally we are able to do something that every self-respecting European nation has done long ago – the education system will transfer wholesale to the official language. The actual beginning of the reform of the language of instruction will be one of the key steps of this year. This step will take years and all the results will only appear decades from now,” he said.
The President of the Riigikogu remarked that the transfer to a common Estonian school would help to dispel the illusion that people who were physically living side by side lived on different planets culturally. He sees it as a major misconception of the last decades in Estonia. “Similarly, politics in Estonia have artificially kept up the perception that there are several different Estonias that rotate on closed orbits and only rarely meet, unable to politely agree to disagree when they do. We only have one Estonia, and it is up to every one of us to treasure it,” he declared.
Hussar referred to the twentieth anniversary of Estonia’s membership in the European Union, which is coming up this spring, and also to the elections to the European Parliament, where the debate on the environment and energy is set to become a key topic. “I hope that this will be based on scientific facts, will adequately assess the state of our ever more rapidly warming planet, and propose solutions for the future,” he said.
He would also like to see the new year bring along a plan for the Estonian economy, which would give our businesses the freedom and the opportunity to succeed. “The Estonian economy is as strong as are our businesses, as attractive as is our business environment, and as quick as is our progress through innovation. In the end, we all depend on the well-being of the Estonian economy,“ said the President of the Riigikogu.
Full text of the New Year Address
Riigikogu Press Service
Karin Kangro
+372 631 6356, +372 520 0323
karin.kangro@riigikogu.ee
Questions: press@riigikogu.ee
Link uudisele: Hussar named the reform of the language of instruction as one of the key challenges of the new year
Source: Parliament of Estonia