Estonia Political Briefing: Going, Going, Gone! E-MAP Foundation MTÜ

ISSN: 2560-1601

Vol. 34, No. 1 (EE)

November 2020

Estonia political briefing: Going, going, gone! E-MAP Foundation MTÜ

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Kiadásért felelős személy: Huang Ping china-cee.eu 2017/01

Going, going, gone!

The title of this brief is not about an auction… It is not about the famous song of Bob Dylan either, even though, indeed, “[t]here’s not much more to be said”1. From April 2019, when the second cabinet of Jüri Ratas was appointed to run the country, six of its Ministers had to resign for different reasons, and five of those were associated with the Conservative People’s Party of Estonia (EKRE). Week after week, the current governmental coalition and the country’s Prime Minister had to deal with a micro- or macro-crisis, which were not assisting Jüri Ratas in the natural process of claiming and maintaining political authority in Estonia. The latest avalanche of scandals was, however, of a different kind, pushing Mart Helme, the then Minister of the Interior, to resign from his post.

As reported, Mart Helme and Jaak Madison (the latter is the only representative of EKRE in the European Parliament), made a range of statements, consequences of which were immediately understood to “be the most serious” since “security policy has now been brought into play”2. The main line of the narrative was about the results of US presidential elections, and Mart Helme’s statement was cited to be as follows:

I believe there can be no question in that these election[s] were falsified. […] I believe all normal people should speak up against it. There is no sense in talking about democracy or rule of law in a situation where elections can be faked so plainly, boldly and on a massive scale. […] If this works, if Trump is taken down, the U.S. Constitution will no longer be in effect. […] The logic based on which the deep state operates is to smuggle in dirtbags, corrupt dirtbags that can be blackmailed. Joe Biden and Hunter Biden are corrupt characters.3

It was back in December 2019, when the same Estonian Minister survived a vote of confidence at the Riigikogu after mocking the Finnish Prime Minister, Sanna Marin, as a “shop

1 Reference is made to ‘Going, Going, Gone’, a song by Bob Dylan, which was released in 1974 on the album Planet Waves. 2 Meinhard Pulk, ‘Another gov. crisis looms as Helmes say US presidential elections falsified and Biden corrupt’ in Postimees, 9 November 2020. Available from [https://news.postimees.ee/7105902/another-gov-crisis-looms- as-helmes-say-us-presidential-elections-falsified-and-biden-corrupt]. 3 ‘Mart Helme: Joe Biden and his son corrupt characters’ in ERR, 8 November 2020. Available from [https://news.err.ee/1156613/mart-helme-joe-biden-and-his-son-corrupt-characters].

1 girl”4. Finland, which is, perhaps, the closest ally of Estonia, was naturally surprised, but plenty of apologies from the Estonian side managed to ‘heal the wound’ then. This time, considering some remote similarities with the ‘Finnish case’, the situation was different, and “Helme’s statement was widely construed as a threat to national security”5. The country’s Prime Minister Jüri Ratas wanted Martin Helme, the son of Mart Helme as well as the current leader of EKRE, to condemn the statements:

Members of the Estonian government need to be able to remain level-headed when commenting on the domestic policy of allies. Mart and Martin Helme must immediately cease undermining Estonia-U.S. relations.6

The avalanche of distinctly negative reactions on the objectively unpleasant situation was, however, pushed by President Kersti Kaljulaid who immediately convened the country’s Defence Council for a meeting, noting also that “[t]he American people will elect their president without help from our [M]inisters, while the Estonian [G]overnment must stand for allied relations and security”, and that “[u]nfortunately, two members of the government have today sent a signal that this allied relationship is not a value for them”7. From the scholarly perspective, the post-truth political approach, when a politician does not have to be bothering to objectively reflect on the actuality any more, still faces some surviving limitations in a liberal democracy. Therefore, the mounting pressure on Mart Helme pushed him to announce his resignation, even though he made the final statement as a Minister, employing his usual style of communication:

Looking at the slander and lies produced by the Estonian media, I decided to resign last night. I am tired. I did nothing yesterday that would endanger Estonia’s security. […] You cannot muzzle me, nobody can muzzle me. The [P]rime [M]inister cannot muzzle me, the [P]resident or media cannot muzzle me. […] I say what I consider to be right, what concerns me.8

4 Caroline Mortimer, ‘Estonian Minister Mart Helme survives confidence vote after calling Finnish PM ‘shop girl’ in Euronews, 17 December 2019. Available from [https://www.euronews.com/2019/12/17/estonian-minister- mart-helme-survives-confidence-vote-after-calling-finnish-pm-shop-girl]. 5 Pulk. 6 Jüri Ratas as cited in Henry-Laur Allik, ‘Mart Helme out, problem remains’, Postimees, 10 November 2020. Available from [https://news.postimees.ee/7106971/mart-helme-out-problem-remains]. 7 Kersti Kaljulaid in Pulk. 8 Mart Helme as cited in ‘Minister of Interior Mart Helme resigns’, ERR, 9 November 2020. Available from [https://news.err.ee/1156858/minister-of-interior-mart-helme-resigns].

At the Riigikogu, the oppositional parties were preparing for a no-confidence vote against Mart Helme, but, after he had resigned, the focus was moved on his son Martin, the Estonian Minister of Finance. Before the motion vote, Martin Helme told to the Riigikogu: “Do your worst, Mordor”9, and as reported, “[t]he vote failed as it did in September [2020], with 46 MPs for and 54 abstaining”10. The crisis made international headlines, including in the United States. The Washington Post, for example, while describing the situation, called Mart Helme a “[f]ar- right Estonian Interior Minister” who “made several inflammatory remarks about the U.S. election”, which then “prompted outcry in his country”11. A major and one of the most influential among all American media outlets, The Washington Post appeared to be very informed on the matter, extensively citing President Kaljulaid as well as the Estonian Minister of Defence, Jüri Luik who stated that Estonia is “a country of 1 million people on the border of Russia” and “[t]aking into account the Estonian geopolitical situation, our relationship with the U.S. is of existential importance”12. On the factual side, the question of Estonia-USA relations was, in scientific terms, not the most important of all, considering the context. Both countries are members of NATO, and the strength of the existing alliance can hardly be tackled by a random statement of a populist. Arguably, what was and is the most important fact is that Joe Biden’s win is proven by the plain digits collected across the United States, and that, by the end of November, the US President-elect has already received congratulations from all major powers, except Russia.

In the meantime, the Estonian President went ahead with convening the National Defence Council, treating the situation with full seriousness, responding to some actions that (as she described) “undermined the health of Estonian democracy and security”13, and noting that a meeting of that kind was the first during her term in office. Concluding the discussion, President Kaljulaid stated:

Our ministers called into question the trustworthiness of our own e-elections, just like the fairness of procedures of the United States, our most important ally without whom it is not possible to imagine our security. […] It was the common stance of the National Defen[c]e

9 Martin Helme as cited in Allik. 10 Allik. 11 Siobhán O'Grady, ‘Estonian cabinet minister to resign after calling Biden corrupt, saying Trump would emerge as election winner’ in The Washington Post, 9 November 2020. Available from [https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/11/09/estonia-trump-election-mart-helme/]. 12 Jüri Luik in O'Grady. 13 Kersti Kaljulaid as cited in Loora-Elisabet Lomp, ‘National Defense Council discusses Estonia-US relations, e- elections’, Postimees, 17 November 2020. Available from [https://news.postimees.ee/7111851/national-defense- council-discusses-estonia-us-relations-e-elections].

Council that we have had very good cooperation with the current U.S. administration, have had with all the previous ones, and will have with the next one when it assumes office at one point. We work with the American leaders whom the American people have democratically elected to office.14

By now, the matter seems to be off the table, and the international system is getting ready to meet the 46th American President who was reported to have received more than 80 million people’s votes15 as well as, prospectively, 306 electoral votes in support of his candidature. As for Estonia, considering how the country’s Prime Minister wanted to see the situation, the departure of Mart Helme from the Government “gave the coalition a chance to continue”16. This is yet another chance, though. Having departed the Government, Mart Helme returned to the Riigikogu to become one of the members of the 12 MPs-strong Foreign Affairs Committee17. Some of the members of this important parliamentary unit are supporters of or, at best, neutral to Helme and his party, but the others (for example, the Committee’s Deputy Chairman Marko Mihkelson, or the leader of ‘social democrats’ Indrek Saar, or Eerik-Niiles Kross) are EKRE’s political and moral antagonists18. Thus, the ‘show’ is likely to ‘go on’, but in a different format.

14 Kaljulaid in Lomp. 15 ‘Presidential Results’ in CNN. Available from [https://edition.cnn.com/election/2020/results/president]. 16 Jüri Ratas as cited in ‘Ratas: Mart Helme's resignation gives government chance to continue’, ERR, 9 November 2020. Available from [https://news.err.ee/1157035/ratas-mart-helme-s-resignation-gives-government-chance-to- continue]. 17 ‘Mart Helme to join Riigikogu foreign affairs committee’ in ERR, 16 November 2020. Available from [https://news.err.ee/1159573/mart-helme-to-join-riigikogu-foreign-affairs-committee]. 18 ‘Foreign Affairs Committee’ in Riigikogu. Available from [https://m.riigikogu.ee/en/parliament-of- estonia/committees/foreign-affairs-committee/].