TALLINN -- Cheers erupted in bars and shops across Tallinn as Toomas Hendrik Ilves was declared Estonia's new president on Sept. 23. "This was a choice between looking backwards or moving forwards," explained one jubilant celebrator. Ilves, 52, won 174 votes in the Electoral College, beating incumbent Arnold Ruutel, 78, who gathered 162 votes.
It's been a surreal weekend for me living in Tallinn. A couple years ago, I was shared cab fare with this guy when we worked at the same university. I USED TO SHARE CAB FARE WITH THE PRESIDENT.
I just like saying that ...
Until the last weeks of campaigning, Ruutel was widely expected to enjoy an easy re-election.
Ruutel was the last general secretary of the Estonian SSR. He only spoke Russian and Estonian, and was an empty suit when it came to influencing events. He got elected 5 years ago because the ruling-right parties This election came down to a split between the generations as much as anything. Ilves his in his 50s, Ruutel was 77.
Yet the nation reacted angrily toward the underhanded politicking of RuutelÂ’s supporting parties, the Center Party and the PeopleÂ’s Union both minority left-of-center parties, which forced the Parliamentary round of voting to fail and brought about the formation of the Electoral College.
I'll say the Estonians were angry, as much as Estonians ever do get. There were rallies, demonstrations, and a huge outdoor concert right outside the door of the Electoral College before the vote. The Center and the People's Union parties didn't allow their parliamentarians to even pick up their buzzers during the election, which meant that a plurality couldn't be had by any stretch. They thought they'd have a better chance in the Electoral College, which adds representatives to the parliament voters with delegates from the country municipalities. They were wrong ...
The final result was viewed as much as a protest vote against Ruutel and his supporting parties as a vote in favor of Ilves.
The 174-162 vote makes it looks more decisive than it was. Ilves got two more votes than he needed to win. The pubs in Old Town went bananas when the live count got Ilves to the brink, and the woman counting the ballots still had ballots in her hand.
Ilves, a Social Democrat who has served as EstoniaÂ’s foreign minister and is currently a member of the European Parliament, said he wanted to re-unite the nation, which had been split by the divisive election campaign. He said Estonia should become one of EuropeÂ’s leading idea generators.
Ilves also gave an indication of the direction of EstoniaÂ’s future relations with Russia. "The road to Moscow goes via Brussels," he said.
"In a number of fields we have seen that after the enlargement of the European Union the influence of the new member states has been significantly smaller than what we would have liked it to be. I believe that Estonia should be one of those who start taking the floor more in Europe."
Much has been made of IlvesÂ’ western leanings.
The oppossition tried to turn it into an issue, by suggesting -- stop me if you've heard this before -- that he was a CIA agent.
He grew up in the United States and was educated as a psychologist, attending and receiving degrees from Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania and then working in academic positions.
Ilves worked as an analyst and researcher with Radio Free Europe in Munich, Germany, from 1984-1988, and as head of the Estonian desk of Radio Free Europe from 1988-1993.
After returning to Estonia and relinquishing his US citizenship, Ilves served as Estonia's ambassador to the United States from 1993-1996, becoming foreign minister in December 1996 and serving in that position until September 1998. He then began campaigning for the Moderates (now the Estonian Social Democratic Party) in the parliamentary elections.
In March 1999, after the elections, he became foreign minister again, serving until 2002. He was member of the parliament from 2002-2004.
During 2001-2002 he was the leader of the Social Democrats. In 2004 Ilves was elected to the European Parliament, remaining a member of his party's governing board. He sits with the Party of European Socialists group.
At home, the Social Democratic Party is part of the opposition, siding on a number of key policy issues with the center-right opposition rather than the other center-left parliamentary parties.
Ilves sees as his political role model Daniel Patrick Moynihan, which is why he wears the bow-tie. He would be a liberal's liberal on social issues in the States -- he would like to see a Scandinavian-style safety net in Estonia (which will never happen). But he's totally hawkish on foreign policy issues, particularly Russia (as you might expect the son of refugees to be).
Ilves' election means that now all the three Baltic states have presidents coming from the exile community.
Vaira Vike-Freiberga has been the Baltic star, although Adamkus in Lithuania isn't bad, either. But Vike-Freiberga is stepping down soon, and Adamkus is in his 70s, I believe.
Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip was quick to congratulate Ilves, and predicted he would unite the nation and project a positive international image.
You look around Europe, and you don't see much leadership to be inspired about. Brown? Prodi? Merkel might be a international star in the making, but she has a thin majority. I think its rock-solid that Ilves will be punching above his weight on the international stage very soon. I'd recommend his addition to the Rantburg mugshot archive.
"We are happy that we were able to carry out the will of the people," Ansip said. "We have reason to be glad not so much because Toomas Hendrik Ilves was our candidate, but first and foremost because Estonia got a good president," he said.
Bush will get his first look at Ilves when he visits the country at the end of November. It will be the first visit of a sitting U.S. president to the country.