Estonian MEP Indrek Tarand has been giving hints that he might be returning to domestic Estonian politics.
He recently sat down with ERR’s Toomas Sildam, who asked him if he was coming ‘out of the political closet’ and, in a wide-ranging interview, gave his thoughts on topics including the situation in Europe regarding the workings of the European Commission and Parliament, the political landscape in Estonia, the forthcoming general election there and his ambitions for the future.
He pointed out that far from emerging from any political closet/cupboard/refrigerator etc., he had never been in there in the first place!
In this truncated version of the interview, we start with his reported admiration for French President Emmanuel Macron, seeing the latter as being a breath of fresh air given his understanding of the people and the apparent brokenness of the party system.
”The precedent of having a politician like that has been set in a large European country. And we already have something like that in Estonia with Eesti200 [a grassroots political movement aimed at discussing the long-term and deeper trends of Estonian culture and society – ed.].
However, Mr. Tarand said, there were none on the horizon in Estonia who even half-matched some sort of ‘Macronian’ ideal, with all the presence of mind and hard nerve that would require, in his view, and a hesitancy amongst the Eesti200 movement and other areas would mean the ‘party-ocracy’ as he calls it, would leave them out in the cold.
Social media concerns
Mr. Tarand also revealed that he keeps social media at arms’ length, and may even leave Facebook.
”II look at my brother [journalist Kaarel Tarand – ed.], who isn’t on Facebook and see how he has time to read books and scientific articles while I am joking or sharing pictures on Facebook. I don’t deny that social media offers a great opportunity to share real information, but material of that quality remains in the minority,” he said.
When quizzed about his apparent pledge to quit Facebook altogether on the issue of the Cambridge Analytica personal data harvesting [Cambridge Analytica was a political consultancy firm banned from advertizing on Facebook following revelations about its reported business practices – ed.], Mr. Tarand stated that he probably would need to keep his word. He would in this way be following the example of Estonian musician Jaagup Kreem, who already quit the social media giant on the issue and felt that bodies like Cambridge Analytica had no ability to manipulate things in favour of a few ‘unpleasant’ politicians.
When asked how the political landscape today differs from back in 2009 when he entered the European Parliament for the first time, Mr. Tarand stated that whilst his election to the European Parliament was against a backdrop of economic crisis, which according to Tartu University`s researcher Katre Väli meant that Mr. Tarand was able to present himself as some sort of saviour from said crisis, there were positives both then and now.
In Estonia at the time the law was changed from closed electoral lists to open lists, something which Mr. Tarand believes he contributed to (he ran as an independent candidate in the European elections).
Life and work as an MEP
Today, he sees elections both in Estonia and the EU as being a way to resolve issues adequately, even in the case of the European elections (where there are actually two elections to be held in March and May of next year).
Tarand also questioned the amounts of money spent on election campaigning for the European parliament – with Reform Party (Reformierakond) candidates spending far more than he does (€500,000 versus €5,000 [there are two Reform Party MEPs currently – ed.])
”It is a very interesting problem to analyze economically – why is one coffee machine 100 times more expensive than another?” he opined, adding that he is far more efficient MEP than anyone else elected from Estonia according to the MEPranking.eu analytical website.
On being asked his views on the upcoming Estonian general election in 2019, Mr. Tarand noted that there is a clear distinction between those running as individuals from a particular party (‘erakondlane’ in Estonian), and those who fulfill rather more the function of an apparatchik, a party functionary, (‘Parteilane’ in Estonian, which actually translates as ‘collaborator’).
The latter he naturally sees as something of a loaded term, but nonetheless there remains that hangover from the Soviet system.
”In all parties, even the Estonian Conservative People’s Party (EKRE) there are those who, due to reasons of education experience and character can be more than mere party foot soldiers,” he said.
”Unfortunately, though, something of a similar system to what we had in the Estonian SSR, with pioneers, youth organizations, the carrying of banners that will one day ensure you become a minister etc., is still with us,” he went on.
”Such a system favours the rise of mediocrity and we let that happen to the detriment of the more capable,” Mr. Tarand went on.
