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"Ilves calls for smart choices", The Baltic Times, 13-19 October 2011
13.10.2011
Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, whom the Riigikogu elected as Estonia's president for a second term of office in August this year, gave his oath of office at the Parliament on Monday, reports Delfi. Ilves said, in his speech after the oath-giving ceremony that luck favors those who dare to want and act - nothing happens by itself.
He said, in the first speech of his second term of office, that it is not possible to reach aims that were set at the start of his first term of office in five or ten years, but as a state, nation and society, we have moved in the right direction.
The president noted that there is less corruption and empty quarrelling now. "We have almost gotten rid of our main fear - whether we would survive," said Ilves. "But we are not as rich or happy as we hoped for. Today we know that greener meadows or more carefree states are not waiting for us somewhere else."
Ilves criticized in his speech the city of Tallinn. He mentioned the e-state as smart state management, but added that this is not enough. "By doing everything like others do, we inevitably sentence ourselves to be smaller," he said; adding that the question is how to find that bigness that would differentiate us from others.
He said that in everything, starting from relations between people and ending with the attitude towards the European debt crisis, smart choices have to be made in these limits.
Ilves was re-elected Estonia's president for a second term of office on Aug. 29. His term of office is 5 years and he cannot be nominated for a third term of office.
