Seeing how the Estonian radical party EKRE is organizing a referendum against same-sex marriage, a frightened investment banker collected 100 thousand euros from the country’s richest residents, founded the liberal citizens’ fund SALK and started a counter-fight. A couple of years later, there are only liberal parties in the government of Estonia and the same-sex marriage law has been adopted.
What exactly did they do? SALK leader Tarmo Juristo reveals in the interview.
What was the main motivation for founding SALK?
The main push was the planned referendum against same-sex marriage, pushed two and a half years ago by the then-Government [galēji labējā Igaunijas Konservatīvā tautas partija] EKR. Taking into account the political events in Estonia at that time, we calculated that we have about three months to prepare and conduct the campaign. It was very little. On the liberal side, no one was ready for this. The conservatives had been preparing for it for a long time, while the liberals were in a deep sleep, because they thought that the referendum would never happen.
Then suddenly it became clear that there would be a referendum. Since I was quite active in 2014, when the same-sex partnership law was adopted in Estonia, acquaintances started calling me with the question – will you organize something? It was a push. I was convinced that a centrally coordinated campaign was needed, otherwise everyone would have done their own thing. Someone would have organized a concert, another a street demonstration or something similar. But it is very inefficient. The same people get together every time something happens when everyone is really angry. Then it is not possible to agree on a joint action, the party leaves. In the end, they hold a concert, go home and feel good for a couple of days.
Then your original aim was to prevent the referendum from happening. This is what you achieved – the referendum did not take place.
No, the goal was not to prevent, because it was inevitable. We were preparing for a fight, although at that time and still I am convinced that if the referendum took place, we would have lost. The idea was to prevent the Nazis from simply taking the matter and walking away. We were trying to use it to consolidate people and it would have been the first battle in a bigger battle. The referendum did not take place because a corruption scandal broke out unexpectedly. Parliament was supposed to vote on the referendum on Monday afternoon, but the government of Prime Minister Jiri Ratas (Center Party) resigned that morning. [kurā bija arī EKRE].
So the referendum did not take place, but SALK continued to work. How precisely were the objectives defined and what were they?
We had a long-term plan where the referendum would be just the first battle. The plan was to address the issues underlying the referendum. EKRE was in the government, pulling strings and taking advantage of all opportunities. There was even a joke in Estonia that quite accurately described what was happening – that Jiri Ratas is EKRE [nevis savas, Centra partijas] government prime minister.
We see this today as well – the extreme right does not even need to be in the government to influence politics. They have a lot of influence in setting the political agenda that affects other parties. We thought this was a problem and we were determined to do something about it.
In Latvia, the National Association does the same. Why can they afford to do it and the other parties allow it?
Many people think about it – how is it possible? If you would look
2023-07-10 22:24:02
#Estonia #differently #goal #prevent #Nazis #coming #power #Europe
