“I like to build and create, I don’t put my energy into tearing down,” confirms Annika Vaikla, head of the Viims department of the Center Party.
I believe that today we have great opportunities to do a very good job, especially at the national level. The political parties in power with their decisions have created a favorable ground for us to do so. It’s downright extremely favorable and it’s a shame to say that I often see where we don’t use it and instead deal with undermining our own party – we get a branch to sit on,” he continues and adds that the Viims department currently has 67 members, apart from those who left the congress no it is not.
“I think that if there were resignations in the board, it would also influence the members to leave. I personally do not plan to leave, and I am also of the opinion that if I have decided to stay, I must support the chairman of the party and contribute to the vitality of the party. We all have a choice to stay or go. Those members who have decided to stay could also contribute accordingly for the strength of the party. Isamaa is a very good example of taking advantage of today’s situation, these ratings could have been ours, and at this point I invite everyone to take responsibility for the good fortune of the party. Local government elections are just around the corner, we don’t have time for internal quarrels if we want good results,” says Vaikla.
The membership of the Viims department is very diverse: there are young and old people, specialists in various fields, and this is also a big plus – a good foundation on which to make wise decisions. In the last local government elections, the Viims department achieved the best result ever – getting three seats in the council, which is a good achievement in the sense of Viims (people here prefer the Reform Party and the Estonian 200 party). “Unfortunately, we remained in the opposition. However, it has been an interesting time for us, we have had to learn to manage the department from the perspective of opposition politics. It is very challenging – there are fewer tools for engaging people, motivating them and providing output, but I believe we have succeeded,” Annika Vaikla states.
According to him, the department meets once a month, the items on the council’s agenda are discussed, so that the voice of the department reaches the council: “This is the least we can do to motivate our members. The department’s work is open to us, which means that our team also includes people who for some reason cannot/do not want to belong to a political party, but share the same values as us and want to contribute to the improvement of life in Viims. This is how we have gained strong economic and social experts. I am convinced that we are the best working political group in Viims, which meets regularly and whose members feel involved. Our reputation is reliable and we have been constructive and proactive. This guarantees us success in the long run, although in the short term it can be felt that those who shout and defame others are sometimes more popular, but isn’t this again a question of values and dignity.”
Annika considers the great value of the department to be our party’s nest in Viims – Harmonookum Öko-Spa, which always supports us with rooms and offers us a way to the meeting table. “We are very grateful to our board member Ene Lille, who is the owner of this venture,” says Vaikla. The head of the Viims department admits that there is still work to be done with young people, the department has just become a very strong leader in the field of youth and hopes to do more in this area.
“In the department’s work, I also see that we could have more diverse joint events, including opportunities for political discussion. We are developing in this direction. Our goal is to do a good job in the development of life in Viimsi, many large projects that characterize Viimsi recently have been initiated/managed by us – Viimsi’s new library, Artium cultural and educational center, reorganization of the Rannapere Boarding House into one of the best boarding houses in Estonia, creation of a counseling center for the elderly, creation of the Viimsi Care Center with renovations of day care centers, etc. A lot of remarkable work has been done, we hope to continue it.
There are many bottlenecks in Viimsi that need to be improved: traffic jams in the direction of Tallinn, lack of jobs close to home, ensuring the availability of water for people, completion of the football hall, etc. But – we work and always do our best,” says Annika Vaikla in conclusion.
