Yana Toom to Mart Helme: It is high time to go rest

The Conservative People's Party (EKRE) held its congress on Saturday where it elected Martin Helme the party's new chairman. MEP Yana Toom (Center) criticized outgoing chairman Mart Helme's speech, saying that it really is high time for Helme to go rest.
Mart Helme said in his congress speech how he told PM Jüri Ratas (Center) during a private conversation that Estonians no longer have power in Tallinn and that the whole of Estonia will come to resemble Ida-Viru County in a few decades' time if Estonia fails to curtail immigration.
"If we open the borders to cheap labor now, to all those who are washed up by the sea and carried by the wind, in a couple of decades, the whole of Estonia will be Ida-Viru County. And you, dear friend, will have no position. They just won't need you anymore because they will choose their new Kõlvarts and Yana Tooms," Helme said.
Yana Toom wrote on Facebook that stigmatization of Ida-Viru County and dividing people into ours and theirs is inadmissible.
"A statesman should be glad to see people from other nationalities represented in Estonian politics, while it is used as a threat instead. And in a way no intelligence person would, by relaying a private conversation (who knows how accurately). Also, failing to include the other person's answer. It really is high time to go rest. Estonian politics is no longer a place where success is found in spreading rumors and measuring professional suitability by concentration of ethnic genes," Toom wrote.
Center Party MP Jaanus Karilaid described the national conservatives' congress as an operalike spectacle and wished EKRE strength in maturing more quickly.
"The EKRE congress today came across as an operalike spectacle, with the important thing to make sure such dreams do not became tragicomic as they are realized. I would wish our coalition partner a shorter road to maturity. The speeches showed that the switch in leadership at least was justified," Karilaid wrote on Facebook.
Social Democratic Party MP Jevgeni Ossinovski highlighted the part in Martin Helme's speech about Estonia emulating Switzerland.
"I want Estonia to be like Switzerland in the Baltic Sea. Smart. Hardworking. High-tech. Free. Secure. Morally pure. Beautiful in nature. Stubborn. A confident rich sovereign nation state. Forget the new Nordic country. The political paradigm and social model there is something to be taken as a warning, not as an example," the new EKRE chair said.
"Switzerland has the greatest immigrant population in Europe after Luxembourg – 25 percent. Indeed, how much longer will we continue to emulate the morally corrupt Nordics where immigrants do not even make up 10 percent of the population. Truly, the new chairman has global vision and ambition!" Ossinovski ironized on social media.
Reform Party MEP Urmas Paet also commented on Martin Helme's speech.
"I want Estonia to be the Switzerland of the Baltic Sea. Switzerland, by the way, is a member neither of the EU or NATO. It has four official languages and other peculiarities. Therefore, setting the example of other countries is a slippery slope and constitutes underestimating your own country and people.
P.S. Even though I also like mountains," Paet wrote.
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Editor: Marcus Turovski