Saar, a former culture minister and chairman of the Social Democratic Party, lost the election to Former President of Switzerland Alain Berset.

"I do not have any plans at the moment," Saar told ERR when asked if he plans to return to Estonian politics. "I think the 16 intense years working in the parliament and government and before that in local politics – that's been a pretty big chunk of my life. I believe that in politics in general there should be rotation. It would be nice if there were as many people as possible who felt that they had a mission as citizens to get involved in politics from time to time, so that if there were as many of them as possible and they came along, they would have a say."

However, Saar is open to more experiences with foreign policy. "The experience that this campaign has given us, both in terms of the specificity of this organization and more broadly, is certainly very exciting. The school of diplomacy that I had to go through during the practical campaign tasks – that is certainly very valuable for me personally. Only time will tell if it can be used for Estonia's benefit somewhere else," he said.

Saar said that during the election campaign, he visited capitals of 30 member states, some of them several times to discuss his vision for the CoE. "Including also the ones that maybe we do not get to on a regular basis, given that we do a lot of things in the framework of the EU27, such as the Western Balkans and Turkey and candidates like that."

Saar has also not given up his other passion – acting. "This summer I had planned that, however, the campaign went, my holiday and recovery period would be spent at home, in Alatskivi, doing theatre in the summer. So I'll be acting in July."

 Saar's campaign was funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Exactly how much it cost has not yet been calculated.

The CoE is an international organization whose aim is to promote democracy and protect human rights and the rule of law in Europe. The headquarters of the organization is located in Strasbourg, France.

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