Various guests at Tuesday's reception gave their thoughts on the head of state's speech.

One attendee was film director Anna Hints ("Smoke Sauna Sisterhood," "Sannapäiv").

Of the speech, Hints said: "The most important thing for me was the stress on how we see and listen to each other. That freedom is something which depends on us all, and depends on this, that there would be transparency between people, including between the government and the public."

"When we need to make tough decisions, such as hiking taxes, this should not be done via a top-down approach but rather explained openly: The what, why, and how," Hints continued.

"That we can all feel that we are in this together, and that being small is really our strength," the director added.

Isamaa politician and academic Mihhail Lotman also gave his impressions of the head of state's presentation.

"To start with, I want to say that I very much liked the president's speech. Perhaps the only thing which could be pulled out was that he wanted to be too balanced, that he wanted to be inclusive of everything," Lotman said.

"However, some things, particularly those related to education and culture, were what interest me the most and might need even more highlighting."

"In this idea, that usually the economy and culture are seen separately, yet they are much more interconnected than pragmatic thinking might suggest," Lotman went on.

"Culture is vital to the economy, and this was evident in the president's speech," he added.

Diplomat Kaimo Kuusk, Estonia's ambassador to Ukraine when the Russian invasion began in 2022, was also present, and welcomed the interconnected aspects to the speech. "No topic exists in a vacuum," he noted.

In his speech, the president said "We need an honest dialogue between government and citizen; one that dispels distrust and helps to create clarity. We expect a telecom company to explain why they're raising the price of their services. We want to know why the teacher at the front of a classroom gives the mark that they do. Similarly, we expect the government to provide justifications that make the right decision seem right. Society will grant a great deal of support for reasonable and responsible behavior."

The head of state also spoke of the need to safeguard freedoms, a declining birth rate, and concerns about the future of education, and he called for the creation of a child-friendly Estonia and emphasized that culture forms the bedrock of Estonian identity.

In times of economic uncertainty, trust must be built up and maintained, adding that industry and startups have a shared future, President Karis also stated.

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