Toward the start of the week, a public meeting on the expansion of the Nursipalu Training Area took place in Võru County. The Defense Investments Center (RKIK) wanted to showcase Natura bird habitat studies and discuss proposals for adjusting the training area's borders. The heroes that night should have been the great grouse, black stork and different eagle and hawk species living close to Nursipalu, in the Haanja and Karula Natura areas.

But things went south from the very first minutes. Those gathered were not happy with the proposal of RKIK's press representative to leave the questions for last. The latter believed those present would be able to remember their questions after listening to seven presentations. The people disagreed.

While the organizers can usually overcome such problems simply because they hold the microphone, this was not the case this time. Among the few hundred people gathered were Võru County residents, representatives of NGO Meie Nursipalu and their supporters from Virumaa (Ida-Viru and Lääne-Viru counties – ed.) and elsewhere in Estonia. Many local residents later told me that they saw a lot of strangers on pictures and couldn't understand why the event drew so many who have nothing whatsoever to do with Nursipalu.

In any case, people had dragged with them a powerful speaker with a microphone hooked up to it. This meant that both the organizers and participants now had power over how the meeting would go. One side demanded explanation as to why people couldn't ask their questions right away, as well as the meaning of democracy, while RKIK representatives countered by promising there would be time enough for questions later.

True, the organizers had little reason to stick to their guns so stubbornly. Doing the Q&A after every presentation is a common enough practice, and meeting people half-way would have perhaps been preferable to allowing the meeting to turn into a shouting match. After all, the developments in question are life-changing for some.

Eventually, RKIK's training grounds portfolio manager was allowed to speak and proceeded to provide a quick overview of what has been done and what is still to come. However, coming to the planned great grouse stress tolerance study, they were cut off by loud applause and ridicule over the fact that while the government is researching great grouse stress levels, no one seems interested in the effects of noise on local residents. Natura experts met the same fate and were applauded and eventually sung off the stage simply for wanting to talk about birds and the effect noise has on them.

Let it be said in the interests of clarity that the government is studying Natura areas in light of the polygon expansion because it is required by EU law. Meanwhile, no one is studying the effects of noise levels on people. That said, the Ministry of Defense has commissioned and received the results of a study on the socioeconomic effects of the presence of the EDF in Tapa, Võru and Western Harju County. The findings conclude that EDF presence takes a considerable toll on Võru County, while adding little in terms of benefits.

Increasing noise pollution levels and the area losing value as a living environment is what the study's authors suggest is vexing local residents, which brings us to events like the meeting at hand. The only question is who exactly is doing the protesting, taking advantage of fears and uncertainty? I heard multiple versions, discussing the aftermath with different parties. The government's representatives said they usually meet with different Võru County residents, while the latter only sighed and described the ordeal as embarrassing.

The tactics of how to hijack such meetings are hardly new. Every Estonian has been treated to a master class of it by EKRE delegates. When the Riigikogu was conducting the first reading of the car tax law earlier this year, members of the party switched on a machine making an aeolian sound during the presentation of then-Finance Minister Mart Võrklaev. Juku-Kalle Raid compared it to the sound produced by plastic trumpets used during football games, except the sound was constant, making it impossible to hear what the finance minister was saying. Such tactics are characteristic of a very different state and how it deals with its neighbors...

All of it raises the question of how should one play by the rules if the other side changes them half-way in or decides there are no rules at all? It is impossible to have a meeting – whether in the Riigikogu or in Võru – if someone decides to render discussion impossible.

Those present may have walked away feeling victorious – after all, they had sung and passed around the microphone for one emotional outburst after another, without the other side being given a chance to say anything at all. The feeling of togetherness was overwhelming. But how exactly is that supposed to help the process going forward? The government will proceed based on the law, regulations and rules. RKIK wanted to hear from people on what concerns them and what could still be done or considered during and after construction. They came away none the wiser that night, meaning that next to the government's representatives, solutions some considered important were also drowned out.

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