Ratas: No reason why May 9 should be celebrated in Estonia
According to Prime Minister Jüri Ratas (Center), there is no reason why May 9 should be celebrated in Estonia as it is in Russia. Ratas expressed hope that his fellow party members would no longer participate in events surrounding the celebration of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany.
“I think that 9 May 1945 meant the continuation of a severe occupation in even harsher form,” Ratas said at the government’s Thursday press conference, answering a question by ERR’s Elo Ellermaa what his regard was of how Center Party MPs Oudekki Loone and Olga Ivanova had appeared at a May 9 celebration at the Bronze Soldier monument in Tallinn.
Ratas added that this kind of behavior wasn’t acceptable, and that the party’s leadership meeting on Wednesday had conveyed just that.
Asked if he expected Loone and Ivanova to heed the party’s cautions, Ratas said he was “hopeful”.
Ivanova gave the Estonian portal of Russian state news service Sputnik an interview on Tuesday. Ivanova was present at the Bronze Soldier monument at Tallinn’s military cemetery, along with a small crowd and Red Army veterans celebrating the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany.
Also at the ceremony, Loone had made a statement to ERR’s Aktuaalne Kaamera newscast to the effect that if the Red Air Force hadn’t bombed Tallinn and Narva, all Estonians would be dead. Loone later relativized her statement and said that she had been quoted out of context.
Editor: Dario Cavegn
