#kõigieesti — Estonia Unifies Against Hate Speech & Populism
Our Estonia is democratic, confident, protected, inclusive, caring, forward-looking and European in spirit.
On Sunday, at 1 PM, hundreds of Estonians started posting pictures all over social media where they were sharing their messages for the type of Estonia they want to live in.
At the same time, they also started adding the black hearts to their display pictures and used the following hashtags: #kõigieesti #общаяэстония #myestoniatoo, to show their support towards Estonia that is democratic, confident, protected, inclusive, caring, forward-looking and European in spirit.
All this was initiated by residents of Estonia from all walks of life and from various communities in Estonia. As written on their Facebook page: “What connects us is our concern about recent developments in Estonian politics. We don’t represent any particular party. We’re people just like you worried about the current political situation.”
Where did it all start?
A few weeks ago, Estonia had its Parliamentary election at which a liberal political party, The Estonian Reform Party, won with 28.9% of the votes. They were followed by a centrist, social-liberal political party, the Estonian Centre Party who got 23.1% of the votes.
All seemed fantastic as those two parties were thought to form a forward-looking government, as they are also members of the same ALDE (Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe) party in the European Union.
However, the latter decided to reject the invitation to form a joint coalition, instead starting to work towards making another one together with a national-conservative political party, the Conservative People’s Party of Estonia (EKRE), and a conservative political party, Pro Patria. Although they were explicitly saying during the election period that they would not form a government with EKRE under no circumstance, as the party had been promoting populistic, anti-democratic and racist thought throughout its existence.
And this caused people to feel deceived, now having to fear that Estonia could potentially follow the suit of Hungary, the Philippines and Venezuela. Not fearing the right-winged or conservative politics but especially fearing that the hate speech promoted by EKRE would turn into reality and that Estonia would take a route to close itself to the world.
That made a group of people come together and discuss how to ensure that Estonia would stay democratic, confident, protected, inclusive, caring, forward-looking and European in spirit. Moreover, working towards keeping the key foundations of our country to remain intact: democratic values, the rule of law and respect for all people, and steadfastly facing West. Believing that Estonia has to preserve an environment that lets people make better lives for themselves. Knowing that making Estonia more inclusive and more connected, also improves our security.
What happened next?
After the campaign for #kõigieesti #общаяэстония #myestoniatoo was launched, it started to spread like a wildfire.
Within minutes, tens of people had already posted their first messages.
Within hours, thousands of people had already started to support the cause.
Within a day, over 15'000 people had joined the movement (getting close to 20'000 as I write it).
Some have called it the most successful Estonian social media campaign to this date. Some have compared it to the Song Festival. Regardless, it has been touching to see so many people join the movement.
The most awesome part is that people of all sorts of beliefs and professions got involved. Politicians from the Centre, Eesti 200, Pro Patria, Reform and Social Democrats parties shared the cause. Artists, entrepreneurs, specialists and even pets joined in. People from Estonia, Ireland, Germany, Russia and even Japan added the black heart to their profile pictures. Etc.
Being someone who believes in right-wing politics and has conservative views on many questions, I can say that it has nothing to do with being liberal or socialist. Also, the grassroots movement is not against conservatives. In the end, the question is much simpler and focuses on showing that Estonians are caring and inclusive people who welcome everyone that feels like an Estonian in open arms.
At the same time, the people supporting the cause does show that we do not support those that oppress particular groups of people or even worse, spread hate speech.
That said, we do not know what will follow this action.
We cannot predict whether it helps the politicians forming a government change their mind and stop the current talks before it is too late.
But we can be sure that we have made our voices to be heard! We have shown that we do not support this course. And that we hope that there is a chance for an open and forward-looking Estonia to continue.
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