Yearbook 2006
Estonia. Estonia experienced historical change of
leadership during the year. In March, former President
Lennart Meri passed away 76 years old. Meri had been
Estonia's and Baltic's most prominent politicians after the
independence of the Soviet Union. Former Foreign Minister
and EU parliamentarian Toomas Hendrik Ilves was appointed in
September by an electoral college to Estonia's new
president. Ilves defeated Meri's successor Arnold Rüütel,
who at 78 years old failed to be re-elected for a second
term. The 52-year-old West-friendly Ilves, born of Estonian
refugee parents in Sweden and raised in the United States,
symbolized a new leader generation in sharp contrast to
Rüütel's background in the Communist Party during the Soviet
era. With the election of Ilves, both Estonia and Latvia and
Lithuania had received presidents who were educated in exile
in North America and who lacked their own experience of the
long Soviet occupation in the Baltics. The battle for the
presidential post in Estonia became a hot ideological battle
that went straight through the government. Prime Minister
Andrus Ansip's Liberal Reform Party supported Ilves, while
Rüütel was backed by the Leftist Center Party and the Rural
People's League.
According to
CountryAAH, the government was also divided in another ideological
battle, where the Reform Party wanted to move an old
monument to Soviet soldiers from the center of Tallinn. When
the proposal was tabled in Parliament in the fall, strong
negative reactions came from Moscow, where Soviet soldiers
from World War II are seen as Nazi conquerors and not as
occupants.
Estonian authorities stopped the chemical tanker Probo
Koala in September, which earlier in the year left toxic
waste in the Ivory Coast with deaths and many poisoning
cases as a result. The tanker was detained in Paldiski for
police investigation after the environmental organization
Greenpeace blocked the port entrance. EU Environment
Commissioner Stavros Dimas traveled to Paldiski and praised
both Greenpeace and the Estonian Government for the effort.
In November, Toomas Hendrik Ilves became the first
Estonian President to host a US state visit when President
George W. Bush came to Tallinn.
During the year, Estonia competed with Latvia to have the
EU's highest economic growth. Estonian growth figures were
estimated to be up to 12%. The symbol of the strength of the
Estonian economy was the shipping company Tallink's purchase
of Silja Line during the year. The deal made Tallink the
largest shipping company on the Baltic Sea.
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