Estonia wants to remove the right to vote in the local elections from the citizens of Russia and Belarus
We hereby publish an official translation of an article published by Punalippu.
The government coalition of Estonia, which consists of the Reform Party, the Social Democrats and the Estonia 200-Party, has proposed a change in the constitution which would deny the right to vote in the local elections from citizens of ”aggressor countries” or the citizens of Russia and Belarus. Now all those with a valid residence permit have the right to vote in the local election, corresponding to the line of the European Commission. This change to the constitution is supposed to enter into force in a emergency proceeding before the local elections next year. The population of Estonia is around 1.3 million. The restriction of the right to vote would concern 80,000 citizens of Russia and Belarus staying permanently in the country, which is a major part of the population. This group does not include the Estonian Russians who usually have Estonian citizenship.
Changing the constitution as an emergency law would require a majority of four fifths in the parliament. In parliamentary discussion, multiple Parties have announced they oppose the proposal for different reasons. The Center Party, which historically is close to Russian imperialism and of whose electorate major part are Estonian Russians, is opposed to changing the constitution. EKRE (Conservative People’s Party of Estonia) has opposed the proposal, demanding, that the right to vote in local elections be removed from all but Estonian citizens. The Social Democrats say they are ”hundred percent” in agreement with their coalition partners after the proposal was changed so that the Stateless maintain their right to vote. However, in this situation the internal contradictions of this Party sharpen: for example the vice-president of the Party, Yevgeni Ossinovsky, as well as the leader of the Social Democrat faction of the Tallinn city council, Joosep Vimm, have said they cannot accept the change to the constitution.
In an interview with the public broadcasting company of Estonia the justice councilor Ülle Madise recognized that the law violates ”human rights”, but said that ”sometimes people’s rights are limited or taken away” and that it is ideal that the freedoms are expanded, but ”times and fashions change”. The Constitutional Committee has evaluated the proposal to be in contradiction with the constitution. Madise however emphasized the role of the parliament to make an evaluation of the situation and to form the law.
The ruling classes justify the proposal on the grounds that the limitation of rights is just due to the threat of aggression of Russia. This proposal is a part of the development of the encirclement of Russian imperialism which serves mainly Yankee imperialism. Nationally and concretely it aims to strengthen the position of the faction of the ruling class in power at the local level for their own economic gains. Here the ruling classes use the just hatred of the people of Estonia against Russian imperialism, which is the heir of the Soviet social-imperialism which exploited and oppressed it for decades, only to hand over the country to another imperialist.
