Former President of the Republic of Estonia Toomas Hendrik Ilves joins Volt 🇪🇪 💜

President Ilves shares with Volt the primary goal of building a Europe that is resilient, thriving, and capable of leading sustainable change in these times of uncertainty and turmoil.

The conversation was rich in insights and ideas about both our present and our future, covering essential topics such as strengthening European integration, accelerating the digitalisation of public administration at all levels of governance, enhancing European security, and modernising the economy.

We would like to share Toomas Hendrik Ilves’ own words about the decision to join Volt: 

“I have had no party affiliation for almost 20 years and have explicitly avoided any for the past decade after leaving office. But the challenges the European Union faces today have changed dramatically. First with Russia’s full-scale invasion  of Ukraine and its openly hostile and threatening attitude toward Europe and now with an antagonistic US administration that has upended the transatlantic relationship of the past 80 years, we need to ask ourselves, will our European way of life survive?

To do so, Europe needs to get its act together now. It needs to overcome 35 years of neglecting defence and its security; it needs to create a Europe-wide capital market to allow the kind of investment that has propelled the US to its leadership position in technology that is far, far ahead of Europe, where we need to catch up in leaps and bounds especially in AI. If we do not address these issues we will become the impoverished backwater it was last in the Middle Ages.

Europe needs a strategic Zeitenwende, across all domains: defence, foreign policy, finance, the Single Market, its self-defeating innovation and tech regulations,  the continent’s costly and debilitating energy policies, and its own decision-making. Most importantly, the EU needs to overcome its own lethargy, its unwillingness to address difficult reforms and its internal bickering.

With an international environment increasingly hostile toward the continent, especially with regard to the fundamental values of the Enlightenment: respect for fundamental rights and freedoms, the rule of law, free and fair elections, Europe finds itself under attack from abroad as well as by its own populist extremists. Born in Europe some 250 years ago, the fundamental values of the Enlightenment have brought prosperity and dignity to people all around the world. Yet today, these values are under attack. Today, Europe is under attack. It is time to take all these threats seriously. It is time to carry out fundamental reforms that will enable Europe to prevail in the turbulent environment we face at home and abroad.

For all these reasons I have broken with my promise to avoid all party politics and have opted to join Volt, a party that today is still small yet to my mind stands for all of what I believe is vitally needed for Europe to make it through the multiple existential crises we face today. To join a political party means you share its values. I share the values embodied in Volt.”

President Ilves’ political career is truly remarkable, given the pivotal role he played in Estonia’s accession to the European Union. A fervent European, he has been a pioneer in Estonia’s digitalisation, transforming the country into a world-class start-up and technology hub. President Ilves’s involvement is set to help accelerate Volt’s growing impact across Europe – from the local to the national and supranational levels.

Taking the next steps together on the path towards a federal Europe is a tremendous honour – and for that, we say: welcome on board, President Ilves!

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