Estonia worked hard for its reputation as Europe’s little tech genius. Now that goodwill is at risk of being swept away amid a rightward lurch in the country’s government — to the dismay of the EU’s top Estonian official.
European Commission Vice President Andrus Ansip spent the past five years turning Estonia’s tech-savvy public policy into a digital strategy at the EU level. But in the last weeks of his term as commissioner, Estonia’s glowing aura as a progressive and digitally advanced country is being overshadowed by the arrival of the far-right EKRE party in government.
Angry. Sad. In a bad mood. That’s how Ansip said he felt, as he balanced his Commission tasks with concerned calls to the home front in Tallinn.
“I’m really disappointed. And I really hope this government will be changed in a short period of time,” the opposition liberal politician and former prime minister told POLITICO, on his last day at the Commission building in Brussels ahead of next week’s European Parliament election.
A new Estonian government took office at the end of April that includes perhaps Europe’s most extreme-right party in power: the far-right Conservative People’s Party of Estonia (EKRE). The party uses the far-right playbook to rail against immigrants, LGBTQ rights and traditional media, and has called for a “white Estonia,” while using the inflammatory slogan “blacks go back.”
In past weeks, two of EKRE’s party members made hand gestures associated with white supremacists when being sworn in at the country’s parliament, and a government minister already resigned during his first week in office over accusations of domestic violence. The party is set to join the European coalition of French right-wing leader Marine Le Pen and Italy’s right-wing Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, and Le Pen visited Tallinn on Wednesday to offer her support to the controversial party.
But EKRE’s extremist views didn’t stop Prime Minister Jüri Ratas when in March he opted to join forces with the party, side-stepping Ansip’s Reform Party despite an electoral win for the latter in March’s parliamentary vote.
“People in Estonia are deeply disappointed,” Ansip, who is running for a seat in the European Parliament next week, said. “There were promises not to cooperate with this right-wing party before those elections. And now people are disappointed, saying ‘You didn’t keep your promises.’”
Of all EU countries, Estonia was an unlikely suspect to see a far-right party make it into government.
The country is seen as a centrist, liberal and tech-savvy nation that punches above its weight in Europe. Ansip himself thanks his role as one of six vice presidents of the Commission, and his digital affairs portfolio, in contributing to this reputation.
Ansip rolled out the digital strategy of Jean-Claude Juncker’s Commission in the past five years. His mission was to adapt Europe’s idea of a single market to the digital sphere.
This “digital single market” project included over two dozen files aimed at evening out the differences of rights and requirements of citizens and companies online — in the hope that this would spur more European companies to scale up and cross borders.
But that included a controversial reform of copyright rules, a failed reform of the EU’s law governing the internet’s cookie banners, new rules on the telecoms market and a criticized proposal for new requirements for Facebook, Google and others to remove terrorist content.
His home country Estonia meanwhile tops European rankings on things like offering digital public services, and has for a long time pioneered things like e-voting and e-government. Its diplomats and officials are renowned for their expertise on digital and cybersecurity, taking up key roles in international institutions like NATO and the United Nations.
And yet, as he wraps up his work as digital czar of the EU’s executive, he fears politics at home will destroy years of hard work.
“Estonia can be the example of how a good reputation can be thrown away,” he said.
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