Estonia's Social Democrat leader calls to curb power of money

Photo: Andres Haabu

The influence of money on political decision-making has to be curbed, chairman of Estonia's Social Democratic Party (SDE) Sven Mikser said on Tuesday as proposals of the crowdsourcing initiative Rahvakogu (People's Assembly) were handed over to parliament.

Understanding the reasons for the social discontent that led to the grassroots democracy initiative is more important than changing the laws regulating political activity and decision-making, Mikser said. In his view, the reason was the degeneration of political culture which happened not owing to some legal amendments but within the previously existing legal framework.

The Social Democrat leader said the parliament has to give very serious consideration to and evaluate all the proposals made by the assembly.

"Some most important keywords of the Rahvakogu package of proposals are certainly curtailing the influence of money on political decision-making, this in regard to both making party financing more honest, transparent and equal and actually reducing election campaigning costs because, as many have observed, there is a regrettably large correlation between the amount of money spent on elections and the result achieved," Mikser said.

He stated that the natural threshold of entry into politics and parliament has considerably risen over years.

"The existing large parties have substantial trappings and a structure competing with which is very hard even if administrative thresholds were lowered. Putting it figuratively, you might say that if we lowered the qualification norm for the 100-meter dash at the Olympics, it wouldn't necessarily make it easier for a sprinter to rise to the podium," Mikser said.

In his words, the parliament has to analyze very seriously the proposals which on one hand speak about reducing the influence of money on politics and political decisions and on the other, about leveling the political playing ground for existing and emerging political forces. "I believe this is in the interest of free pluralistic exchange of thoughts in Estonian democracy," he said.

Another group of the proposals that in Mikser's opinion deserves consideration is suggestions concerning engagement of the public, interest groups, and the NGO community in shaping and making political decisions during the period in between elections. "I personally am deeply convinced that this is first and foremost a question of political culture, of the internal culture of all of us," he said.

President Toomas Hendrik Ilves on Tuesday presented to parliament the proposals made by the People's Assembly for stimulating competition in politics, giving more weight to the votes cast by voters, increasing citizens' participation in politics in between elections, preventing partyization and making party financing more transparent.