BNN
March 13, 2018
Baltic news, News from Latvia, BNN.LV, BNN-NEWS.COM, BNN-NEWS.RU
http://bnn-news.com/protesters...
Estonian historian Jaak Valge
In Tallinn, a protest in favour of direct democracy in Estonia has been held on Monday, March 12, with participants asking for the reintroduction of the direct-democratic initiative set forth by Estonia’s current constitution.
Estonian public broadcaster ERR reports that March 12 had been selected for the event as on the same date in 1934, Estonia’s period of authoritarian rule begun that took away from the Estonian people the right to introduce new draft legislation using the instrument of a direct-democratic initiative or to ask for a referendum to be held on existing laws.
Head of the Terve Rahvas (Estonian for Whole Nation) foundation, historian Jaak Valge, has explained that the reintroduction of the initiative is extremely important for the proper functioning of the Estonian people as the highest power in the state in line with the Constitution: «Direct democracy as we understand it doesn’t replace our representative democracy, but rather completes it».
Among the speakers and the protesters at the event, there were members of the leadership of the Estonian Conservative People’s Party, family values activist, Varro Vooglaid, and Estonian independent MEP Indrek Tarand.