President of Estonia
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The President of the Republic (Estonian: Eesti Vabariigi President) is the head of state of the Republic of Estonia. As Estonia is a parliamentary democracy, the President is mainly a symbolic figure and doesn't hold executive power. The President is obliged to suspend his or her membership in any political party during the term (this measure should help the President in being more independent and impartial).
The current President is Toomas Hendrik Ilves, who was elected to the post by an electoral college on 23 September 2006.
According to the 1992 Constitution of Estonia, the following duties are attributed to the President:
- Representing Estonia in international relations.
- Conferring diplomatic ranks, appointing and recalling diplomatic representatives of Estonia, accepting letters of credence from foreign diplomatic representatives accredited to Estonia, signing instruments of ratification, etc.
- Promulgating laws or returning them to the Riigikogu (the Parliament of Estonia) for new deliberations. However, the President cannot veto a law twice if it is passed by Riigikogu for a second time with no amendments.
- The President has the right to initiate amendment of the Constitution.
- He is the Supreme Commander of Estonia's national defense, convenes and presides over the National Defense Council and confers military ranks.
The Prime Minister is formally nominated by the president, but has to be approved by the Parliament.
The President is elected by the Riigikogu for a five-year term; if he or she does not secure two-thirds of the votes after three rounds of balloting, then an electoral assembly (made up of Parliament plus members of local governments) elects the president, choosing between the two candidates with the largest percentage of votes.
The President can not be elected for more than two consecutive terms.
History
Estonia didn't have a president from 1918 to 1938. This institution was intentionally left out of the first Estonian constitution, for its authors tried to avoid the concentration of power in one hands by all means possible. This eventually lead to a creation of an ultra-parliamentary system. The power of the Parliament was practically unlimited and the Government was totally controlled by the Parliament. The functions that are usually vested on a president in parliamentary systems were divided among the speaker of Riigikogu, the State Elder and the Government. Until 1934, the nominal head of state was the State Elder. (riigivanem), who was also head of the government. However, he could not play a balancing role, should there be any conflict between the Parliament and the Government. The State Elder was completely dependent on the Parliament and could be sacked by it at any time. Estonia's constitution was amended in 1933, transforming the country from a parliamentary to a presidential state. The head of state, according to the new constitution, was also called the State Elder. However, this provision never came into effect as a result of Konstantin Päts's coup d'état in 1934. According to the third Constitution of Estonia, the role of the head of state and also a strong executive power was vested upon the President of the Republic. Konstantin Päts became the first person to bear this title. His term was to last for six years, but ended short as Estonia became a part of the Soviet Union in 1940, Päts was forced to resign and later arrested.
After the Soviet rule was set in Estonia in 1940 the institution of the President of the Republic was abolished. According to the Constitution of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Estonia, the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council was considered a nominal "head of state". In reality, his powers were minimal.
There also existed a so-called "exile government of the Republic of Estonia", the head of which was formally called "the Prime Minister in the duties of the President". However, The legitimacy of this institution could be put under question, for it consisted of the members of the Jüri Uluots government (the last government of Estonia before it "joined" the Soviet Union (according to official Russian interpretation) / or "violently occupied" (according to official Estonian interpretation). In reality, that composition of the Government had already been sacked by the President Konstantin Päts' decree in June 1940 and a new composition of the Government headed by Johannes Vares Barbarus was sworn in. So, should the respective presidential decree be considered legal, the government of Jüri Uluots and all so-called "Prime Ministers in the duties of the President" could not have had any legal power after June 1940. However, the official interpretation of Estonian authorities is that the respective decree was "illegal" due to President's "incompetence" at the time he signed that decree.
After Estonia regained independence, a parliamentary constitution was adopted again. Four elections have taken place (in 1992, 1996, 2001 and 2006), in all of which the parliament failed to choose the President and the election passed to the electoral assembly. Lennart Meri was elected in 1992 and re-elected in 1996, defeating Arnold Rüütel both times. Rüütel himself became the next President in 2001. In 2006, Toomas Hendrik Ilves won the election.
Duties of the President according to Estonian Constitution
The President of the Republic of Estonia:
1. acts as the highest representative of the Republic in international affairs (this task includes signing the international treaties, should the Government approve it);
2. on the proposal of the Government appoints and recalls the diplomatic representatives of the Republic of Estonia to foreign states and international organizations; receives the credentials of the diplomatic agents accredited to Estonia;
3. declares regular elections of the Riigikogu (the Parliament of Estonia) and, pursuant to respective provisions of the Constitution, its extraordinary elections. Extraordinary elections can be announced by the President at four occasions: if the Parliament turns to be unable to pass the State Budget Act; if the Parliament fails to obtain the nation's approval on a referendum; if the Parliament fails to elect the Prime-Minister after it receives the opportunity (at those occasions announcing extraordinary elections is obligatory and the President simply acts as the "highest notary" of the state);or if the Parliament passes a censure motion against the Government, and the Government, in its turn, asks the President to consider announcing extraordinary elections (in this case the President may, however, say "no", if he founds organizing extraordinary elections unneeded);
4. convenes the new membership of the Riigikogu and open its first session;
5. if needed, proposes to the Chairman of the Riigikogu to convene an extraordinary session of the Riigikogu;
6. promulgates laws and signs the instruments of ratification. The President may refuse to sign a bill into law within 14 days after its receipt if he finds it contrary to the Constitution of Estonia or inappropriate for some political reasons. In this case the President returns the bill to Riigikogu with a motivation of his decision. When that happens, Riigikogu may re-discuss the issue and make changes to the bill before passing it again, drop the matter, or pass the bill without changes for a second time. When Riigikogu takes the third option, the president may not simply refuse to sign the bill into law anymore but if he still believes it to be unconstitutional, he can ask Riigikohus (the Supreme Court) to rule on its constitutionality. If Riigikohus finds no violation of constitution, the President must sign the bill into law. On the other hand, the Constitution of Estonia doesn't specify, in what period of time the President has to make his decision if the parliament passes the bill for a second time with no changes or when the Supreme Court rules on the bills constitutionality. However, the President never misused this omission for blocking the legislative process, for in this case it could be considered as an inability to carry out his constitutional duties, which may theoretically lead to a forced removal from office, should the Supreme Court support such a decision;
7. may initiate amendment of the Constitution. Until now this right has been used at two occasions only. President Lennart Meri proposed to introduce direct elections of the President and to found a Constitutional Court on the last day of his stay in office. Sadly, this proposal did not find support within the walls of the Parliament. The Republic's current President Toomas-Hendrik Ilves recently proposed to remove mentioning the institution of the Commander and the Commander-in-Chief of the Defense Forces from the Constitution, so that he or she could be appointed by the Government, and not by Riigikogu. This proposal has already been supported by the Government and has all chances of coming into force;
8. after appropriate consultations with the parliamentary fractions nominates the candidate for the post of the Prime Minister (who is normally the leader of the parliamentary coalition), who has to go through an approval vote in Riigikogu. If the candidate for the post of the Prime-Minister,nominated by the President, fails to receive the parliamentary approval or finds himself to be incapable of forming the Government, the President may nominate another candidate. If this candidate fails to receive the approval of the Parliament as well or if the President refuses to nominate another candidate, the right to nominate the Prime-Minister is transferred to Riigikogu;
9. on the proposal of the Prime-Minister formally appoints to office and dismisses members of the Government, whereas the Prime-Minister's proposal is binding for the President. The President may not refuse to appoint or dismiss a minister, should the Prime-Minister make a respective proposal. So the President's role is virtually limited with a formal signing of the respective documents;
10. nominates the Chairman of the Supreme Court, the Chairman of the Board of the Bank of Estonia, the Auditor General, the Legal Chancellor, and the Commander or the Commander-in-Chief (at time of war) of the Defense Forces. The President may, theoretically, nominate any candidate at his or her discretion. However, the traditions of a parliamentary republic suppose that the President organizes respective consultations with the parliamentary fractions and proposes only such a candidate that will be able to gain the support of Riigikogu, for all of those officers must pass through an approval vote in the Parliament before they can take their office;
11. on the proposal of the Board of the Bank of Estonia, appoints to office the President of the Bank of Estonia. The President may , however, refuse to accept the proposal and demand for another candidate to be proposed (theoretically for an unlimited number of times). This option was exercised by President Lennart Meri, which was a significant scandal at the time.
12. on the proposal of the Supreme Court, appoints judges (it's also important to mention that judges appointed by the President may be taken to legal responsibility only with the President's consent);
13. on the proposal of the Government of the Republic and the Commander of the Defense Forces, appoints to and releases from office the leadership of the Defense Forces. In this case the President also has a right to overthrow a proposal (see 11);
14. confers state decorations, military and diplomatic ranks;
15. is the Supreme Commander of the National Defense Forces of Estonia (in reality, this function is usually considered symbolic);
16. makes proposals to the Riigikogu to declare a state of war, to order mobilization and demobilization and to declare a state of emergency;
17. declares, in case of aggression against Estonia, a state of war, orders mobilization, and appoints the Commander-in-Chief of the Defense Forces (in this case the President does not have to wait for the Parliament's decision and appoints the Commander-in-Chief at his own discretion);
18. by way of clemency, releases or grants commutation to convicted offenders at their request;
19. initiates the bringing of criminal charges against the Legal Chancellor.
Presidents of Estonia
1938 to 1940
| Name | Start of Term | End of Term | Party | |
| 1 | Konstantin Päts | 24 April 1938 | 23 July 1940 | Isamaaliit |
1992 to present
| Name | Start of Term | End of Term | Party (before elected) | |
| 2 | Lennart Meri | October 6 1992 | October 8 2001 | Pro Patria |
| 3 | Arnold Rüütel | October 8 2001 | October 9 2006 | People's Union of Estonia |
| 4 | Toomas Hendrik Ilves | October 9 2006 | October 10 2011 | Social Democratic Party |