TOOMAS HENDRIK ILVES

'Toomas Hendrik Ilves' [IPA: 'toːmɑs 'hendrik 'ilves] (born December 26, 1953) is the current President of Estonia. He is a former diplomat and journalist, was the leader of the Social Democratic Party in the 1990s and later a member of the European Parliament. His term as President began on 9 October, 2006.

Contents

Childhood and education

Career

Presidential elections

Presidency

Personal life

Trivia

See also

Notes

References

External links

Childhood and education

Ilves was born in Stockholm, Sweden; his parents were Estonian refugees.^[1] He grew up in the United States and graduated from Leonia High School in Leonia, New Jersey in 1972. He attended and received degrees in psychology from Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania.

Career

During the 1980s, Ilves worked as a journalist for Radio Free Europe and became actively involved in politics prior to Estonia's independence in 1991. Ilves subsequently served as the ambassador of Estonia to the United States, Canada, and Mexico for several years.
In December 1996, Ilves became Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs, serving until resignation in September 1998, when he became member of a small opposition party (Peasants' Party, agrarian-conservative). Ilves was soon elected chairman of the People's Party (reformed Peasants' Party), which formed an electoral cartel with the Moderates, a centrist party. After the March 1999 parliamentary election he became foreign minister again, serving until 2002, when the so-called Triple Alliance collapsed. He supported Estonian membership in the European Union and succeeded in starting the negotiations which led to Estonia joining the European Union on May 1, 2004. From 2001 to 2002 he was the leader of the People's Party Moderates. He resigned from the position after the party's defeat in the October 2002 municipal elections, in which the party received only 4.4% of the total votes nationwide. In early 2004, the Moderates party renamed itself the Estonian Social Democratic Party.
In 2003, Ilves became a member of the European Parliament and, on May 1 2004, a full member. In the 2004 elections to the European Parliament, Ilves was elected MEP in a landslide victory for the Estonian Social Democratic Party. He sat with the Party of European Socialists group in the Parliament. Katrin Saks took over his MEP seat when Ilves became President of Estonia.

Presidential elections

Ilves was nominated by the Reform Party, Pro Patria Union and his own Social Democratic Party on 23 March, 2006, as a candidate for the 2006 presidential election.
On 29 August, Ilves was the only candidate in the second and the third round of the presidential election in Riigikogu, the Parliament of Estonia (he was supported by an electoral coalition consisting of the governing Reform Party plus the Social Democrats and the Alliance of Fatherland and Res Publica which form the parliamentary opposition). The elections were boycotted by the Centre Party and the People's Union (the MPs were called upon by the party leaders not to participate in the election). Ilves gathered 64 votes out of 65 ballots. Therefore, one deputy of the three party alliance supporting Ilves did not vote in favour of his candidacy. A two-third majority in the 101-seat Riigikogu was required, so he was not elected in Riigikogu. His candidacy was automatically transferred to the next round in the Electors' Assembly on 23 September.
On September 13 2006, a broad spectrum of 80 well-known intellectuals published a declaration in support of Ilves' candidacy. Among those who signed were Neeme Järvi, Jaan Kross, Arvo Pärt and Jaan Kaplinski.^[2]
On September 23 2006 he received 174 ballots in the first round of the presidential election in the ''Electors' Assembly'', thus having been elected the next president of Estonia. His five-year term started on 9 October 2006.
Ilves has promised to concentrate more on foreign policy; according to Ilves, "The road to Moscow goes via Brussels." He also wishes to move Estonia politically more towards the centre of Europe. With regard to Estonia's domestic policies, he has supported re-affirming the president's role as a moral arbitrator in case of leading politicians' misdeeds. Ilves has severely criticised alleged political pressure exercised by the Centre Party and People's Union leaders over their parliamentary deputies and local politicians. Edgar Savisaar in turn has expressed dissatisfaction with Ilves' victory.

Presidency

Personal life

Toomas Hendrik Ilves has been married twice. With his first wife, American psychologist Dr. Merry Bullock, he has two children: son Luukas (b. 1987), currently attending Stanford University, and daughter Juulia Kristiine (b. 1992). In 2004 he married his long-term partner Evelin Int-Lambot with whom he has one daughter Kadri Keiu (b. 2003).
Toomas Hendrik Ilves has a brother, Andres Ilves, head of the Persian and Pashto World Service of the BBC. Andres is an avid follower of hip hop, graduated from Princeton University in the early 1980s and was awarded a fellowship with the prestigious public affairs leadership training program Coro Southern California based in Los Angeles, California. Until the early 2000s, Andres Ilves was head of the Afghanistan bureau of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty based in Prague, Czech Republic.

Trivia

★ Ilves is the fourth youngest elected head of state in the European Union, after Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov, Latvian President Valdis Zatlers and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

★ He almost exclusively wears bow ties in public. He claims that this is because his late father used to do so.^[3]

★ ''The Economist'' listed Ilves as a "Star in the making" in January 2007.^[4]

★ Estonians almost never skip his middle name. In Estonian, he is always Toomas Hendrik Ilves, not Toomas Ilves, while president Lennart Georg Meri was always called just Lennart Meri.

★ Ilves was one of the early proponents of the Tiigrihüpe (''Tiger's Leap'') program. This has been used in political humour, as ''Ilves'' means ''Lynx'' in Estonian.

See also

★ Valdas Adamkus, Lithuanian President and, like Ilves, a former U.S. citizen

★ Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga

Notes

1. U.S.-Educated Diplomat Wins in Estonia
2. 80 kultuuritegelast hakkasid Ilvese usaldusmeesteks
3. Online intervjuu: Toomas Hendrik Ilves
4. [http://www.economist.com/daily/columns/europeview/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8491837 Europe.view, "The Economist", January 4 2007

References

★ "Estonians elect former exile as new president", DPA, September 23 2006

★ "Ilves wins Estonia's presidential election", AP, 23 September 2006

External links

★ Official Website of the President of the Republic of Estonia

★ Personal website