Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja’s expression of condolence on the death of President Lennart Meri

Press Release 58/2006
14 March 2006

The sorrowful news of the passing of Lennart Meri, former President of Estonia, means not only the drawing to a close of the life of a torchbearer for Estonia’s new era but also the end of a great period in history. Lennart Meri was the first person to be elected President of the Republic of Estonia in free elections after the Second World War. Born on 29 March 1929, Meri was the son of Georg Meri, an Estonia diplomat, author and translator. He was educated in Berlin, Paris and Tallinn. From a current perspective, one might perhaps think that Meri lived the life of an explorer and an EU citizen long before Estonia acceded to membership of the European Union.

Those days in August 1991 when Foreign Minister Lennart Meri, working out of the offices of the Tuglas-seura Society on Mariankatu in Helsinki, led efforts to obtain recognition for Estonia’s newly regained independence made the crucial moments in our neighbour country’s fate a concrete part of our country’s history. Lennart Meri himself recalled those significant moments when the blue, black and white flag of Estonia appeared on his car and people on the streets of Helsinki applauded upon seeing the flag: “I leaned against the corner of the back seat and felt what happiness means when a person can recognise the happiest moment in his life before that fleeting moment has passed.”

The people of Estonia have lost a great leader and the people of Finland a great friend.