Madise tells Riigikogu speaker she would agree to run for president

At the Riigikogu Council of Elders meeting on Tuesday, August 11, much of the debate centered on what Chancellor of Justice Ülle Madise actually meant in her letter to parliament speaker Lauri Hussar. EKRE chairman Martin Helme said members spent about half an hour discussing the meaning of the brief letter.

With Madise's permission, ERR published the letter in full. In it, she thanks the speaker and all Riigikogu members who, in discussing her potential nomination for president with her, understood her position as head of an independent constitutional institution.

Madise confirms that if a sufficient majority of Riigikogu members decide she should continue serving the state as president, she agrees to run. Should a vote confirm the members' choice, she would take on that responsibility.

Same position stated last week

Madise expressed an identical stance last Thursday when responding to a question about a potential conflict of roles, since she is simultaneously Chancellor of Justice and one of the possible presidential candidates. At that time she noted that Riigikogu members had not asked for her consent to be nominated, nor had she offered her own candidacy. She said that to all statements made independently of her, she had responded that the Chancellor of Justice does not and cannot align herself with any party, coalition or opposition.

She added that if a situation arose where an overwhelming majority of Riigikogu members — regardless of the divide between coalition and opposition, or between ideological camps — concluded that she was the person suited to the presidency under current circumstances, and asked for her consent to be nominated as a presidential candidate in the Riigikogu, she would consider it very seriously.