P2P: Politics to People

20/10/2020

🎙️ Aaaaaas promised: a podcast covering the event "Did You Know That You Can Vote?" 🎙️

Click on the link and you'll get to treat yourself to 31 minutes and 9 seconds of

📻 majestic podcast intro/outro music
📻 smooth talkin' by our talk show host Martin Daniel Hayford
📻 and some spicy political rhetoric by our guests from the two biggest opposing parties in Estonia - Markus Meier, a city council advisor, from the Centre Party, and Mihkel Lees, the vice mayor of Tartu, from the Reform Party.

Also, as it should go without mentioning, one could hear a bucketload of important facts for the foreigners residing in Estonia - did you know that you could vote while living here? But under which circumstances exactly? And how did the all-male cast approach the question of female-representation?

Listen to the fruit of our hard work and find out!

“Bullcr*p”. That’s how the vice mayor of Tartu, a Reform Party member Mihkel Lees, commented on EKRE’s idea of arranging a referendum on marriage on the day of local municipality elections in fall 2021. He also mentioned that “it’s basically laziness and stupidity that we haven’t done ...

13/10/2020

A rather small event… But a rather significant outcome.

A common consensus was reached: party platforms for local municipality elections taking place the next fall need to be translated into English.

Tartu’s vice mayor, a Reform party member Mihkel Lees, realised as a conclusion at the end of “Politics 2 People: Did You Know That You Can Vote?” that too little has been done to reach international residents within the given elections.

The fact that party programs have remained either Estonian or Russian in the context of local municipality elections could be considered a wee bit surprising - as Andrus Punt, a Reform Party member slash city councilor mentioned, “the foreign vote” could be responsible for making up to 2 to 3 seats within the ranks of the City Council.

A Centre Party advisor in the City Council, Markus Meier, believes that the international residents of Tartu are ripe to take part in governing by reaching out to vote.

Think about it. 2 or 3 politicians could depend on your vote. That’s quite an impact that you, an international resident, hold in your hands.

📌 📌 📌

If you missed the event and are interested in the discussion, worry not: we’ll come up with a podcast soon enough to share our knowledge concerning the topic.

Oh, almost forgot to say - our team is awfully thankful for everyone that took part in the event last Thursday evening. You all took a step towards making this city into a better place for everyone to live in.

Staaaaaaaay tuned for more!!!

08/10/2020

Andrus Punt, city councillor and Estonian Reform Party member is eager to hear and talk with you.

Apart from raising awareness that internationals can vote in local elections, we try connecting international residents with local politics and issues.

This Thursday, at 20.00 - do join us at GenKlubi (the second floor of Möku) and have a chat with our guests.

07/10/2020

Markus Meier, a city councilor and Keskerakond party member, is eager to hear you out and talk with you.

Apart from raising awareness that internationals can vote in local elections, we try connecting international residents with local politics and issues.

This Thursday, at 20.00 - do join us at GenKlubi (the second floor of Möku) and have a chat with our guests.

28/09/2020

Hello Estonia!

The P2P team is composed of Masters students in the European Union - Russia Studies program at the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies at the University of Tartu.

P2P: Politics to People is a project we are launching in order to sustainably impact political education in Estonia among Estonians as well as international residents. We will be doing this through a series of events that focus on political education and participation, with a focus on the upcoming Estonian elections.

Our first event, "Did you know that you can vote?" addresses the perhaps little known fact that foreigners can vote in local elections. We will interactively explore what is important to us as foreigners and have an opportunity to talk to the politicians who represent our city!