The presidential election campaign is already underway, even before any candidates have been announced. Unfortunately, the focus of the current campaign is not on who will personally become president or what expectations we have for the new head of state. Instead, the central issue is which political forces will reach an agreement among themselves on the next president.

The Reform camp's lifeline

The first real sign of this campaign has been the ongoing smear campaign against the current president, Alar Karis. President Karis has on several occasions criticized the current government's actions when they have conflicted with democratic principles or the Constitution. And it's clear that such principled behavior is inconvenient for the ruling coalition parties and the Social Democrats alike.

The Reform Party and Eesti 200 have already announced that they will begin looking for a new presidential candidate within the coalition council. The Social Democrats, though formally expelled from the government, have also expressed a desire to see the next president elected by the Riigikogu. In other words, the alliance between the Reform Party, the Social Democrats and Eesti 200 already has the groundwork laid to find a candidate that suits them.

To elect a president in the Riigikogu, 68 votes are needed. In addition to the votes from this trio, they will need support from nine unaffiliated MPs. If the Riigikogu fails to elect a president, the decision moves to the Electoral College where the majority shifts to the other political parties and electoral alliances, producing a far broader-based result. But broad-based consensus is not what the ruling parties are aiming for.

Why are this year's presidential elections so driven by political engineering? Considering the government's approval rating is holding below 15 percent and that it's likely a different coalition will take office next spring, these elections are a last-ditch effort by the current governing parties to use their still-valid mandate to push through a head of state who aligns with their ideological worldview. They want to secure a president who will remain their ideological ally for the next five years — even if a new government comes to power after the next parliamentary election.

Eesti 200, through Minister [of Foreign Affairs] Margus Tsahkna, has openly stated that in their view, the new president must act as an opponent to the next government. But this entire political game contradicts the very purpose of having a president in Estonia in the first place.

Estonia is a parliamentary republic, which means the president's role is primarily representative. Yet that representational function is substantial and multifaceted. After Estonia regained independence, it was Lennart Meri who, through his personal stature, opened many doors for the country. Today, Finnish President Alexander Stubb's round of golf with U.S. President Donald Trump may be a more effective form of diplomacy than attending major international summits. In the end, big politics is conducted not so much between countries as between people.

The president's importance as a representative figure isn't limited to the international stage — it applies domestically, too. In other words, the Estonian president isn't just a kind of foreign minister, but first and foremost a unifier of the Estonian people. The more internal tension and polarization we face, the more the president must turn toward the people and balance out different sides. This balancing does not mean deliberately opposing the will of voters or the worldview of the sitting government, as the current ruling parties would like to see from their successor. A president should not represent a single worldview, but all the people of Estonia.

The Estonian president is required to remain politically neutral and unaffiliated with any party during their term in office. This is not just a formal requirement — it is a substantive one. Put simply, the president's worldview must be the Constitution of the Republic of Estonia, in its most objective form. The president must step in not when a party finds something inconvenient, but when the people of Estonia are being wronged — whether through laws or general political attitudes. The president must seek common ground and help shape the country's direction.

The most important quality in a president is one that seems to have been forgotten: statesmanship. It is the president's detachment from party politics that allows them to see the big picture and help steer the country beyond a single election cycle.

In my view, Alar Karis has fulfilled this role well. His disagreements with the government have not been based on political ideology, but on the values enshrined in our Constitution. He hasn't shaped debates around which individuals or parties are right or wrong, but around how Estonia can become a freer, more prosperous and fairer country.

The people should elect the president

Even now, eight months ahead of the presidential election, the topic of direct presidential elections is once again being discussed. And indeed, the people should have the right to elect their president themselves. Until now, the main counterargument has been that, since the president's powers are very limited, voters may develop unrealistic expectations about what the office can actually deliver.

At this point, however, it seems that it is the governing parties who fail to understand the president's role. The government, together with the Social Democrats, has shown no interest in electing an apolitical president who serves the public interest. Instead, they aim to extend their own political power through the presidency — power they are expected to lose in the next Riigikogu elections a year from now. This suggests that the current system of electing the president may no longer serve its intended purpose and the time has come to finally give that right to the people of Estonia where it truly belongs.

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