By Plenary Sessions: Vladimir Arhipov

The speaker is heavily focused on supporting local authorities and ensuring regional balance. They express clear concern over the growing administrative burden placed on municipalities and call for state support to cover these costs. The speaker criticizes the "take from one, give to another" approach within the context of regional policy, emphasizing that this ultimately impoverishes everyone in the long term.

The speaker takes a clear position on Estonian foreign policy matters, strongly advocating for the retention of the Estonian Consulate General in New York while critically questioning the rationale behind its proposed closure. He/She expresses concern regarding the government's austerity measures, arguing that they are targeting the wrong areas, specifically mentioning cuts to extracurricular activities and pension indexation. Furthermore, the speaker shows interest in strengthening Estonian-Israeli relations by moving the embassy to Jerusalem.

The speaker clearly adopts a left-leaning, protective stance toward society's most vulnerable groups. He strongly criticizes the government’s cuts to extracurricular education and pension indexation, stressing that these measures primarily impact poorer children and pensioners. The speaker demands concrete measures to protect families and supports a greater role for the state in providing social assistance.

The speaker focuses on the state's crisis preparedness and the resilience of vital services, highlighting the importance of digital services and cybersecurity services. The speaker adopts a constructive but critical stance regarding the current legislation, asking clarifying questions about the rationale for a four-year risk analysis cycle during turbulent times.

The speaker adopts a clear stance on the solidarity-based sharing of NATO defense spending, strongly emphasizing that all allied nations must meet the 2% commitment. This position firmly supports Estonia's current contribution while being demanding of other countries.

The speaker adopts a distinctly critical stance regarding the performance-based budget, expressing strong concern over issues of transparency and accountability. He emphasizes the importance of the budget's legal basis and calls into question the necessity of the proposed budget amendment.

The speaker adopted a firm stance on national defense matters, backing the increase of defense spending to 5% of GDP while stressing the necessity of developing civil defense capabilities. He criticized the previous administration for unnecessarily alarming the public about the likelihood of military conflict. Furthermore, he voiced moderate concern over the proposed plans to revoke the voting rights of Russian and Belarusian citizens, arguing that such a move could exacerbate existing societal rifts.

The speaker takes a clear stance in favor of increasing flexibility in the implementation of the education reform. He strongly supports easing bureaucratic requirements and granting local governments greater autonomy in assessing teachers' language proficiency. The stance is pragmatic and focused on solving practical problems.