ERR — broadcast
20260920 213000 UTC
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[00:00:53] This morning's show, however, we start with a guest,
[00:00:56] who I think has been the media hero
[00:01:01] of recent weeks. Good morning, Kristo
[00:01:04] Envaga, good morning, good morning to your dear
[00:01:07] wife Tinne. Hello! Indeed all
[00:01:11] those who watched Estonian television, not this week's Wednesday, but last
[00:01:14] week's Wednesday's first studio, saw you participating in the big
[00:01:18] debate there, for the first time you were
[00:01:20] there representing your party, the Reform Party,
[00:01:24] you threw a fit and that show did not go at all
[00:01:28] as planned, meaning that as a result you did not go home
[00:01:31] from the TV house on your own feet, but you collapsed live
[00:01:34] on air. The only thing I actually
[00:01:38] remember from there is that I said good evening to the Estonian people
[00:01:41] and Kristo en Vaga, from the Reform Party. Good
[00:01:44] evening. And then I remember two, I think, such
[00:01:48] half-second episodes, where at one moment
[00:01:51] the host Kuusk moved towards me
[00:01:55] with a chair and then I remember the moment
[00:01:58] when Mi and Urmas, good
[00:02:01] colleagues,
[00:02:03] supported me and then I already remember that I was
[00:02:07] lying on a sofa outside the studio, with a quick drip
[00:02:10] around me and then I really understood what happened when I was
[00:02:14] in the ITK and I had a drip attached and I more or less
[00:02:17] then I was, then
[00:02:20] the whole picture
[00:02:23] came back, so more or less what just happened, at that
[00:02:27] moment I was unconscious for some time.
[00:02:31] I don't know, Stinne, you certainly watched that
[00:02:34] show, I did, maybe
[00:02:37] like this
[00:02:40] worry as such is actually an old
[00:02:43] thing, so it wasn't like I started worrying
[00:02:47] a lot in front of the TV on Wednesday evening, so
[00:02:51] then it was like, well, this
[00:02:53] overwork or working under great stress has
[00:02:57] always been an issue, so...
[00:03:00] especially when Kristo was in the Ministry of Defense during
[00:03:03] the time when Russia was planning and then also started its war against
[00:03:07] Ukraine, well, from there on, campaign manager
[00:03:10] positions, parliamentary positions, well,
[00:03:14] then we reach this summer where there were presidential elections
[00:03:17] at once, preparing for the autumn
[00:03:21] campaign, Siim's departure, well, ministerial
[00:03:24] changes, scandals, so it's not realistic for one person to bear
[00:03:28] all of that. "I want to do everything well and
[00:03:31] all these things that could be within my
[00:03:35] power or where I should be involved, I would really like to be involved there, I don't
[00:03:39] want to do things carelessly, I don't want to do
[00:03:42] things then
[00:03:45] uh like that, I
[00:03:48] want to contribute everything I do properly and that certainly takes
[00:03:51] a toll, it takes a toll on my health,
[00:03:55] it has clearly taken uh,
[00:03:58] although I thought that, well, completely as a former professional
[00:04:02] cyclist, uh, top athlete,
[00:04:04] well, I can handle everything,
[00:04:08] uh, but still, at some point things
[00:04:11] give up. How has this past week
[00:04:15] been for you, by the way?
[00:04:18] For me, it has been that hundreds
[00:04:21] of wonderful people have sent me many good
[00:04:24] messages and wishes, uh,
[00:04:28] but also boldly a couple dozen Estonian
[00:04:32] public figures from politics to entrepreneurs
[00:04:35] and everything else have told me their
[00:04:39] story, similar stories, where
[00:04:43] there has been something with the heart or some other
[00:04:46] diagnosis and that has on the other hand given me such peace of mind,
[00:04:50] that I am not alone in any way, that
[00:04:53] we are all human, but on the other hand, well, I have
[00:04:57] tried to spend more time with my family
[00:05:00] and take a break this past week. Well, I would say
[00:05:04] too that perhaps we have both become
[00:05:06] psychologists, that people still come to us a lot and
[00:05:10] start talking. My stories now, and if Kristo perhaps
[00:05:13] then uh, men
[00:05:17] uh, yes, they were exclusively men who tell me this, men
[00:05:20] complain or well, they say then that they have also had it like this and so
[00:05:24] on, so then many women have called
[00:05:27] and written to me, well, girlfriends or closer
[00:05:30] acquaintances and and and said, you know,
[00:05:33] that I completely know what you feel, I am also worried about
[00:05:37] my husband, that
[00:05:40] perhaps the whole point
[00:05:44] of this thing, or why talk about it like this here at all, is that
[00:05:47] uh, less in my opinion, that if on this story, like one person, and
[00:05:51] I say person because of course, like men are
[00:05:54] a bit more careless perhaps in taking care of their health, but actually we know that
[00:05:57] women too, for whom
[00:06:01] this can happen, that you don't deal with your health problem, you ignore it, you postpone
[00:06:04] it and then it ends with a bang, that if now one person
[00:06:08] thinks, oh, my wife here at home also said something that I should go check
[00:06:12] this or that and if he does it now, then I think that it
[00:06:15] has been worthwhile to talk about this, mhm,
[00:06:18] what happened to you? Last
[00:06:21] year I was diagnosed with a heart arrhythmia,
[00:06:25] atrial fibrillation, uh, and that
[00:06:28] means that at certain moments
[00:06:31] the so-called mm
[00:06:34] electrical system of the cardiovascular system mm goes into a short circuit,
[00:06:38] to put it very simply, and that means that the heart starts, so to speak,
[00:06:42] within a second, to put in very large amplitudes, that it is
[00:06:45] 80 at one moment, then the next second it is 140, then it drops
[00:06:49] back to 90, then it goes to 150, well, completely there like
[00:06:51] the whole system goes into an error,
[00:06:55] a complete short circuit occurs, uh, usually it lasts
[00:06:58] for about a minute or two,
[00:07:01] uh, and most likely it was the same thing that happened to me live
[00:07:04] on air and it can then lead to fainting, just a feeling of malaise, everything else, so
[00:07:08] all my other indicators were fine. You said that you remember...
[00:07:12] the first sentences from that show, so I understand, yes,
[00:07:16] why didn't you leave the show or why
[00:07:19] as much as I have heard from the show's creators,
[00:07:23] you wanted to come back all the time, you didn't even agree to leave
[00:07:26] the studio, then they brought you that chair and then I understand
[00:07:29] that your condition got so bad that you
[00:07:32] collapsed uh and then when you were taken out,
[00:07:36] an ambulance was called, you still allegedly
[00:07:40] wanted to come back to the show? "I don't
[00:07:43] remember all of that actually, but what
[00:07:46] colleagues then, who were with me, and then colleague Mihail Kõlvart
[00:07:50] also said, when he had me, I was apparently knocked down twice, you were knocked down
[00:07:53] twice, yes, first you were knocked down, yes, and I don't remember that at all,
[00:07:57] but when I was, he helped me up and he told me that
[00:08:01] he would invite me to his martial arts training, because he needed exactly such
[00:08:04] men there, who after a knockout still say that
[00:08:08] no, I'm going, I'm going back to the ring here, I'm going to finish the job."
[00:08:12] And that, I think, comes from being an athlete,
[00:08:15] that no matter how difficult the
[00:08:19] task is, I was there with a goal, I was there
[00:08:22] with the goal of
[00:08:25] being a good debate participant, my
[00:08:29] thing, my head, my body had
[00:08:32] the goal that I have to be there, I have to try to do it as well
[00:08:36] as I can, uh, and that was also
[00:08:39] what bothered me the most afterwards at first,
[00:08:42] that "I had failed in that sense, that not like not
[00:08:46] that even my health was the most serious, but
[00:08:50] but I felt ashamed, I felt
[00:08:52] embarrassed, that
[00:08:56] I let the team down, I let down the people I represented there,
[00:09:00] uh, and that was why I wanted to be there,
[00:09:04] even if I didn't understand, uh,
[00:09:07] so to speak, motor skills, uh, then or
[00:09:10] such..." "didn't allow me to leave or
[00:09:14] give up, yet the ambulance
[00:09:17] came and took you away, took me away in a wheelchair
[00:09:21] to ITK and then various examinations were done.
[00:09:24] Stinne, when did you arrive at this TV house? Uh,
[00:09:27] I understand that basically at the same time as the ambulance. What was
[00:09:31] the drive here to the TV house like for you?
[00:09:34] Uh, in that sense, because my phone was
[00:09:38] red right from the first moment, so I'm sure I was talking
[00:09:42] to someone in the car, to everyone on the phone in that sense,
[00:09:46] that it could have been Kristo's mother who called and
[00:09:49] well, was worried and then I let people know that I was going
[00:09:53] there. Kristo, you have been working at a crazy pace
[00:09:56] for a long time and now these past times too, all
[00:09:59] this culminated now with that collapse in the first studio, have
[00:10:03] you sat down together and thought,
[00:10:07] stop, what kind of life are we living now and what kind of life
[00:10:10] do we want to live? "We have discussed
[00:10:14] it, well, in that sense,
[00:10:17] how I, after the first
[00:10:21] notifications I got on my smartwatch,
[00:10:23] that something was wrong. Well, I also looked, what then,
[00:10:27] but thanks to
[00:10:31] also started then I started
[00:10:33] looking for a solution to this, so to speak,
[00:10:37] uh, was that a couple of years ago, you are now
[00:10:39] 29, I think it was then the autumn
[00:10:43] of 2024, uh,
[00:10:45] so yes, almost two years ago and
[00:10:49] then uh, and we have talked about it now,
[00:10:52] that uh, it is not sustainable.
[00:10:55] Clearly
[00:10:57] such a thing is not sustainable, such a pace in that sense, that you
[00:11:01] are actually still 24/7 uh
[00:11:04] always available, always then
[00:11:07] giving your maximum, besides that you try to still
[00:11:11] be a very good
[00:11:12] amateur athlete,
[00:11:15] uh, and do everything, that if you don't have those moments in the week
[00:11:19] where you can take time off, then then at some point it comes
[00:11:23] out, something good? Kristo promised
[00:11:25] you,
[00:11:28] now I promised that I will listen to you
[00:11:30] more, no, of course
[00:11:34] all sorts of promises have been made, right, but
[00:11:37] I understand that this uh,
[00:11:40] in that sense, that uh, the work Kristo
[00:11:44] does, that it's not like uh, oh, I know
[00:11:47] exactly where I can cut 30% less, it's not
[00:11:51] like that, well, I don't know, let's take this week's example, that ministers
[00:11:55] need to be changed, that I participate in this ministerial change
[00:11:58] but I don't do the other one, you can't do that,
[00:12:01] so it's obvious that this pace is very difficult
[00:12:05] to reduce and you just have to uh
[00:12:08] do it by force, then just set time limits, that yes, I deal
[00:12:12] with everything, but at this time I stop. You are
[00:12:15] both a member of the Parliament and the Secretary General
[00:12:18] of the Reform Party, mhm, two full-time
[00:12:21] positions, unfortunately even more than one.
[00:12:25] So, uh, has the thought of giving up
[00:12:29] these
[00:12:30] jobs not crossed your mind?
[00:12:33] In that sense, I don't think I could do anything calm, that
[00:12:36] no matter where I was then, I have also thought of course,
[00:12:40] that uh, I would like
[00:12:44] to be more seriously in the private
[00:12:47] sector at some point or actually go back to sports somehow, but no matter what I would do,
[00:12:51] it is, well, is it politics, was it sport,
[00:12:55] "I gave 110% to sports to become
[00:12:58] a top athlete, I don't know, when we have guests
[00:13:01] visiting, then we do 110% to make sure everything is ready, everything
[00:13:05] is good, people feel good, so it's not really an
[00:13:08] option for me to do something calm, something
[00:13:12] sedentary, a sedentary job,
[00:13:15] where there is low stress, I think no matter what field I
[00:13:19] would go into, I would operate more or less the same way, but it just has to
[00:13:21] uh, it just has to..."
[00:13:26] time to rest, well, Stinne, your life is also not
[00:13:29] some kind of taking it easy, you have also had a crazy career so far,
[00:13:33] you have been Andrus Ansip's office manager in Brussels, you have been Kaja Kallas's
[00:13:36] communication advisor here and there for many years, you
[00:13:40] currently work at Meta Advisors as a senior consultant for government relations,
[00:13:43] so your
[00:13:47] work pace and stress are also very high,
[00:13:51] so mm, what conclusions have you drawn,
[00:13:54] how do you take care of yourself, how do you find time for your dear child
[00:13:57] and each other?
[00:13:58] Uh, well, in that sense, that
[00:14:01] it's honest to say that I haven't always been the most
[00:14:05] exemplary in taking
[00:14:08] time for myself, that of course, there have been
[00:14:11] times when my own time and family time have also fallen
[00:14:27] somewhere, then I don't do anything carelessly, but perhaps what
[00:14:31] I have become smarter about during
[00:14:35] this time is saying no,
[00:14:37] that I can still uh, also tell people, even if
[00:14:41] another great idea comes up that needs to be done,
[00:14:44] then uh, I have found the courage
[00:14:48] in myself to say that uh, no thank you, not right now,
[00:14:51] that there are already enough activities."
[00:15:23] athletes and then that same diagnosis
[00:15:27] that I have, unfortunately have a correlation,
[00:15:30] that uh it still
[00:15:33] so to speak, the load that I have put
[00:15:36] on my body over the years, it
[00:15:39] can then start to show
[00:15:43] and and and the heart is a very, very
[00:15:47] important organ for every athlete. Both of you are actually members
[00:15:51] of the Reform Party, so young people are not in politics now and
[00:15:54] it is said that not many are coming up, because the field does not seem to be very
[00:15:58] attractive, that well, politicians are not
[00:16:01] exactly the most popular people in society,
[00:16:04] well, I will immediately give
[00:16:08] an example related to this again from a few days ago, right,
[00:16:11] that a young, beautiful, super cool
[00:16:15] experienced woman becomes the Minister of Economic Affairs
[00:16:19] and we look at the media image,
[00:16:21] it talks about who she is with, who her men
[00:16:25] have been, what children she has, who she has and what is happening on
[00:16:29] her Instagram account, next to her we have a new
[00:16:32] Minister of Defense,
[00:16:35] uh, stories only about what vision he has for the future, what
[00:16:38] positions he has held, what a great experience he has and he also has,
[00:16:42] but that uh
[00:16:46] why should I, for example, as a young woman, think why would I want to
[00:16:49] go there, why do I need it, I completely agree
[00:16:53] with Stinne, unfortunately or fortunately, no one
[00:16:57] discusses the enemy's tie color,
[00:17:00] they look at what he could do in the defense sector, but why
[00:17:04] be in politics, why, why am I also, why are so many others?
[00:17:08] It is still for the sake of our common project,
[00:17:11] this dear little Estonia where we live,
[00:17:14] this independent uh then
[00:17:18] country in this wonderful place with cool people,
[00:17:22] well, this project only moves forward if we contribute, it is not somehow self-
[00:17:25] explanatory, well
[00:17:28] the next step for Estonia or
[00:17:31] for us ourselves will not come from us feeling comfortable, someone has to contribute
[00:17:35] and and I think, I think our...
[00:17:37] especially what we have talked about, well, you want, firstly, that your next generations,
[00:17:41] similarly our daughter, that she would have an even better life, even, even
[00:17:45] more wonderful, even more stable, and that
[00:17:48] was also when I was in the Ministry of Defense at the beginning
[00:17:52] of the full-scale war, where we were probably one of the first European Union
[00:17:56] uh then delegations that visited Ukraine
[00:17:59] about a month after the start of the full-scale war, then
[00:18:02] Kyiv and Bucha Irpinn
[00:18:05] around there were probably liberated about one or two weeks
[00:18:09] ago, well, that image
[00:18:12] was was was terrible, in every
[00:18:15] sense and that was also the place where I thought, then
[00:18:18] our daughter was just half
[00:18:20] a year old, I also understood that okay, now
[00:18:24] no matter what else happens, I will try
[00:18:27] to contribute to ensuring that such a thing never happens in Estonia, that my daughter
[00:18:31] doesn't have to be under some ruins, waking up in the night
[00:18:34] to an air raid siren, well. So that's
[00:18:38] why I am in politics, why so many others are in politics, so that our next
[00:18:42] generations can also enjoy this good life
[00:18:45] that we actually have, well, I was born in a free
[00:18:48] Estonia, uh, I am immensely
[00:18:52] grateful for it, but it will not continue if we
[00:18:55] all only do that
[00:18:58] we contribute then, I don't know, to some
[00:19:01] companies and things, well, someone has to also contribute to the state, so
[00:19:05] I really, I really hope that actually... there are many young people
[00:19:09] like us, who do things at the top level
[00:19:12] in their sector, uh, and they actually discuss
[00:19:16] a lot about politics and society, but
[00:19:20] indeed, politics is
[00:19:23] in some places a bit mm a bit
[00:19:26] unpleasant, people uh, who are also
[00:19:30] there, also want to maintain the status quo, uh, they want to
[00:19:33] keep their positions and well, young people
[00:19:37] are accepted at the beginning with hugs and very nicely, oh
[00:19:41] someone is contributing, but then the next day they already start to look, oh dear, maybe
[00:19:45] this young person will take my place, well
[00:19:48] the struggle for life in politics is as tough as
[00:19:51] in any other sector.
[00:19:55] Thank you Stinne and Kristen for coming today, but
[00:19:58] coming back to the beginning of our interview,
[00:20:02] then first and foremost, you still need to think about your
[00:20:05] health, I would really like to read one line from your media post
[00:20:09] too. You can: I was diagnosed
[00:20:12] last spring with a heart arrhythmia, this is a story I was afraid to share, because
[00:20:16] it was embarrassing. How can anything be wrong with me, a healthy and athletic young
[00:20:19] person, but every time the media wrote again that some young man
[00:20:23] lost consciousness at a public sports event, and sometimes also
[00:20:27] unfortunately lost his life, I felt
[00:20:30] like urging people like me to think about their health, but I didn't
[00:20:33] dare, because I was afraid that
[00:20:37] I would then be weak if I
[00:20:41] did that and if I urged others, but
[00:20:45] it should be done more and also listening
[00:20:47] to our wives more.