Miranti Karsto

Background

I still remember the day I first realized we could be more than what we were. It wasn’t in a grand hall or some shining moment of clarity. It was during a routine visit to a small cliffside commune... the kind of place most maps forget. A boy handed me a handful of soil, dark and damp, and told me, without hesitation, “This is the last patch of living ground in our entire commune, the rest is poisoned."   And I remember just standing there. Holding that soil. Realizing how far we had drifted from each other... how many voices like his had been shouting into silence. That patch was all they had left. They’d fought for years to restore their land, planting, filtering, doing everything right. But the toxins ran deeper than they could reach, and help never came. They weren’t lacking in care or effort. They were simply alone.   For so long, we let mistrust, pride, and distance keep us scattered. Our communes, our cultures... they all wanted the same things. Peace. Safety. Dignity. A future. But every time one tried to rise, they were crushed by the weight of going alone.   That’s when it became clear to me: we were never meant to stand alone.   We’ve shared the same dreams for centuries. All we lacked was trust. And now? Now we stand together, not because it’s easy—but because it’s right. The tulip flag doesn’t represent perfection. It represents promise: that no voice will go unheard, no patch of living earth unprotected, no community left behind.   I don’t stand here as a hero. I stand as someone who once felt just as powerless as many of you. I’ve made mistakes. I’ve doubted this path. But I’ve seen what unity can do. I’ve felt what it means when a dream once impossible starts to bloom.   We’re not just building a nation, we’re healing one.   And I swear to you, as one voice among many: I will never let that boy’s soil be forgotten. I will never let this dream wither.  

First Councillor Miranti Karsto, Parliamentary Address c. 1 EC