Defections set stage for new balance of power in Tallinn City Council

  • 2004-09-29
  • Staff and wire reports
TALLINN - A new group of lawmakers being formed in the Tallinn City Council could upset the current supremacy of the Centrists and Reformists, analysts said this week.

Independent council deputy Erika Salumae, a former member of the Center Party, announced the creation of a new group in the council together with two other deputies who promised to leave the Center Party.

At present, the Reform Party has 11 seats in the capital's 63-strong council. The Center Party formally has 31 seats, yet it will be left with 30 when Peeter Kreitzberg, who had left the centrists to form the Social Liberal group in the Riigikogu (Estonia's parliament), retrieves his seat over the upcoming days. And now that Yuri Trumm and Vladimir Kukk announced that they would leave the Center Party, which is led by Tallinn Mayor Edgar Savisaar, could be deprived of two more seats.

Kukk, however, withdrew his resignation on Sept. 28 and stated that he would stay with the Centrists. The ranks of the Centrist-Reformist coalition will thus shrink from 42 seats to 40. Res Publica has 17 seats in the City Council, while three seats are held by the Estonian United People's Party.

The new group will be called the People's Union group, even though the People's Union party is not represented in the City Council.

Officially, the reason for the creation of the People's Union group of deputies in the Tallinn City Council was the need of a "Green-thinking" political force that would see to matters such as nature-friendly sport and leisure facilities.

Curiously, the People's Union has never promoted environment-friendly thinking as a priority. Political analysts have suggested that the Reformists can now form a new ruling coalition in Tallinn together with Res Publica and the new group of deputies. Res Publica seems willing to give it a shot, taking into account the party's recent calls for a no-confidence vote against Savisaar.

A confidence vote against Centrist Deputy Mayor Toomas Vitsus is scheduled in the City Council for Sept. 30. According to the spokesman of Res Publica's faction, the vote would be a litmus test for the opposition's readiness to remove Savisaar from the mayor's spot.

Prime Minister and Res Publica Chairman Juhan Parts said at the party congress two weeks ago that in his opinion Res Publica has the ability to make it to the ruling coalition in Tallinn and Tartu before the next municipal elections.