TALLINN - The tense situation in the Tallinn City Council exacerbated last week as one more Center Party member agreed to leave party ranks and join the newly created People's Union group.
Center Party member Vitali Faktulin announced that he had left the centrists' faction in the council, as well as the party, to join the People's Union on Sept. 30.
However, in an enigmatic move Faktulin was hired on the same day as a political adviser to Interior Minister Margus Leivo. The move puzzled many since Leivo, a member of the People's Union, previously did not have a political adviser.
According to local media, the People's Union hired a security service to guard Faktulin, who had apparently expressed concern over his personal safety after receiving a number of threatening phone calls from Center Party members.
Nevertheless, the third defection in two weeks further muddied the City Council's situation.
The new council faction, the People's Union, was created last week by independent deputy Erika Salumae, who also left the Center Party, and former Centrist Juri Trumm, who left the party last week.
The current coalition between the Center Party and the Reform Party in Tallinn's 63-seat City Council holds 39 seats, of which the Centrists occupy 28. The opposition lists Res Publica (17 seats), the Estonian United People's Party (three seats), the newly created People's Union group (three deputies) and ex-Center Party member Peeter Kreitzberg, who has yet to choose his affiliation after recently returning to the council.
Beset by the defections, the Center Party, which is in the national legislature's opposition, will likely seek some sort of deal on the 2005 budget with the Reform Party in order to keep its partner in the coalition.
The reformists said earlier that they were interested in spending more money on renovating schools and roads in downtown Tallinn (both the center and Old Town).
"If there is a will, there is a way to reach a compromise. The budget is not an obstacle for which the coalition should collapse," Toomas Vitsut, deputy mayor and Center Party member, told the Postimees daily this week.
Rain Veetousme, deputy chairman of the Res Publica faction on the City Council, said the centrists would likely make concessions on the municipal budget in order to keep reformists in the boat.
"It is a question of its own whether the possible concessions be sufficient. First, we're talking about an election-year budget. Second, there may be questions more important than the budget, such as choosing an authoritarian or democratic style of city administration," said Veetousme.
The Res Publica sponsored no-confidence motion against Mayor Edgar Savisaar will be either held at a regular council session on Oct. 14, or earlier at an extraordinary session, Veetousme said.
"I don't agree with the statement that the coalition change in Tallinn is being pushed by Toompea. The centrists may assume Res Publica is being run on the same authoritarian principles as they, but that is not so. In our party the work at the national and local levels is completely separated," said Veetousme.
He added that Faktulin's joining the People's Union group clearly shows that the Center Party faction has reached an administrative crisis on the Tallinn council level.
Pavel Starostin of the Center Party faction said that the whole situation looked as if the People's Union's was preparing for the next municipal elections (in 2005). He added that it was not fair for the People's Union, a party that failed to overcome the electoral threshold in Tallinn at the last municipal elections, is now creating a deputy group with such methods.
"I suppose we are dealing with the People's Union manipulating members of the City Council to gain better grounds for the next elections," said Starostin.
If the People's Union is instrumental in helping overthrow the current coalition on the City Council, the party could earn key administrative posts in the capital and thus make its presence more definable for voters, Starostin explained.
Otherwise, a possible coalition change in Tallinn depends upon the Reform Party alone, at least for purely arithmetic reasons, the council member explained.
"Theoretically it is possible that a new coalition will be formed. However, when I imagine how mixed-up the new coalition would be, I think there may be problems with matching the interests and ambitions of all its players," said Starostin.
"My understanding is that shaking the coalition in Tallinn is being done from Toompea [district where the government house stands. - ed.], and the future depends upon agreements inside the national coalition. Tallinn is a town way too important during general elections, and so the political struggle here neglects no options," he said.
The ruling coalition in the national government includes Res Publica, the Reform Party and the People's Union.
Starostin noted that Center Party faction members who had recently left or attempted to leave the faction originally made it onto the City Council thanks to the so-called compensatory mandates - or seats gained - due to the great number of votes received at the 2002 municipal elections.
In Estonia deputies can migrate from faction to faction as they like during the entire standing legislature term, whether it be on the municipal or federal level.
The Center Party will discuss later this month whether to expel Faktulin and Trumm from the Center Party.
