Vilja Savisaar, chairwoman of Parliament's Center Party faction and wife of Center Chairman Edgar Savisaar, could potentially become the new Tallinn mayor. In a talk show on Kanal2 television, Vilja Savisaar didn't rule out the possibility. She said that her family had not yet discussed if her husband would carry on as economy minister, nor if she would take on the reins of mayor. "Why not?" Vilja Savisaar asked. "Eventually, it will be my decision whether or not I want that role." After the municipal elections last month the Center Party has 32 of 63 seats on the council.
Finland's former leaders declined almost all of Estonia's requests for help against Moscow when the Baltic country was in the process of regaining its independence, said Edgar Savisaar, who was speaking in Helsinki while presenting his memoirs of those years. Savisaar, who headed the government from 1990-1992, said that, according to Finland's STT news agency, both the Social Democratic president of Finland, Mauno Koivisto, and Coalition Party Prime Minister Harri Holkeri avoided giving any promises of help to Estonia at the time.
Foreign Minister Urmas Paet told the daily Postimees that he supported Turkey's membership in the European Union. Looking at Turkey's role in the second half of the last century, its NATO membership and contribution to the balance of forces during the Cold War, it was clear that Turkey had played an important role in defending and preserving the democratic world, he said.
Res Publica intends to turn to the Supreme Court over the national election commission's refusal to annul the results of the Oct. 16 municipal elections in the city of Narva. The commission found that four polling stations in Narva lacked voting booths during the period of advance voting. Investigators did not, however, establish that election officials watched over voters.
