TALLINN - Amid internal strife in the Center Party, which has significantly hurt the party's rating, party Chairman and Tallinn Mayor Edgar Savisaar infuriated the parliamentary European affairs committee chairman when he decided to hold a meeting at a nearby government residence rather than at Parliament's seat in Toompea.
The mayor proposed that the parliamentary foreign and European affairs committee meet at a city government residence to speak about his recent trip to the Russian capital, as he doesn't want to travel to Toompea.
"Since Parliament members are showing sincere interest in the meetings in Moscow, the issue won't get stuck behind us. We suggested that the meeting would take place on May 6 in the city government's Roosikrantsi residence," Raimond Kaljulaid, adviser to the mayor, told the Baltic News Service.
Unexpected complications surfaced over recent days, he said, when parliamentarians told the city that the meeting would take place only if its delegation came to Toompea.
"It was a surprise to us," Kaljulaid said. "But we forgive them this lack of tactfulness, and we are still ready to receive them and satisfy their curiosity. If they are seriously interested, they will come. If they don't come, it shows that they didn't have a serious interest from the very start and their only aim was to show the city its place."
Chairman of the parliamentary European affairs committee, Rein Lang, called Savisaar's behavior outrageous.
"The mayor is a public servant. In a parliamentary country matters are not handled this way - that a public servant would announce: figure out how you're going to cope yourselves, I just am not coming," said Lang, who is also a member of the ruling coalition's Reform Party. "We won't leave it like this."
The conflict is in no way helping the Center Party, whose rating has sunk to 13 percent - the lowest level in three years - according to the latest survey by Emor. Polls conducted in February and March showed that the largest Estonian political party once enjoyed the support of 19 percent of the population.
"No wonder the rating is the lowest in the past three years, because the mood in the party is the lowest in the past three years too," said the party's secretary general, Kadri Must.
She added that, regrettably, party members themselves have caused the drop. "But once we resolve these personal disagreements, our rating will rise to the traditional 20 percent again for sure," Must said.
EMOR sociologist Tonis Saarts observed that if the party's rebellious camp leaders either left or were expelled, it stood to lose a significant number of voters. In this case, the rating may be destined to stay at 13-16 percent.
The Reform Party, a member of the ruling coalition, somewhat surprisingly posted the biggest rise with an 18 percent approval in the April poll, compared with 10 percent in March.
Saarts suggested that voters disappointed with the Center Party could have defected to the Reform Party.
"There's been rotation on the Center-Reform axis earlier too," he said.
Support for other parties did not change as much. Res Publica was supported by 14 percent and the People's Union and Social Democrats by 8 percent each. Pro Patria Union was the choice of 7 percent of survey respondents.
