This will require the council to meet on an extraordinary basis during the summer break; the issue is ostensibly the reason for a split in the coalition between the Reform Party on the one side, and Eesti 200, the Social Democrats (SDE) and Eesti 200 on the other.

Tallinn Deputy Mayor Aleksei Jašin (Eesti 200) found that Thursday's meeting had given him more hope for the coalition's stability, adding he hopes consensus will hold at this afternoon's Tallinn city council session starting 4 p.m., while Deputy Mayor Pärtel-Peeter Pere (Reform) said that the decision has served to deepen the confusion.

Pere added that just as at state level, where crises must be resolved by the prime minister, at city level it must be handled by Mayor Jevgeni Ossinovski (SDE), adding the Reform Party expects quick action from him.

At the Tallinn coalition council meeting on Thursday, Jašin confirmed that the supplementary budget and proposed amendments were struck off the agenda and redirected to a second reading at an extraordinary city council session scheduled for July 21.

Jašin said this "gives us the opportunity to take a substantive look into the issues of kindergartens and early childhood education," while noting that the Reform Party's proposal "involves financial costs," meaning funding sources must be found.

The deputy mayor said it's unclear whether limiting kindergarten attendance to one or two days per week can be resolved and noted that Eesti 200 wants to discuss early education quality, highlighting three main issues: low salaries for teacher assistants, limited support services for children with special needs, and the slow pace of creating new kindergarten places.

Deputy Mayor Pere said the city government cannot conscionably go on its summer break before deciding on scrapping kindergarten fees from September 1, adding, "We would have been ready to decide today... Delays erode trust."

The vote on the budget was postponed to July 21 due to coalition disagreements. He urged quick action and possible funding from a tree-planting campaign, while Jašin stressed that solving early education issues requires more than one vote.

Jašin added that key budget decisions must be voted on as a package on July 21, with budget talks starting next week to ensure long-term certainty.

Kindergarten fees were already cut from €71 per child per month to €50, starting April 1. When Reform and the opposition Center Party both issued press releases within an hour and a half of each other earlier on this month, it prompted claims of collusion, with Reform acting to pre-empt the October 19 local election result by forming a coalition with Center instead, ahead of that – a claim Pere has rejected.

--

Follow ERR News on Facebook, Bluesky and X and never miss an update!