"We can no longer move forward with the current mayor, or resolve the leadership crisis that has arisen in the city," Pere wrote on behalf of the Reform Party to Tallinn's coalition partners — the Social Democratic Party (SDE), Isamaa and Eesti 200 — in the culmination of a growing rift.

In a phone interview with ERR, Pere declined to specify whether the Reform Party would move to formally oust the mayor with a no-confidence motion.

"Our party group believes that changes are needed in the balance of power within this coalition," he replied. "The leadership crisis in the capital is a serious one, and the mayor has let us down in terms of governance."

The deputy mayor also declined to comment on whether, in the event that the ruling coalition were to collapse, the Reform party would form a new alliance with the currently opposition Center Party until the local elections scheduled for October 19.

"Right now, we don't want to speculate on what the next steps will be," Pere said. "Right now, we want to push for personnel changes within the current coalition structure. We're planning on making a proposal on Friday, but we're not going to talk about next steps publicly until we've had a sit-down together."

He added that Reform hopes to announce its own mayoral candidate soon.

"First, it needs to be discussed and approved by our party's Tallinn chapter board," the Reform deputy mayor noted. Asked to clarify whether their mayoral candidate would be announced Friday, he replied, "In the near future, I hope. And if you ask a third time, I'll give you the same vague answer."

Reform sees plenty of problems to go around

In his letter to coalition partners, Pere added that governance in Tallinn has more generally descended into chaos, and that the city continues to position itself in opposition to the Estonian state.

"The transport sector is being run by Isamaa, but we're reading in the papers about how one of Harju County's most vital traffic junctions is being scrapped — and €4 million in funding along with it," he described.

"Bus lanes are being removed, traffic management is a mess and no steps were taken all year to prepare for the arrival of low-power mopeds," he continued.

According to Pere, there are other problems elsewhere as well — such as the propaganda dressed up as entertainment from the East at the Russian Cultural Center, which should have been ended last year already.

"Instead, the Social Democrats have dragged their feet and made demands — at the expense of St. Catherine's Church and Salme Cultural Center in turn," he emphasized.

Pere believes the city government has failed to clear the bar.

"And that's a shame, because everyone had hoped we could make a real turnaround in how Tallinn is run," he acknowledged.

"Yes, we started off strong — for example, with shutting down the propaganda unit, and the transition to Estonian-language education," the deputy mayor continued. "But now things have reached a point where we're not going to eliminate kindergarten fees in Tallinn under this coalition. That's a fact. This has also been confirmed by Eesti 200's public statements in the media."

He added that the Reform Party is not willing to accept their coalition partners' offer to merely reduce, rather than eliminate, monthly kindergarten fees in the city.

"We've been working toward eliminating kindergarten fees since 2017, raised it during last fall's coalition talks, and brought it to the table during discussions on both the 2025 budget and the supplementary budget," Pere said. "But nothing has come of it. We don't see how we can support the supplementary budget if it doesn't include the elimination of kindergarten fees. This is a matter of choices, and that is our choice."

The Reform deputy mayor said that the focus now must be on finding solutions to continue running the city in a way that delivers faster decision-making and real change.

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