Martin Helme: No point for EKRE to go after power in Tallinn before elections
Chair of the Conservative People's Party of Estonia (EKRE), Martin Helme, predicts that political instability will continue in Tallinn over the coming months. However, he does not see joining a coalition just a few months before the elections as either realistic or necessary for EKRE.
With less than four months to go until the next local elections, the power struggle in Tallinn continues. On Thursday morning, Reform Party's head of the Tallinn chapter, Pärtel-Peeter Pere, announced that it would no longer be possible to continue with the current mayor, Jevgeni Ossinovski (SDE).
Chair of the Conservative People's Party of Estonia (EKRE), Martin Helme, described the situation in Tallinn as a politically calculated and deeply cynical maneuver by the Reform Party aimed at improving its image ahead of the local elections.
"This is a recurring pattern where the Reform Party breaks up a coalition ahead of elections, at a time and over an issue of their own choosing, and then goes into the election blaming everyone else for what hasn't been done or what's been done wrong," Helme said.
According to him, the current coalition in Tallinn never functioned properly because its only goal was to push the Center Party into opposition and start dividing up Tallinn's power among themselves, despite the coalition partners lacking any shared ideology or policy goals.
Helme believes political instability will likely persist in Tallinn until the elections. He confirmed that EKRE has no intention of seeking a place in the coalition just a few months before the vote.
"I don't see the point. We've been in opposition for over three and a half years now, and we've consistently defended our policy positions. For instance, the issue of kindergarten fees has been in our platform for several elections — we've called for abolishing them in Tallinn — and now everyone else is fighting over it, even though it was never part of their programs," he said.
Helme added that EKRE councilors would vote in favor of abolishing kindergarten fees in any case, but he sees little chance that Eesti 200, the Social Democrats or the Reform Party would approach EKRE to form a coalition.
"And to be honest, I don't think the Center Party or we ourselves would be particularly interested in forming a three-month interim government. I don't consider that very realistic, which means — though we're not used to it — a minority government is also possible in the city," Helme said.
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Editor: Marcus Turovski, Karin Koppel
