"That opportunity has been offered to me, and I've discussed it, but how things ultimately play out depends on my party colleagues," Lauri said in an interview with ERR on Friday.

She added that other proposals and ideas are also being considered, with several worthy candidates for the role, but declined to discuss them, saying she would work through them together with her party colleagues.

Lauri confirmed she had read that Deputy Mayor Pärtel-Peeter Pere had proposed businessman Urmas Sõõrumaa as another potential mayoral candidate. When asked why Pere himself couldn't be the party's nominee, she described him as a "very passionate patriot" of the capital.

"And perhaps one of his weaknesses is that he has been a bit too radical in his views for some," she explained. "That can be a positive trait in some situations and negative in others."

Addressing the current rift in Tallinn's ruling coalition, Lauri acknowledged that a four-party coalition is difficult to manage, especially when each partner has its own goals.

She said Reform's representatives in Tallinn have increasingly felt that their party's goals aren't being taken seriously, and neither the mayor nor the coalition partners have found a way to maintain peace.

"The pressure has been significant," she admitted. "When other parties get their goals satisfied, it can lead — and we've seen this before, even at the state level — to a feeling that 'they can't really do anything else; they'll just have to live with it.' You can't cooperate with partners like that."

Reform-Center deal 'opponents' wishful thinking'

Lauri said there are several options for how the Tallinn city government might proceed in the four months until the next local elections, including Reform going into opposition while continuing to support the remaining coalition members — Eesti 200, Isamaa and the Social Democratic Party (SDE).

Speculation that Reform has made a deal to team up with the Center Party in Tallinn, however, she dismissed as "political spin."

"Our political opponents know that we have been very resolute against the Center Party's corrupt and often very pro-Russian positions — not to mention Estonian-language education," she said, adding that it would be good for them if Reform were weakened by such a move. "So maybe it's opponents' wishful thinking, or expectations of unusual and scandalous behavior."

Lauri added that for Reform to consider the Center Party an acceptable partner, the latter would need to acknowledge past mistakes and seek to make amends.

"I haven't seen any sign of that yet," she said. "But hey, sometimes miracles do happen."

In a written statement Thursday responding to Reform's formal announcement earlier that day that it no longer supported Jevgeni Ossinovski (SDE) as mayor, Ossinovski accused the Reform Party of planning to break up the current city government and bring the Center Party, led by Mihhail Kõlvart, back into power in Tallinn.

He said Reform's earlier emphasis on the importance of children was merely a smokescreen to prepare both the party and the public for Kõlvart's return, and that Reform and Center would likely nominate someone "acceptable to both sides" as mayor in Kõlvart's place.

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