Toomas Kruusimägi, the chair of the Tallinn City Council and a member of the Reform Party, has called an extraordinary council meeting for next Tuesday, July 8, to hold a vote of no confidence in the mayor. The next regular council meeting is scheduled for the end of August.

Although the Reform Party's intended mayoral candidate, businessman Urmas Sõõrumaa, has decided not to run for mayor ahead of the local elections, the party still plans to express no confidence in the current mayor and move to the opposition until the elections.

The agenda for the special session includes two items: the motion of no confidence in Tallinn Mayor Jevgeni Ossinovski, submitted by members of the opposition Center Party and EKRE factions, and the appointment of an acting mayor.

According to the Local Government Organization Act, the council must either elect a new mayor at the same session where the no-confidence vote is passed or appoint one of the current members of the city government as acting mayor until a new one is elected.

This means the acting mayor would likely be chosen from among the current deputy mayors representing the Social Democrats, Eesti 200 or Isamaa. That is currently seen as the most likely scenario. In theory, the role could also go to one of the Reform Party's deputy mayors who are currently on leave from their duties, Pärtel-Peeter Pere or Viljar Jaamu, though both have announced plans to resign.

Under the law, if an acting mayor is appointed, a new mayor must be elected within two months. If no mayor is elected within two months of the no-confidence vote — i.e., by September 9 — the council will be deemed incapable of functioning.

In that case, all current council members would have their mandates terminated prematurely and a substitute council would be convened just a month before the October 19 election.

This would likely benefit the Center Party, which would gain seats. Since the last local elections in 2021, several council members have left the party. Of the 79 seats on the Tallinn City Council, the Center Party held 38 immediately after the election but now has 31 members in its faction.

Among those who have since left the Center Party are council members Vladimir Svet, Tanel Kiik and Andre Hanimägi, who have joined the Social Democrats; Jüri Ratas and Taavi Aas, now with Isamaa; and Igor Gräzin and Jaanus Riibe, now with the Reform Party.

One possible scenario is that Ossinovski could choose to resign as mayor right before Tuesday's no-confidence vote. Even in that case, the council would still be required to elect a new mayor.

A third scenario is that the Reform Party could accept Ossinovski's offer to rejoin the city government and continue governing together until the October 19 elections.

The opposition parties could also agree on a new mayoral candidate they are jointly willing to support.

Pere does not consider invitation to return sincere

Pärtel-Peeter Pere noted that the city council may be dissolved if a new mayor is not elected within two months. According to him, the Social Democrats and the city government must take responsibility for leading the city and find a solution.

"A minority government is now becoming a reality because the Social Democrats effectively decided to remove us from the coalition two Fridays ago, which is a regrettable escalation," Pere said.

In the Reform Party's view, it would be welcome if the entire city government resigned, he added.

The Reform Party does not intend to propose a candidate for acting mayor, nor does it plan to submit any additional no-confidence motions, Pere said.

Pere also stated that Jevgeni Ossinovski has made no concrete offer to him. According to Pere, Ossinovski called him on Thursday before a press conference, but it was not a substantive proposal.

"He mentioned the idea he later posted briefly on his Facebook page. That's the extent of it — there's been no offer, no letter, nothing of substance that anyone on our side has seen. And frankly, we're not expecting one either. As far as we're concerned, the decision has been made by the Reform Party's Tallinn board: we're in the opposition," he said.

Ossinovski: I urge Reform to consider returning to the coalition

In an interview with ERR, Jevgeni Ossinovski said that developments are unfolding by the hour and the coalition has yet to agree on the details and plans for Tuesday's council meeting.

"Our proposal remains the same: that the Reform Party end this chaos by returning to cooperation within the current coalition. That way, there would be no need on Tuesday to worry about exactly how acting mayors are appointed," Ossinovski said.

He confirmed that just two weeks ago, the coalition parties were still working together to find funding sources to eliminate kindergarten fees.

Ossinovski believes it's likely that a consensus will be reached on appointing an acting mayor, even though the Reform Party and Center Party hold a majority in the council and their support is crucial to approving any joint candidate put forward by the three-party minority government.

"In my view, the only genuinely workable solution to this stalemate is for the Reform Party to return to the existing coalition agreement after its recent round of unusual political maneuvers. That would allow us to share governing responsibility until October 19, ensure political stability and then let voters judge the parties and politicians. All other theoretically possible options would, in one way or another, continue the mess that the Reform Party has been driving for the past month — and I think everyone is seriously fed up with it. That's why I sincerely urge the Reform Party to give this serious thought," he said.

Ossinovski ruled out stepping down voluntarily to offer the Reform Party a symbolic victory, arguing that the previous coalition had been functioning and that trying to maneuver through new political combinations and point-scoring would not lead to a real way forward.

The crisis

The four-way coalition in Tallinn first hit a rough patch when the coalition Reform Party faction of the city council suggested in the second half of May it might cooperate with the opposition Center Party to abolish kindergarten fees in the capital. Both parties issued press releases on June 2 calling for the abolition of kindergarten fees.

This did not sit well with Reform's coalition partners — Isamaa, SDE and Eesti 200 — who are against the move and have accused the party of using the smokescreen of kindergarten fees to engineer a political crisis in the capital in a bid to discredit partners and improve the party's rating ahead of the October local elections.

The pushback and allegations, according to which Reform is only interested in a ratings bump, which political experts and the media have largely deemed accurate, caused Reform to announce it is unwilling to continue under the leadership of Social Democratic Mayor Jevgeni Ossinovski. The mayor, in his turn, dismissed Reform's deputy mayors and city district heads.

The Reform Party proposed setting up Urmas Sõõrumaa as candidate for mayor, but the businessman recently withdrew, saying he will run in the October 2027 local elections instead.

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