The vote to scrap the €50 per month fee in the capital foundered on Monday after Eesti 200 councilors, as well as those from the opposition Center Party, voted against. This was followed by the resignation of Pärtel-Peeter Pere (Reform) as Tallinn deputy mayor.

The Reform, Eesti 200, Isamaa and the Social Democrats (SDE) coalition has been in office since April 2024. It is currently discussing both the continuation of the coalition and filling the vacant deputy mayor position.

Yesterday, Pere blamed the situation on Eesti 200 and could not say whether the coalition would stay together until the October local elections. Hedid not answer who might take over his role or if he would continue as Reform's Tallinn branch chair.

Õnne Pillak, an MP and member of Reform's Tallinn district board, conceded that among other issues, the continuation of the current coalition in Tallinn is also up for discussion. "We need to talk about everything. People in both the board and the faction have different opinions. I can't say today what we will ultimately decide," she told ERR.

Pillak also said an agreement had been struck between the four parties to vote to abolish indergarten fees. This would have been a majority vote.

"Yes, one coalition partner (ie. Eesti 200 – ed.) essentially did not back the decision, but the agreement was that we would be able to pass it. However, they chose to cooperate with the Center Party and EKRE and simply voted down the abolition," she said.

Center had also earlier said it was in favor of scrapping kindergarten fees in Tallinn. Reform apparently siding with Center in early June is what caused the coalition's rift.

"The four of us need to sit down and figure out what is really happening and what the health of the coalition is now," Pillak said.

Pillak declined to speculate on whether Pere's replacement as deputy mayor would be businessman Urmas Sõõrumaa, calling it "cheeky speculation."

Reform nominated Sõõrumaa as mayoral candidate at the end of June after Mayor of Tallinn Jevgeni Ossinovski (SDE) dismissed Reform from the coalition, which followed Reform putting forward a motion of no confidence in him as mayor. However, Reform backed down on that motion and was readmitted to the city government on July 7.

Eesti 200 deputy mayor: Staying neutral would be win for populism

Deputy mayor and head of Eesti 200's Tallinn district Aleksei Jašin denied that Eesti 200 had broken any agreements.

"Eesti 200 stuck to its principles. We have publicly said from the outset that we do not support this and that we stand against the populism of abolishing kindergarten fees. We confirmed this again yesterday at the council," Jašin said.

"Eesti 200 informed its partners also about yesterday's vote … We made it clear that in all other points, we would vote exactly according to the agreements, exactly as discussed and prepared by the coalition," he added.

The party had been opposed to the fee abolition since the issue arose in June, Jašin went on. He said that keeping this line but being neutral on the vote would have been "just a political game."

"If people can't stick to their principles or don't understand that, then that's their problem. If we had remained neutral, populism would have passed in the Tallinn city council yesterday," the politician added.

This line on the policy and the vote "was communicated at all times both to the public and to our coalition partners," Jašin said, noting that Eesti 200's coalition partners were "informed a few days in advance of how exactly the votes would go."

Eesti 200 is now waiting for Reform's response, he said. "Do they want to continue riding the wave of a power crisis and power struggle, escalate things so that this political theater becomes even dumber over the summer? Or is there a desire to quietly wrap up this situation?"

Mayor: Eesti 200 had pledged not to take part in the vote

Ossinovski refuted this and said Eesti 200 went back on a pledge.

"At yesterday's city council meeting there were a number of proposals that, under the coalition agreement, we had agreed would be adopted, and that was nearly 100 percent successful — except for the proposal to abolish kindergarten fees, where one coalition partner, who had promised not to participate in the vote, decided to vote against it," he said, reiterating comments he had made that Center capitalized on this by voting against Reform too.

The mayor said the current governing coalition should nonetheless continue.
The kindergarten fees issue may come back on the agenda at the next city council session in August, he added.

As for Isamaa, its Tallinn district leader Riina Solman told ERR that discussions are needed but the party supports stability in city governance ahead of the elections.

"We need to endure honestly until the finish line. In this case, I do not expect Reform to continue with the political games. I hope they've learned from this summer's two-month-long back-and-forth headlessness, and that they now decide to move forward together in line with the agreements until the end," she said.

"The city needs responsible governance, and internal squabbling must be left behind," Solman added.

Martin Kukk, head of the Reform's city council, declined to comment on the saga.

Monday's vote, held on an extraordinary basis since the council is in summer recess, saw the vote to abolish kindergarten fees deadlocked at 37 in favor and 37 against, which meant the motion did not pass: A minimum of 40 votes was required at the 79-seat chamber.

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