Social Democrats and Parempoolsed bring Tallinn mayor no-confidence motion

Social Democrats and Parempoolsed have submitted a no-confidence motion against Tallinn Mayor Peeter Raudsepp, citing cuts to youth sports funding and support for organizations linked to the ruling coalition.
According to the initiators of the no-confidence motion, the supplementary budget drafted by Raudsepp's (Isamaa) city government cuts funding from youth sports and investments while directing money to organizations linked to the ruling coalition, including the NGO Lüüra and subsidies connected to the Veskimetsa equestrian sports center.
Opposition council members said the monthly rent for the Veskimetsa equestrian sports center, run by the husband of Deputy Mayor Riina Solman (Isamaa), remains around €400.
They also noted that the supplementary budget includes a direct subsidy of €85,000 for NGO Lüüra, which only recently provided free premises for use by the martial arts club of Konstantin Gorlov who was expelled from Estonia last year.
According to the initiators of the no-confidence motion, a member of Lüüra's management board is also currently a member of the city council, representing the Center Party faction.
"Peeter Raudsepp promised to become the mayor of all Tallinn residents, but his first supplementary budget instead shows money being distributed to insiders. €3.5 million is being taken away from sports opportunities for children and young people, €5 million from road and street investments and from creating a safer urban environment," said Joosep Vimm, chairman of the Social Democratic group.
"A mayor who lectures others about unnecessary spending made room in this year's budget for 21 new political positions at the start of the year. Now the mayor, who promised to handle the city's finances carefully, has also found hundreds of thousands of euros more for politically connected organizations," Vimm added.
Indrek Luberg, chairman of the Parempoolsed faction, added that Peeter Raudsepp will have completed a quarter of his term by the end of May.
"Unfortunately, we see that during this time the lives of Tallinn residents have not improved in any way. Instead, we see [Edgar] Savisaar-style funneling of money to insiders and buying votes with taxpayers' own money," he said.
"When Raudsepp took office and cut investments, he claimed the previous city government had been too optimistic about actually completing projects and that all the investments he planned would be finished by the end of the year. It has now become clear that this was also false. The supplementary budget wipes out more than €5 million in planned investments," Luberg said.
The no-confidence motion was signed by city council members from the Social Democratic and Parempoolsed factions, as well as independent council member and former deputy mayor Pärtel-Peeter Pere, who previously belonged to the Reform Party.
The Social Democrats and Parempoolsed together hold 23 seats in the 79-member city council.
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Editor: Märten Hallismaa, Marcus Turovski












