New Reform chapter chair: We're working toward toppling Center in Tallinn
With a best case scenario of just a few months from now, the Reform Party is actively working toward unseating the ruling Center Party in the Estonian capital, Pärtel-Peeter Pere, the newly elected chair of Reform's Tallinn chapter, told ERR on Saturday.
As the new chair of the Tallinn chapter, what is your goal for your team in Tallinn in the 2025 municipal council elections?
We certainly have the chance to achieve a very strong showing in the fall 2025 elections. And as we can already see from the crumbling Center Party, the times when the Center Party saw the results they've seen before in this city certainly won't be coming back. The party is falling apart under [Tallinn mayor] Mihhail Kõlvart's leadership, the Ukraine issue divides them and so much more.
If we now add to that the fact that we'll have an even stronger and more motivated team than before, new people, new ideas and solutions for the issues this city faces, then I am very hopeful and full of energy in view of these local elections.
Why even wait until the municipal council elections? Haven't you also discussed the toppling of the Center Party and a new ruling alliance in Tallinn already as well?
We politicians have been talking about this among ourselves all year long already. We discussed this fall already how we could finally get rid of the Center Party in this city, at least for a little while.
What's the plan?
It would be in both our party's as well as the Social Democrats' party's interests, nevermind the others, if the Center Party weren't in the city government for a while. Right now they lack the capacity to govern themselves, nevermind the city. And we all see that. So right now we're definitely working to ensure that city residents don't have to wait until next fall. And that solutions finally start being found in this city for those very longstanding problems.
Does that mean negotiations with the Social Democrats to get them on board? Right now, they hold the key to tearing down the power.
There are two keys to bringing down the ruling alliance in Tallinn. One is the one that's working as such already – the Center Party is crumbling, it's dealing with its own issues, it isn't capable of governing the city, it isn't capable of leading city council; it's falling apart. And the other is indeed the Social Democrats, whom we wish all the best and with whom we're prepared to discuss how we could start to run this city together. At best it may really be only a matter of months.
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Editor: Aili Vahtla
