While his party, in office in Tallinn in a coalition with Center, finds the new situation disturbing, SDE is not currently considering leaving the coalition, he added on Tuesday.

Center has been fined a million euros after a second-tier circuit court overruling of a county court judgment which had cleared the party and its former secretary general of corruption in relation to a major Tallinn real estate project.

With the circuit court ruling, the Center Party must pay €1 million fine, unless it is successful in appealing the decision, at the Supreme Court.

Ossinovski said that while the recent circuit court's decision is not final and is to be appealed, the implications of the guilty verdict are troubling.

He said: "We do not take this lightly. This provided quite a devastating evaluation of the county court's previous acquitting decision."

"Surely, the information, contained across dozens of pages, is disturbing," Ossinovski continued.

The MP was keen to distance his own party, in coalition with the Center Party in Tallinn since the aftermath of the October 2021 local elections, from Center, saying: "The actions which the circuit court decision draws attention to were committed before our joint cooperation on the Tallinn coalition."

"However, since the individuals involved are largely one and the same, the issue is certainly relevant, and in this light we will be discussing this new situation with the Tallinn regional leadership soon," he went on, referring to the leadership of SDE in the capital.

"It is also a pre-existing fact that there are those in our party who think that working with the Center Party is challenging. We therefore naturally have to discuss this," he added.

Ossinovski said that nonetheless there is currently no plan to discuss ending the wrapping up the current Tallinn coalition. "A discussion of that kind is not planned. But since objective new information has come to light, we need to discuss said new information, and consider it, with the members of the area leadership."

"We want to have this discussion at the leadership level, considering that, while the [circuit court] decision has not become binding as yet, we must also consider the outcome of it becoming effective, making it prudent immediately to formulate our understandings and thus a joint vision accordingly," he continued.

As to what his stance would be were Center ultimately to be found guilty, Ossinovski was not prepared to express a personal opinion at this juncture. "I will express one after we have spoken with our people," he said.

Impact on Tallinn City Government and the Center Party

ERR also quizzed Ossinovski on how much the circuit court decision might currently affect the general operational capability of Tallinn city government, which he is not a member of, and city authorities.

His response: "Over the short term, I think it does not affect [it]. But undoubtedly, if the coalition partner Center Party directs its attention to dealing with its internal struggles and strife, then, inevitably there might be an impact. But I cannot predict what that might be as of today."

On the impact on the Center Party itself, Ossinovski said that if a fine of those dimensions remains in place after a Supreme Court decision – Center has nowhere to go but the Tartu-based Supreme Court if it wishes to appeal the decision – then this would represent a significant blow to the party's activities.

"It's common knowledge that the party has had financial difficulties even before all this. And considering how Estonian parties generally operate, a penalty like that will certainly render their operations harder to fulfill," Ossinovski said.

"Given the Center chair has said that the sum demanded by way of a fine is at the order of their annual budget, should this decision remain in place, then, practically speaking, it would mean the next election campaign will have to be conducted with either a balanced budget, or via very modest means indeed. And this in turn would place very significant limits on the political activity of that party," Ossinovski continued..

ERR also spoke to SDE MP and former leader of the party's Tallinn branch, Raimond Kaljulaid, who is also a former campaign manager for the Center Party – Kaljulaid quit the party in spring 2019 ostensibly over its going into coalition at the national level with the Conservative People's Party of Estonia (EKRE).

Kaljulaid noted on social media that a million-euro penalty would hinder the Center Party's activities for up to two years.

"How major of a problem is a million-euro penalty for the Center Party?" Kaljulaid wrote. "State support for the Centre Party comes to around €200,000 per quarter, making €2.2 million to €2.4 million until the next Riigikogu elections," he went on. State support is provided in proportion to a party's representation at the preceding Riigikogu election, for all parties who surpass 2 percent of the vote, even if they do not win Riigikogu seats.

The next Riigikogu election is in March 2027.

"Half of [the state support to 2027] would already be spent [if the full fine remained in force], while the rest is needed for campaigning at the European Parliament [elections], local government elections, and Riigikogu elections," Kaljulaid wrote.

The next European election is in June, the next local elections in October 2025.

"Glancing at the report on who are currently the major backers [of Center], there are many politicians who are associated with the city: Kõlvart, Kante etc., partly also former members of the Riigikogu."

"If the Center Party loses power in Tallinn, essentially only a small parliamentary faction would remain, whose members would then put back in a portion of their salary. It's quite difficult to find arguments when wanting to find [potential new Center financial] supporters. First is the risk to reputation, but second – if the party has no influence on national politics, no influence on the capital's politics, and no clear role in Estonian politics, then why should anyone want to back it at all?" Kaljulaid pondered in pixels.

A particular tragedy for the party, according to Kaljulaid, would be if the party were to flop at the European Parliament elections come June. "If no mandate is obtained, [Jana] Toom's office in Tallinn will disappear, as will communication funded by EU money." Jana, formerly Yana, Toom is Center's sole MEP.

"Claims that this penalty is not an existential problem are thus as credible as Putin's assurances that life in Russia is getting better," Kaljulaid continued.

"At least for the next two years, the Center Party's activities will largely be doomed. So, it seems that after endless horrors, there will finally come a horrific end. It is also hard to imagine what arguments might now justify continuing coalition cooperation with them, but time will tell," Kaljulaid concluded.

Center Party to appeal the decision at the Supreme Court

On Monday, the second-tier Tallinn Circuit Court overturned an earlier acquitting decision by the Harju County Court and issued a new ruling, finding businessman Hillar Teder, former secretary-general of the Center Party Mihhail Korb, and the Center Party itself, guilty of influence peddling. The court fined Center € 1 million.

According to the judgment, it had been proven that Teder, via Korb, had offered a material inducement to Center in order that the party and its secretary general press into action their own sway over Mayor of Tallinn Mihhail Kõlvart to obtain the necessary documentation for a major real estate project in the ferry port area of town.

The scandal when it became public in January 2021 led to the resignation of then Center leader Jüri Ratas as prime minister, and the downfall of the Center-EKRE-Isamaa coalition.

Mihhail Kõlvart, now Center's chair, though he was not when the Porto Franco saga broke, says the party intends to challenge the circuit court's decision at the Supreme Court.

Final conclusions can be drawn once it becomes clear whether the Supreme Court will take the case on – it has the right to decline to hear it. In the latter eventuality, the circuit court's guilty verdict will become effective.

Center was fined over €840,000 several years ago over what was adjudged to have been an illegal donation. That time, the party pressed into action leading and grass roots members alike in getting together the funds to pay off the fine, though it hindered its scope in campaigning ahead of the March 2023 Riigikogu election – when the party won 10 seats fewer than it had at the 2019 election.

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