Participating in the talks for Isamaa are Karl-Sander Kase, Riina Solman and party leader Urmas Reinsalu. SDE is represented by Acting Mayor Madle Lippus and head of the SDE group of the city council Jevgeni Ossinovski. Eesti 200's delegation is made up of Marek Reinaas, Aleksei Jašin and Joel Jesse, while Pärtel-Peeter Pere, Martin Kukk and Sander Andla are batting for the Reform Party.

Pärtel-Peeter Pere, who heads up Reform's delegation, said that the first few hours of the talks were amicable and the air constructive.

"We laid down a plan for which topics to cover in the coming days. The first things we touched on where city management, a budget review, how to create owner's expectations for municipal companies, just like the national government has expectations it wants state-owned Elron, RKAS and others to meet," he said.

Pere said the sides also wrote down how to reform the supervisory boards of municipal companies, giving the example of hospitals and how many doctors and other medical specialists their boards will have versus just politicians.

The Reform Party's representative said that there is no concrete plan to cut the number of city officials as reforms are already underway.

"We agreed to consolidate companies. Some may not be needed in the first place, while it is possible others could be merged. But we have not agreed to start letting officials go in batches. No-no-no. Rather, we're talking about how to improve services, render political posts more transparent or abolish them," he noted.

Pere added that the sides should have time to also talk about the city's propaganda service, or Tallinn's municipal media system, Sunday.

He said that if the future partners can maintain a good pace, an agreement could be finalized next week.

Ossinovski: I dare say there will be a deal

Jevgeni Ossinovski (SDE) also described the mood as constructive and said he believes an accord will be reached, while he believes it will take longer than a week.

"Regarding major reforms, the question is how to phrase and agree on plans to make sure they're both ambitious and realistic, as the council only has around 18 months (until local elections in Estonia – ed.)," Ossinovski said.

The politician suggested that most topics will be covered in the next few days.

Isamaa's Tallinn branch head Riina Solman said that the talks went well and the sides agree on a great deal of things, with differences mainly in the details.

"We even agreed that we need an audit of classified documents to shed a light on these things," she remarked.

Isamaa have previously said that the Tallinn coalition will have to take a stand on the matter of revoking the local elections voting rights of third-country citizens in Estonia. The other sides have signaled that nationwide politics will not make the agenda of the municipal talks. Solman said that this matter was not discussed at length Sunday.

Jevgeni Ossinovski said that while SDE do not feel this is a matter for municipal talks, the party is prepared to discuss every proposal.

Reinaas: We'd like to get it done in a week

Eesti 200 representative Marek Reinaas said the parties had similar ideas regarding the Sunday topics, and that he believes the coalition will materialize. "We need to develop an ownership policy for Tallinn as well as a real estate policy, and review municipal services and budget."

The talks will continue into Sunday evening and move on to education, public transport and the social domain Monday, Reinaas said.

"We'd like to be done in a week," he remarked.

The previous coalition of the Center Party and the Social Democratic Party (SDE) fell apart earlier this week when 41 delegates backed a no-confidence motion against Mayor Mihhail Kõlvart in the 79-member Tallinn City Council.

This brought to an end an 18-and-a-half year hegemony the Center Party held over Tallinn; the bulk of that time the party ruled alone. Center entered into a coalition with SDE after losing its overall majority in the capital at the October 2021 local elections.

The election of Kõlvart, who had become mayor in April 2019, as Center leader was followed by a wave of high profile departures from the party, including its former leader and former prime minister, Jüri Ratas, who joined Isamaa.

Center are now in opposition in Tallinn, along with the Conservative People's Party of Estonia (EKRE).

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