Ossinovski: 90 percent of topics covered at Tallinn coalition talks
Jevgeni Ossinovski, representing the Social Democrats at Tallinn's four-way coalition negotiations, said that the sides have covered 90 percent of topics by now and could have an agreement my the middle of next week.
Ossinovski, speaking to ETV morning show "Terevisioon," said that a few topics still need to be hashed out, including hospitals in the capital.
"The parties [involved] have a lot of good ideas, while these need to be married to the fiscal reality. We'll work on that over the weekend," the politician added, without providing any details at what those good ideas entail.
Positions in the city system, those of deputy mayors and city district elders, have not been distributed yet, Ossinovski revealed, while he did add that the Social Democratic Party (SDE) is interested in the post of mayor.
He said that he hopes the coalition agreement could be finalized by the middle of next week, after which the city council could convene for a vote.
He said that while the subject matter of revoking the local elections voting right of non-citizens pursued by Isamaa has been in the air, it practically has not come up during negotiations. According to Ossinovski, most parties agree that the matter is one of nationwide politics and should be debated in the parliament, even though he did not rule out it coming up in Tallinn before the talks are concluded.
The Reform Party, Social Democratic Party, Eesti 200 and Isamaa launched talks for a new coalition in Tallinn Sunday, following a successful no-confidence motion against Mayor Mihhail Kõlvart (Center Party) earlier last week.
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Editor: Mirjam Mäekivi, Marcus Turovski
