Tallinn City Council is to convene on Sunday on an extraordinary basis, where voting will take place on the new coalition, its mayor, and other leadership positions, ETV news show "Aktuaalne kaamera" (AK) reported Friday.

SDE's leading negotiator Jevgeni Ossinovski, tipped by some to be the next Tallinn mayor, told AK agreement has been reached on all areas.

He said: "We have reached a principal agreement on all points, both in terms of the coalition agreement and the distribution of positions," referring to deputy mayoral posts and some other positions.

"These positions have been distributed sensibly and fairly," he continued.

"Since we are currently dealing with an agreement in principle, on which the parties have not yet had the opportunity to discuss outcomes widely, it would be unreasonable to speak publicly more about that yet," Ossinovski added.

"The next step will be for the respective party council groups and those of Tallinn's districts to convene today and tomorrow (Saturday – ed.), to review and, presumably, approve what has been agreed upon by the delegations, so that we can then move to voting at the council on Sunday," he went on.

Sources have told ERR sources that SDE will be getting the mayoral position, though Ossinovski would not confirm whether he might be the next mayor of Tallinn.

He did say that his party is satisfied with the distribution of positions. Madle Lippus, also of SDE, has been acting mayor since a vote of no confidence in late March removed Mihhail Kõlvart (Center) from office.

The SDE-Reform-Isamaa-Eesti 200 talks lasted until around 3 a.m. Friday, then resumed later that day, culminating in an agreement in principle.

The last sticking point, negotiators said Friday, had been the question of third country nationals' voting rights; on this, Jevgeni Ossinovski said the provisional agreement "spells out the various parties' positions."

The exact assignments of political positions, not only the mayor and their deputies but also the elders (Vanavallem) of each of Tallinn's eight sub-districts, and the leaders of the legislature, the city council, are also to be clarified Saturday after the four parties have had a confab amongst themselves, with a view to all being revealed Sunday.

A four-party coalition would leave the Center Party in opposition, together with the Conservative People's Party of Estonia (EKRE), and would only have a narrow voting majority.

Prior to exiting office, the Center Party had ruled over Tallinn for nearly 20 years, mostly alone, though since the October 2021 local elections it had been in coalition with SDE. The next local elections take place in October next year.

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