On Monday, both the Center Party and Reform sent out press releases about amendments to this year's supplementary budget in relation to the abolition of kindergarten fees in Tallinn, with little difference between the two parties' positions.

Last week, Tallinn's 2025 supplementary budget passed its first reading in Tallinn City Council.

"The Reform Party is playing a dangerous game by proposing a similar amendment to the supplementary budget together with the Center Party. In essence, the Reform Party is thus discrediting the city government with its own participation," Ossinovski wrote on social media.

"As for how this could end, we remember the summer of 2022 in the Riigikogu, when the Center Party, together with Isamaa, started to put pressure on the Reform Party over the issue of child benefits. The reason, of course, was not down to concern for children's welfare, but the Center Party's plan to be the party of the prime minister again, alongside Isamaa and EKRE. The government collapsed, but in the end it was the Center Party that had to move into opposition. Half a year later, the voters punished them severely," Ossinovski added.

"The common goal of the historic change of power that finally took place in Tallinn last year was to free the Estonian capital from the corrupt power structure of the Center Party and bring an honest and modern culture of governance to Tallinn. The Reform Party is looking for a new gear in this pre-election context, but it is surprising that there is a willingness to bring Kõlvart back to power. Of course, this flirtation is in no way in the interests of the people of Tallinn, and I hope that our good coalition partner will give up on this political game," Ossinovski added.

Tallinn Deputy Mayor Karl Sander Kase (Isamaa) also criticized the Reform Party. "It is sad to see the Reform Party preparing to bring Kõlvart back to power," Kase wrote.

"Unfortunately, this gives off the impression that our colleagues from the Reform Party are preparing the ground for the return of the Center Party to the city's leadership ahead of the local elections. However, this jeopardizes all the areas in which we have made progress in the meantime – the transition to Estonian-language education, ensuring transparent city governance, ensuring that taxpayers' money is used wisely, large-scale investments, and so on," said Kase.

Tallinn Deputy Mayor Pärtel-Peeter Pere, who is also the Reform Party's leader in the Tallinn region, told ERR there has not been any convergence with the Centre Party and that the press statements have been released due to this being the start of the local election campaign.

"The council is not a rubber stamp. Our group certainly wants to have a say and make proposals. And we have done. Our group proposed that the supplementary budget ought to reflect that we need to abolish the kindergarten places fee in Tallinn. We also fought for this in the city administration, we had heated debates, but it did not happen. Now we are trying to work together to get it through the council," said Pere.

"However our aim is still to get our coalition partners' votes in. In no way has it been the idea to take people from the opposition to help us with the vote. We are not going to support this proposal from the Center Party," Pere added.

"I think the Center Party has taken the opportunity here and made this proposal precisely in order to play some kind of political game," Pere said.

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