Savisaar not his election coalition's mayoral candidate, says Mõis
The election list of the Savisaar Election Coalition and Active Tallinn has declined to name its mayoral candidate for the time being, but has confirmed that it is not former longtime Center Party chairman Edgar Savisaar, said businessman Jüri Mõis, one of the leaders of the coalition.
"Yes, we have no such plan at present," Mõis told BNS when asked on Monday who their mayoral candidate could be. "Never say never, but currently we have no such plan."
It was clear that the name of the candidate was not Edgar Savisaar, he noted. "It is after all best practice that if someone stands accused in trial, they cannot work in the public sector, and we do not plan to seek confrontation with the law in any way," he added.
According to Mõis, their election list sees the mayor as less of a political figure, leaving politics to the city council, but also less of a technical leader, leaving the municipal-technical decisions for city officials to decide.
"If we could go down the road on which we appoint a less political candidate in order to leave politics to the council — and then we find a cultured, academic and accepted person in Estonian society, who would sustain mentality and culture in governing the city," Mõis said. "Not like the administrative director type of mayor we currently have."
The coalition leader believes that Estonian society has passed the level of development during which the mayor of the capital city should be the administrative director type. "Technical solutions should be left to the officials — they understand best how to manage the city's traffic and how to fix potholes," he commented.
He also emphasized that Savisaar is not the only leader on their coalition's election list.
"Misguided conclusions are often made that Savisaar is the leader of our election coalition," Mõis said. "This is not the case. We currently do not need to determine who is in first, second, third, fourth and fifth place among us. We have developed an active group which consists of approximately 15-20 people, and we do not need to say that all are subject to one another. It would be misguided if people thought as though I had joined a party led by Savisaar."
He said that the four election leaders on the list — Center Party MP Olga Ivanova, Savisaar, businessman Urmas Sõõrumaa and Mõis himself — are trying to reach a consensus among themselves on all matters.
"All in all, the point of an election coalition is that independent candidates want to enter politics, in this case local politics, but they understand that they cannot do it [alone], that they need to make a deal with someone," Mõis said, noting that their coalition's candidate list in Tallinn is the longest ever seen in Estonia.
On the subject of mayoral candidate debates, Mõis said that their coalition will definitely set up their representative as well.
"If the debates are in Russian, then the list's views will be expressed by Olga Ivanova, as the person who can speak Russian the best," Mõis said. "Mayoral candidate debates in Estonian will be covered by me with Sõõrumaa, maybe by Olga sometimes as well."
Editor: Aili Vahtla
Source: BNS