Political squabbling hampers Tallinn Culture Capital project
Political grudges between PM Andrus Ansip and Mayor Edgar Savisaar impede cooperation between Estonian government and City of Tallinn
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In the Estonian capital Tallinn, next year’s European Culture Capital project is in crisis. Tallinn and the Finnish city of Turku will share the title of European Capital of Culture in 2011.
The confidence of the Estonian artistic community is on shaky ground, as the council of the foundation set up to promote the project was essentially taken over in the early part of the year by representatives of Estonia’s Centre Party.
The move has raised suspicions that the whole project would be used as a tool of the Centre Party’s election campaign in next year’s parliamentary elections. It is also suspected that there would be moves to get rid of Mikko Fritze, the independent director of the Culture Capital project.
Money is also an issue at this early stage. There has been so much variation in cost estimates of the project that it has stalled planning for the programme of the project for months.
On Wednesday the new council is set to publish this year’s budget for the Culture Capital project. Apparently the city is cutting its support for the project to half of what was originally planned.
The Culture Capital year coincides with the Parliamentary elections, in which political arch-enemies, the Reform Party of Prime Minister Andrus Ansip and the Centre Party of Tallinn Mayor Edgar Savisaar, are pitted against each other.
“I would like for the state and the city to work together on the Culture Capital project. Estonian society has become overly politicised, and they have not managed to agree. I would fervently like for the Culture Capital to be realised”, says Mikko Fritze.
Membership in the leading party increasingly works in Estonia as a means to the promotion of a project, or one’s own career. Doing so has made it possible to increase chances of success in a sculpture competition or in getting a building permit for a recreational centre.
Mikko Fritze does not belong to the Centre Party, which holds power in the City of Tallinn, or the Reform Party, which leads the national government.
Independence was an asset when Tallinn recruited Fritze, a German citizen who speaks excellent Estonian, from the Goethe Institute in Uruguay, to head the project.
Politics came into play in the Culture Capital project in November, soon after the municipal elections, when the city put another director, Jaanus Mutli of the Centre Party, in charge of marketing and finances of the project.
Mutli dismisses claims of a politicised Culture Capital project, or of its use as part of an election campaign as malicious talk spread by opposition politicians.
“That is talk spread by opposition politicians. Members of the council are experts, and it does not matter what party or foundation they belong to”, Mutli says.
After Mutli’s appointment the Estonian press began to focus attention on the personnel costs of the project. Mikko Fritze became the most famous person in Estonia, when he said on all channels that his monthly income of EUR 5,000 exceeds that of the Estonian President. The city itself had offered Fritze such a high salary when he was named the head of the project during an economic boom.
As the controversy over Fritze’s salary was brewing, the City of Tallinn ordered a tougher audit than usual on Fritze’s office. The results of the audit is to be published on Wednesday.
Many cultural figures in Estonia have come out against the politicised nature of the project, and are supporting Fritze in the matter.
“What has happened in the preparations for the Tallinn Culture Capital is naturally extremely inappropriate, but it is not surprising”, wrote the country’s most popular writer, Andrus Kivirähk, in the newspaper Eesti Päevaleht during the weekend.
Fritze himself remains enthusiastic about the Culture Capital project. The idea is to restore the connection between the city and the sea, which was disconnected during the Soviet period. He promises to publish the programme after Wednesday, when the budget is secured.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 25.1.2010 - TODAY |
 Political squabbling hampers Tallinn Culture Capital project |
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