The city of Tallinn installed 14 signs on September 8, indicating that it is permitted to drink in public around the Parliament and the presidential palace while open containers are banned in the rest of the city.
The grudge match with the national government has spawned lively social media commentary and criticism from neighborhood groups.
Eyebrows have been raised by the fact that the signs are in the precise shade of yellow and blue used by the ruling party, the Reform Party.
The Center Party, which has a majority on Tallinn City Council, was critical of Parliament lifting the open container ban, which came into effect on July 1, and said it wanted the capital to be “more Nordic.”
So it re-banned public drinking. But planners drew two areas in which people could still drink any strength of alcohol in public.
Mihkel Uus of the Kadriorg Society, a group in the neighborhood around the presidential residence, told ETV his group expected government to tackle parking, safety and public works, not “spend budgetary funds on a circus.”
ERR News
