Narva after the power change: will residents see the new leadership's results in time
After a summer-long power struggle in Narva, Jaan Toots has taken over as mayor, but former mayor Katri Raik doubts whether residents will get to see the new team's own projects come to fruition.
Narva spent much of the summer locked in a struggle over power. Council sessions dragged on for hours, decisions were disputed, and attempts were made more than once to remove the mayor. The first attempt came in early June, but the legality of those decisions was called into question. Only on 26 July did the city's leadership finally change: Katri Raik lost her post as mayor, and Mihhail Stalnuhhin lost the chairmanship of the city council. Jaan Toots became the new mayor, while Urbo Vaarmann took over as council chairman.
Plans and inherited projects
The new leadership has an extensive list of tasks ahead. By the start of January, Toots plans to reorganize the structure of the city government. Other tasks include addressing heating prices, creating new jobs, helping elderly residents, and developing tourism. The mayor believes tourism could become one way to support local businesses, pointing to Narva's border location, its castle and natural surroundings as attractions worth showing off.
However, many of the projects now facing the new administration were actually launched under the previous leadership — an ice hall, construction of municipal housing on Vestervalli 17, a new kindergarten in the city center, and a boxing hall. Former mayor and current council member Katri Raik said she supports the city's development plans regardless of who carries them out, arguing that opposing them would mean opposing the city itself rather than political rivals.
Doubts about time
Raik noted that so far the new leadership is mostly continuing work that was already underway, making the key question what projects of its own the new team will propose. At the same time, she expressed doubt that the current leadership has been given much time to do so. Some of the projects require funding applications through the Just Transition Fund, and Raik said she hopes work on them continues even under a future mayor, which she believes could come sooner rather than later.
The summer showed Narva just how long a struggle for power can drag on. Now it remains to be seen how long the current team will last — and whether residents will get to see the results of its work.
