Narva council tests Estonian-only proceedings

Narva City Council is again testing whether its work can be conducted only in Estonian, ERR reported. The main challenge for council members is how to make discussions accessible to residents, most of whom do not speak the state language.

At the council’s latest meeting, Estonian was used almost exclusively for the first time in a long while. Some members spoke fluently, while others read their statements from paper. Former council chairman Mihhail Stalnuhhin eventually asked opposition members to stop addressing presenters with Estonian-language questions they did not understand.

Narva has tried to switch the council’s work to Estonian before, but without lasting success. Opposition member Katri Raik of the Respekt faction said that in 2022, a simultaneous interpreter was used at a meeting, but council members interrupted to say the interpretation was incorrect. The experiment ended and the council returned to a bilingual format.

Russian was also needed during Thursday’s meeting. Stalnuhhin, now a member of the Narva 2.0 group, said Council Chairman Urbo Vaarmann had switched to Russian to explain to his deputy what was happening in the chamber.

Vaarmann, who represents the Plaan B Narva group, said coalition members had joked that they were no longer even allowed to think in Russian. He said council members had noticed a brief slip into Russian but were generally coping well with the change.

The council is looking for a lower-cost way to provide Russian interpretation for its online broadcasts. Coalition member Vladimir Aret of the Centre Party said the greater difficulty was faced by Narva residents, who needed to understand the discussions and receive information about them.

According to Raik, only two of the 31 members of Narva City Council have Estonian as their home language. Six or seven members find it difficult to understand the state language without assistance, making council meetings a kind of language lesson for them.