Finland: Disparate ”six-pack” government taking form

Finland emerged from the 17 April 2011 general election split between those who want to face up to the challenges of globalisation, the increasing need for internationalism and the requirements to show European solidarity and those who want an escape route to a bygone (”golden”) era of autarky.

At the time, I discussed the difficult politics and mathematics of the election result in the blog posts: 'Finis Finlandiae?' (18 April) and 'Finland: Eurozone shockwaves' (20 April).

Including a few false starts and self-elimination by the nationalist True Finns, the formation of a majoity government proved difficult. It has taken a month two months to agree on a majority government, the so called six-pack (a term appropriated from the EU economic governance proposals).


Number of posts

Friday, the party leaders finally concluded the negotiations on a broad coalition government, ranging from right to left. A press release from the Government Communications Unit records the distribution of the ministerial posts. I added the corresponding EP groups within brackets:

On Friday, 17 June, the negotiators to form a new government reached agreement on the new Government Programme entitled An Open, Fair and Bold Finland. The distribution of ministerial posts was also agreed on. The new government will include 19 ministers: National Coalition Party [EPP] 6, the Social Democratic Party [S&D] 6, the Left Alliance [GUE-NGL] 2, the Swedish People’s Party in Finland 2 [ALDE], the Green League [Greens-EFA] 2 and the Christian Democratic Party [EPP] 1 ministers.

Individual posts

The chairman of the National Coalition Party and the outgoing finance minister Jyrki Katainen will lead this motley crew as prime minister, representing Finland in the European Council.

Helsingin Sanomat International reports how the individual posts were allotted between the political parties and discusses some of the likely ministers. Most of the new participants in the EU Council meetings will be nominated by their parties today, Saturday.

Helsingin Sanomat reports (in Finnish) that the Swedish People's Party already nominated party chairman Stefan Wallin to become the minister of defence and the lawyer and MP Anna-Maja Henriksson to take over the Ministry of Justice. The article contains informed speculation about probable ministers.

The Government Communications Unit records the allocation of posts including details about the distribution of responsibilities (in Finnish).


Government programme

You can check the English web page of the government for possible additions.

The new government signals austerity and solidarity by cutting its pay cheques by 5 per cent, as reported by Helsingin Sanomat (in Finnish).

The Finnish News Agency STT records PM-elect Jyrki Katainen determined to reduce the country's level of government debt and highlights some of the agreed budget cuts plus main political agreements.

The Finnish public broadcaster YLE offers a quick view of some of the main measures.

YLE presents more details about added and selective social spending, 'inclusion' in EU jargon.


Criticism

Despite Katainen's professed aims of sound public finances and economic reform, YLE quotes economists critical of half-hearted promises of structural reforms in the compromise programme of the new government.

The Centre Party [ALDE], led by outgoing PM Mari Kiviniemi, chose to remain outside after its election defeat, and it is in the process of transforming itself into an opposition party. Kiviniemi has criticised the new government for lacking direction, will and vision (YLE, in Finnish).

The True Finns [EFD], led by Timo Soini (ex MEP), mushroomed in opposition and ultimately decided to remain clear of government resonsibilities. Today, the chairman gets an opportunity to lambast the new government at the first party congress after the unprecedented election victory (Helsingin Sanomat, in Finnish).

Soini's seat in the European Parliament and the Europe of Freedom and Democracy group has already been taken over by Sampo Terho.


Official government programme

The official government programme reflects the disparate political base, a six-pack with half a dozen distinct beverages. Running to 89 pages, the laboriously negotiated programme could almost be called a tome. The document is still available in Finnish only.




Ralf Grahn



P.S. The Criminal Justice Careers Guide blog offers articles about the US crime scene and the criminal justice system.

European elections: Soini Libertas candidate?

The True Finns (Perussuomalaiset) dropped Jussi Halla-aho, under prosecution for xenophobic blogging, from their list of candidates in the European elections in June 2009.

Party chairman Timo Soini ─ one of the signatories of Libertas’s failed application for recognition as a political party at European level and for funding from the European Parliament ─ stepped into the breach by launching his own candidacy, despite his earlier rejection of the idea.

The True Finns tout the European elections as a last call to prevent the Treaty of Lisbon from entering into force:

http://www.perussuomalaiset.fi/ajankohtaista/?issue=137

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Question marks

Interestingly, Libertas is not mentioned, although Soini has conceded earlier that an elected True Finn MEP might join them in a parliamentary group in the European Parliament.

The reasons may be tactical, since it may be harder to attract nationalistic voters under a pan-European umbrella.

Nothing is, of course, said about possible campaign contributions from Libertas.

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Media scene

A quick scan of the web versions of Finnish main media (Helsingin Sanomat, Hufvudstadsbladet, YLE) revealed no critical questions about the possible European links of the True Finns’ campaign, just Soini’s well-known anti-EU message and discussion about the reasons for dropping Halla-aho. See for instance YLE ‘Charges for True Finns Councillor Over Racist Blog Comments’ (last update 28 March 2009):

http://www.yle.fi/uutiset/news/2009/03/charges_for_true_finns_councillor_over_racist_blog_comments_645781.html

Are the media in Finland as uninterested as the general public is oblivious of possible European connections? The elections are European, aren’t they?

Ralf Grahn

Soini owns up to joining Libertas

At least one safe member for Libertas.

Battered Declan Ganley and Libertas can take heart after relatively good news from Finland. Asked by the daily Helsingin Sanomat, Timo Soini, MP and Chairman of the True Finns (Perussuomalaiset), owns up to joining the (potentially) pan-European political party Libertas.

Chairman Soini stresses that he has joined in a personal capacity and that the True Finns are not engaged as a party.

Libertas may need some good news. First the Estonian MP Igor Gräzin announced that he was not a member, bringing Libertas down from the number of elected officials in seven member states needed for status and funding as a political party at European level, or Europarty.

Gräzin was then followed by Bulgarian MP Mincho Hristov Kuminev, who has denied signing on for Libertas, as reported by EurActiv.


Ralf Grahn

Is Libertas a European level party?

According to media reports the pan-European Libertas party has filed an application for EU funding. We have been told that the party consists of a few politicians from member states of the European Union.

Leaving their pan-European credentials aside for the moment, the sketchy reports offer little on if Libertas really fulfils the criteria for funding as a political party at European level.

Nothing was found on the web pages of Libertas this evening.

Let us look at the criteria, as set out in the Regulation (EC) No 2004/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 November 2003 on the regulations governing political parties at European level and the rules regarding their funding.

The consolidated version Regulation 2004/2003 (of 27 December 2007) is available here:

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CONSLEG:2003R2004:20071227:EN:PDF

The following criteria are mentioned:
Article 2
Definitions

For the purposes of this Regulation:

1. ‘political party’ means an association of citizens:

— which pursues political objectives, and

— which is either recognised by, or established in accordance with, the legal order of at least one Member State;

2. ‘alliance of political parties’ means structured cooperation between at least two political parties;

3. ‘political party at European level’ means a political party or an alliance of political parties which satisfies the conditions referred to in Article 3;
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Article 3
Conditions

1. A political party at European level shall satisfy the following conditions:

(a) it must have legal personality in the Member State in which its seat is located;

(b) it must be represented, in at least one quarter of Member States, by Members of the European Parliament or in the national Parliaments or regional Parliaments or in the regional assemblies, or it must have received, in at least one quarter of the Member States, at least three per cent of the votes cast in each of those Member States at the most recent European Parliament elections;

(c) it must observe, in particular in its programme and in its activities, the principles on which the European Union is founded, namely the principles of liberty, democracy, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, and the rule of law;

(d) it must have participated in elections to the European Parliament, or have expressed the intention to do so.
-----


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Criteria

In short: Representation in a quarter of the EU member states (7) is enough and a coalition of political parties will do.

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True Finns

One of the party members or representatives mentioned publicly is Timo Soini, Chairman of the True Finns (Perussuomalaiset), a political party with five members of Parliament.

Interestingly enough, a few moment ago the web pages of the True Finns and the parliamentary group failed to mention that the party has become the national Libertas or even joined a coalition with Libertas. Not a word about an alliance on Chairman Soini’s blog.

In other words, if the True Finns have made a decision about Libertas, they have kept it secret.

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This brings us back to Regulation 2004/2003 and the funding criteria. Can a party be said to be represented by elected politicians in a member state, if the national or coalition party’s allegiance is unknown where it operates?

A second possibility might be that Timo Soini MP is a member of Libertas EU directly. But shouldn’t he have told his less than integrationist supporters in Finland if he has joined a pan-European political party?

Possibly, everything will be sorted out, but Libertas’ application seems to deserve thorough vetting before approval.

I hope that all actors step up their communication efforts until the matter is crystal clear.


Ralf Grahn