Metropolitan.fi Helsinki Metropolitan Area - News and Current Affairs from Finland

The True Finns categorically state that their pre-election position on the proposed Portuguese bailout has not changed.

MOVES were already under way last week to tackle the trickiest questions in negotiations to form a government. National Coalition Party (NCP) chair Jyrki Katainen, who is leading the negotiations as head of the largest party, opened with discussion of Finland’s stance towards the Portuguese bailout and other eurozone crisis management arrangements.

“That discussion is already taking place between the National Coalition, the SDP and the True Finns, which is to say that one is sketching out how this position could be formed,” Katainen said last week.

Finns still don’t eat enough fresh fruit and vegetables, despite increased scrutiny of what they eat.

It’s the milk war! Down with vegetarian food day! School meals are a chemical cocktail! E this and E that, is there anything we can eat? Researcher Marianne Prasad thinks that it’s a positive thing that people are interested in the healthiness of food but she still wishes the discussion on additives would cool down a bit.

“The fact that people can still decide for themselves what they want to eat has been completely left out of the discussion,” she says.

Outside pressure has forced Finland’s political parties to clear up the Portugal issue first, and put together a government later.

NATIONAL Coalition Party (NCP) chair Jyrki Katainen, the man currently working to cobble together a coalition, is confident that he will be able to deliver a strong and functional majority government. Coalition negotiations proper will only begin on 18 May – more than a week later than planned.

Jussi Pajunen was appointed Mayor of the City of Helsinki in 2005 for a seven-year term. Since then, he has relentlessly worked for the development of the city towards a metropolis. If he could decide, the four cities of the capital area would merge immediately, a tunnel would join Helsinki and Tallinn and all shops would be open on Sundays. For his opponents, he thinks too much outside the box.

The integration of the capital area – that is, the cities of Espoo, Helsinki, Vantaa and Kauniainen – is a hot topic at the moment. You have worked hard for it, but it also has its opponents. Why do you want it to happen?

Erkki Tuomioja, the chairman of the Finnish Parliament’s grand committee, told the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) on Wednesday that the committee tasked with EU matters could not act on eurozone bailouts without a government proposal.

Jyrki Katainen, the National Coalition party leader and finance minister, had proposed that the bailout issue could be kept separate from government formation talks.

Differences between the National Coalition party, the Social Democrats and the True Finns party over eurozone bailouts, particularly the Portugal one, is the biggest stumbling block as Katainen attempts to form a majority government.

Martti Ahtisaari, a former Finnish president and peacebroker, said on Tuesday that the killing of Osama bin Laden, the leader of terrorist network al-Qaida, would not transform the world into a safer place.

Ahtisaari added that while Osama’s death might make the world slightly different than before, al-Qaida operations had been led from a place other than his hiding place even while he was still alive.

Ahtisaari said that the real work to root out terrorism involved poverty and youth unemployment mitigation.

The parliamentary floor group of Finland’s National Coalition on Tuesday published its responses to the questions about the government programme posed by government negotiator Jyrki Katainen (cons) last week.

The National Coalition told that it supported extending working careers and reforming municipal structures as ways to cut back on the national economy’s sustainability deficit.

The Portuguese bailout package has divided Finns in two, according to a survey published by national daily Helsingin Sanomat on Tuesday.

Some 38 per cent of Finns told that they supported the bailout package, while some 36 per cent responded that they oppose propping up Portugal. A quarter did not state an opinion either way.

True Finns supporters were the most keen to reject the EU’s aid package, with almost four in five responding that they were opposed to it.

Ville Niinistö, the chairman of the Finnish Green League’s parliamentary group, told reporters Monday he would challenge Anni Sinnemäki at a party conference next month.

Sinnemäki had announced last week she wanted to stay on as party leader despite last month’s general election defeat.

Niinistö said a number of people had asked him to stand as party leader candidate.

Mika Flöjt, a researcher from Rovaniemi, also intends to challenge Sinnemäki.

Timo Soini, the leader of the True Finns party, told the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) on Saturday that he was prepared to negotiate over the Portugal bailout.

Before last month’s general election, Soini had come out strongly against the bailout.

Asked whether Soini could under some conditions approve of using the EU’s temporary bailout fund to help Portugal, Soini said the matter was subject to negotiation.