Big parties downplay impact of possible ban on donations by state-owned companies

PM Vanhanen weighs in against political contributions by state companies

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Finland’s political parties would lose an important source of income if companies in which the state has a majority shareholding were banned from contributing to political parties.
      Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen (Centre) said on Tuesday that he feels that it is not appropriate for such companies to take part in financing political activities.
      Vanhanen also says that mandatory disclosure of election donations should be passed into law. He feels that maximum donations from a single source should be set at EUR 15,000. This means that the EUR 50,000 that the National Coalition Party got from the Sampo financial concern would no longer be possible.
     
Taking the same view as Vanhanen is Minister of Defence Jyri Häkämies (Nat. Coalition Party), who is the minister responsible for the interests of the state in companies in which the state is an owner.
      Häkämies now says that companies in which the state has a majority shareholding should not support election campaigns.
      On Sunday Häkämies did not think that companies with a state majority shareholding should be prevented from making contributions to political parties.
     
Banning contributions by state-owned companies would hurt Prime Minister Vanhanen’s Centre Party the most, according to information collected by Helsingin Sanomat.
      The party says that it has received about EUR 20,000 from companies with a majority state holding between 2006 and 2009. In addition, the companies have supported individual Members of Parliament and individual candidates by nearly EUR 10,000.
      The largest single contributor to the Centre Party has been the armaments manufacturer Patria, which has donated EUR 6,000.
     
Coming in second is the Social Democratic Party, which has received more than EUR 20,000 from state-owned companies, including both contributions to the party in general and for individual SDP candidates.
      The SDP’s biggest benefactor in 2004-2009 was the state-owned construction service and infrastructure company Destia, which reports giving the party about EUR 10,000.
      The National Coalition Party got less than EUR 15,000, but the party did get a total of EUR 125,000 between 2006 and 2008 from the financial services company Sampo, in which the state has a minority shareholding.
     
The support given by state-controlled companies to parties mainly involves tickets bought by the companies to seminars organised by the parties. According to the three largest parties, the elimination of this source of revenue would not have any significant effect.
      Social Democratic Party Secretary Ari Korhonen says that a ban on contributions from state-owned companies would not have much of an impact. However, he said that he hopes that state-owned companies would continue to work together with parties in the future as well.
      Centre Party Secretary Jarmo Korhonen also said that cutting off funds from state-owned companies would not put very much of a dent in his party’s finances. However, he feels that it is not fair to exclude state-owned enterprises from the important information that is distributed in seminars.
      “We will offer state enterprises one free ticket per company”, Korhonen says.
      Jarmo Pekkala, administrative chief of the National Coalition Party, says that support from state-owned companies is so small that its elimination would not have any effect.
     
The issue of political contributions by state-owned companies came up on Sunday, when it was revealed that Patria had taken part in supporting political parties.
      On Tuesday Helsingin Sanomat reported that Destia has also supported parties to the tune of about EUR 20,000 between 2004 and 2009.
      Patria has said that it will not contribute to political parties in the future.

More on this subject:
 Complaints filed with Chancellor of Justice with regard to election contributions
 Listed companies' cash support for parties is money from shareholders' pockets
 President Halonen surprised at scale of election support

Previously in HS International Edition:
  Election funding stir is not manifested in parties´ approval ratings (31.7.2009)
  Destia also contributed to large political parties (11.8.2009)
  Häkämies urges state-owned enterprises to disclose donations to parties (10.8.2009)

Helsingin Sanomat