Centre Party Executive Committee has little to say about PM Vanhanen’s divorce

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The influential executive committee of the Finnish Centre Party had very little to say about the impending divorce of Prime Minister and party Chairman Matti Vanhanen. Party Secretary Eero Lankia said that during the meeting Vanhanen said only two sentences about the whole matter.
      Vanhanen told the inner circle of his party that the divorce will not affect his activities in politics, or his thoughts about the Presidential elections.
      "Nothing has changed. He will have a public statement on the Presidential question before the April meeting of the Party Council", Lankia said.
      The general feeling among the executive committee members was that the Vanhanens probably reached their decision after careful consideration.
      Hardly any of the party’s leaders wanted to speculate on the possible impact on the Presidential race. "It certainly changes the image that has been projected of his persona", one member admitted.
     
The Prime Minister commented on the divorce question in Parliament on Thursday afternoon.
      He said that in the future he plans to spend less of his free time on work, but that his official timetables for this spring have not been changed.
      "Naturally something like this affects one’s ability to cope, but I believe that I will be able to manage my work. I have learned to control different kinds of pressures", Vanhanen said calmly.
      As for his own state of mind, Vanhanen said: "That is another question."
      "In this job one has to withstand various pressures, but of course, in these kinds of matters one is just an ordinary human being.", he said.
      "Naturally I will have to rearrange my life, but that phase does not begin until early June. I have not thought that far."
     
Vanhanen said that the media reporting on the impending divorce has focused too much on the notion that Merja Vanhanen had initiated the process. He says that the two had reached a common decision on the matter.
      The Prime Minister said that he has received little feedback on the matter. All messages have come from people he knows, and they have all been supportive.
      "This is not a matter for outsiders, and the people in the party are outsiders, just like you [journalists]", he said.
      There was much talk about the Vanhanens’ divorce, but no MPs would allow themselves to be quoted on the matter. Members of the National Coalition Party and Social Democrats had specifically determined to remain silent on the matter.
      A key topic was the implications for the upcoming Presidential election; MPs pondered if Vanhanen might now lose ground among traditional Centre Party voters, who generally place a high priority on family values.
      "This will strengthen the position of Tarja Halonen. To think that she is now the only serious Presidential candidate to have a spouse at her side in the traditional manner", one National Coalition Party politician said.
      The feeling was also that National Coalition Party candidate Sauli Niinistö could benefit from the situation. "The fact that he does not have a spouse is no longer such a big thing", another National Coalition Party MP said. Niinistö’s wife died in a car accident in 1995.
      Politicians of all stripes agreed that now would not be a good time to attack Vanhanen - even from the ranks of the opposition.
      "This is where a politician’s table manners are weighed", one MP noted. 


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen to divorce after long marriage (7.4.2005)

Helsingin Sanomat