Centre Party Parliamentary group leader: Valio election funding OK

Dairy operator contributed EUR 20,000 to political parties in last election

print this

Timo Kalli, the chairman of the Parliamentary group of the Centre Party, insists that there is nothing unusual about the contribution that the dairy cooperative concern Valio has made to candidates of the Centre Party in the Parliamentary elections of 2007.
      “I have also received support from [the forest industry cooperative] Metsäliitto. In the last elections I didn’t remember to ask for it”, Kalli said on Tuesday to Helsingin Sanomat.
      He also denied that the Valio election campaign support had anything to do with the ongoing debate on milk imports.
     
Kalli pointed out that he himself is a member of the management of a dairy cooperative that competes with Valio.
      “And the competition is bloody”, he emphasised.
     
On Tuesday, the late-edition daily tabloid Iltalehti reported that Valio had contributed about EUR 20,000 to various political parties in the 2007 election. The money was paid either directly to the candidates, or to their campaign organisations.
      The paper noted that Valio has supported election candidates before.
     
In an article written in his blog on Friday last week, Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen (Centre) complained that local grocery store had switched from selling milk supplied by Valio to milk produced by the Swedish-owned Arla Ingman.
      The Prime Minister said that he would move his business to another shop.
      Soon after that, the store chain in question announced that it would continue to keep a small amount of regular Valio milk in stock.
      Arla Ingman says that it has not made any political contributions.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finnish customers demand that regular Valio milk stays in grocery stores (9.3.2010)
  Arla Foods director surprised by strong reactions over selling of Swedish milk in Finnish grocery stores (8.3.2010)
  HOK-Elanto retail chain chooses Swedish-Danish Arla Ingman dairy goods over domestic Valio (5.3.2010)

Helsingin Sanomat