Centre Party Secretary first casualty of Presidential Election campaign
Eero Lankia announces he will withdraw after party congress in the summer
Eero Lankia
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The Centre Party's Secretary Eero Lankia has announced that he will not be seeking re-election to the post later this year. He gives as his reason for the decision the poor election performance of the Centre Party in the Presidential Elections this month. Lankia writes of his decision in his own column in the Tuesday edition of the party newspaper Suomenmaa.
"I feel my own sense of responsibility for the election result and I am acting accordingly. I shall be vacating the Party Secretary's position in June, and will leave the field open to others. The Party Congress will decide what kind of stewardship is required in this role in the future", writes Lankia.
He notes that he has long been mulling over his decision to give up the job, but that he nevertheless wanted to see the Presidential Elections through to the end before making his plans public.
"Now those who are interested in filling the position will have all of the latter part of the winter and the spring to bring themselves forward, and party delegates will have time to ponder suitable candidates. In any event, it is time now and then to bring in some new faces and new ideas", Lankia stated.
Lankia noted that he had been in the steering group for the recent election campaign and that he was clearly the longest-serving member of the current Centre Party leadership. He pondered the reasons behind Prime Minister and Party Chairman Matti Vanhanen's relatively poor showing in the election (Vanhanen placed third behind Tarja Halonen and Sauli Niinistö and was therefore eliminated in the first round), and he urged other party members to some serious reflection on the matter.
"Now is the time for some honest analysis of what happened in the election. A year from now we have ahead of us quite the most important public test, the Parliamentary elections. These will determine the Centre Party's position as a force directing the development of our society in coming years", argues Lankia.
He believes that the key issue is to generate confidence in the government's policies and to get the passive Centre Party supporters back to the polling booths.
Lankia can be regarded as the first high-level casualty of the recent election, although it might be said that the Centre Party's showing in municipal elections in October 2004 fell short of what might have been hoped after the victory in 2003 that took them into government.
Voters in the party's traditional core-areas remained passive, allowing the Social Democrats to overhaul the Centre as the largest party in the country. Meanwhile, the party has continued to struggle for support in growing urban areas of Finland. On the second round of the Presidential Election, the Centre Party leadership endorsed the candidacy of the challenger Sauli Niinistö (National Coalition Party), but it was noticeable that voter turnout was lower in traditional Centrist areas than elsewhere across the country.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 31.1.2006 - TODAY |
 Centre Party Secretary first casualty of Presidential Election campaign
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