Centre Party leader Matti Vanhanen feels “strengthened by election funding furore”

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Centre Party Chairman, Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen would not say on Sunday during his regular radio interview programme if he would seek re-election as his party’s leader next year.
      In the monthly programme on the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE), Vanhanen said that he does not want to discuss the matter before the coming spring. “This is like a stock market release. They are also not issued on a weekly basis.”
      However, Vanhanen added that the election financing and construction material controversies of recent weeks have actually strengthened his position.
      “I don’t think that I have been in this strong a position at any time during this Prime Ministerial term.”
     
Journalist Jaakko Hautamäki, of Helsingin Sanomat, who specialises in matters related to the Centre Party, and who was one of the interviewers on the programme, said that he felt that Vanhanen’s assessment was “probably right”.
      The strengthened position of the party leader is reflected in the greater solidarity among the party’s Parliamentary group. As Hautamäki sees it, criticism from the outside tends to be a rallying point for the Centre Party.
     
Claims on a YLE current affairs television programme that Vanhanen had been given free construction material for his house has prompted the party’s Parliamentary group leader Timo Kalli to call for the resignation of YLE's managing director Mikael Jungner.
      Vanhanen did not take the same view on Sunday. On the contrary, he said that he has no expectations of YLE, emphasising that it needs to be an independent broadcaster, and should not toady to anybody. “I do not have the slightest wish or demand. The matter is over.”
      He is taking the same line with respect to the Council for Mass Media in Finland (JSN), which monitors journalistic ethics.
      “I have heard that the JSN is handling the matter, but I have not been active in that direction. Naturally, it is fine with me if they investigate.”
     
The Prime Minister appeared very self-confident in the interview, placing himself outside the election funding controversy. He said that neither he, nor the government has put time into dealing with the controversy.
      He said that the furore has forced him to make only one change in his schedule. He had to cancel a barber’s appointment.
      He reiterated the view that there has been no disruption of the work of the government, and said that the journalists seemed to be trying to make him state the opposite with their questions. “Or what?” he asked. “Silence”, he noted with triumph, when there was no response from the reporters.
      Again he had no comment on his time in the leadership of the Nuorisosäätiö youth housing foundation, noting that official investigations into possible wrongdoings by the foundation are still pending.
     
The only reaction from the seemingly teflon-coated Vanhanen came when Hautamäki asked when Vanhanen would start reshuffling Centre Party ministers as had been demanded.
      “There are some matters that the Prime Minister and party leader decides on his own. In some matters I am stubborn. I do not speculate if I do not want to speculate with them”, Vanhanen said somewhat tersely.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  PM Vanhanen accuses YLE of systematic attempt to topple him (12.10.2009)
  Ilta-Sanomat: Vanhanen´s house does not contain timber claimed in YLE programme (8.10.2009)
  YLE claims: PM Vanhanen received building materials from construction company free of charge (29.9.2009)
  Vanhanen refuses to accept sole responsibility for election funding row (28.9.2009)
  Election funding causes rumblings in government (25.9.2009)

Helsingin Sanomat