Centre Party re-elects Vanhanen and Korhonen

Party congress open to reduced presidential powers and more nuclear power

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The Centre Party’s congress on Saturday unanimously voted in favour of a new two-year term for the party’s chairman, Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen. Also re-elected at the congress in Joensuu was Party Secretary Jarmo Korhonen. In a race with his challenger, MP Kimmo Tiilikainen, Korhonen prevailed 1200 votes to 488.
     There was one surprise when the vice chairs for the party were chosen: the Minister for Administrative and Municipal Affairs, Mari Kiviniemi was voted out of the presidium, to be replaced by 26-year-old first-term MP Tuomo Puumala. The other two vice chairs, Environment Minister Paula Lehtomäki and MP Antti Rantakangas.
     Before moving on to the vice chairs, the congress unanimously elected Chairman Matti Vanhanen for a second term.
     The actual contest on Saturday was for the post of Party Secretary. Incumbent Korhonen, who easily won re-election, got most of his support from the party’s rural support base. Supporters of challenger Tiilikainen spoke mostly of working methods and the future.
     At a press conference after the votes, Korhonen said that the election finance debate had taught the parties to examine the matter more closely.
     “Finland needs better election finance legislation that would cover the whole electoral term. It also needs to extend to party financing”, he said.
     He added that political openness and transparency serve as a “self-defence of politics”.
     
On Friday, the opening day of the congress, Vanhanen had unusually strong words over Russia’s plans to raise export tariffs of raw timber. Vanhanen said that the decision will lead to a reduction in paper production in Finland, as well as weaker profitability for the whole forest industry.
     “The weakening of the economy and losses of jobs because of the actions of the neighbour would be unique."
     He added that it would be a sour note in decades of Finnish policy toward its eastern neighbour, "which the Centre Party especially has always supported.”
     “These would have a negative effect on Finnish attitudes toward Russia”, he said.
     To further underscore the significance of the matter, Vanhanen diverged from his prepared speech: “For a Centre Party chair to say this is a matter of careful consideration. In this matter, neighbour policy is not working.”
     
On Saturday, delegates focused on the election finance furore, with many feeling that their party had been unfairly singled out.
     Nothing unites a group as much as a common enemy, and the Centre Party delegates found one in the tabloid press of the south of Finland, and its handling of the campaign finance controversy.
     “It is hard in these quarters to accept that the successors of the Agrarian League, who were supposed to have been crushed into the ground already a decade ago, are leading Finland for a second successive time in the 21st century, and are doing it successfully”, said Minister of Economic Affairs Mauri Pekkarinen.
     
The speeches were intense, but Chairman Vanhanen would not join the chorus blaming the whole election campaign finance question on the southern media.
     “I think that it is a wrong interpretation. It is quite clear that there was a good reason [for criticism] when about 30 Members of Parliament submitted an incomplete disclosure”, he said at the day’s final press conference.
     
On Sunday, the final day of the gathering, the Centre Party passed a measure approving of the construction of more nuclear energy facilities, if the need arises. The party also endorsed evaluating the constitutional powers of the President “in cooperation with other Parliamentary parties”.
     Discussions on constitutional reform among the parties in the Finnish Parliament are to be held later this year.
     The congress also voted on an initiative introduced by a group calling itself Progressive Centre Women, calling for allowing same-sex couples to adopt children. The measure, which was endorsed by the party’s executive, was rejected by a majority of delegates.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Opposition received no new information from PM on campaign funding links with KMS (13.16.2008)
  Preparations for Centre Party congress overshadowed by campaign finance controversy (11.6.2008)
  KMS support to Vanhanen campaign: Centre Party’s Kontiola made bank transaction (9.6.2008)
  Race for Centre Party Secretary post heats up (5.6.2008)

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