A number of MPs of the Centre Party and the opposition National Coalition Party have welcomed recent discussion on possible cooperation among centre-right parties in the upcoming Presidential elections.
Prime Minister and Centre Party chairman Matti Vanhanen said in an interview with the Centre Party newspaper Suomenmaa that discussions between the two parties on cooperation in the second round of the elections is "natural and positive".
Vanhanen feels that the parties have a clear common goal in the elections: for someone other than the Social Democratic Party candidate to be elected President.
Cooperation on the Presidential front has been raised especially in discussions between party secretaries Harri Jaskari (Nat. Coalition) and Eero Lankia (Centre). National Coalition Party chairman Jyrki Katainen also said on Friday that his party is ready to go behind a common Presidential candidate in the second round.
Social Democratic politicians have been less than enthusiastic about the prospect of facing a united front in the Presidential elections. On Tuesday MP Pirkko Peltomo (SDP) said that the "Presidential betrothal" of the centre-right parties reveals "contempt for the people". She accused the parties of reviving the back-room political dealing of the era of President Urho Kekkonen.
"Will the Centre accept anyone for President, as long as it is not a Social Democrat?" Peltomo asks in her press release.
Parliamentarians of the National Coalition Party and the Centre Party have largely welcomed the idea. Jari Vilén (Nat. Coalition) said that it is important for the two parties to restore mutual trust, so that a centre-right government might be possible again some day. Maija Perho (Nat. Coalition) adds that it is important for the discussion to be an open and public debate.
Centre Party MP Markku Laukkanen welcomed the prospect of testing cooperation between the parties. However, he also cautioned that the National Coalition Party encourages discussion when it finds it convenient. He calculates that if such cooperation had succeeded in the previous Presidential election, Esko Aho, the Centre Party candidate, would have been chosen President in 2000.
"The question is nevertheless largely one of people. Many Centre Party supporters would find Sauli Niinistö (Nat. Coalition) hard to swallow as a Presidential Candidate. Niinistö has always shunned cooperation with the Centre", Laukkanen says.
The name of Sauli Niinistö, a former party chairman and Minister of Finance, is among those being mentioned frequently in the context of a possible National Coalition Party candidate. Niinistö turned down the offer five years ago.
