Christian Democrats going it alone on campaign funding interpellation

Three other opposition groupings backed away

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On Monday, the Christian Democrats took the initiative, drafting an interpellation on the election campaign finance controversy, after the other opposition parties had given up demanding an interpellation debate over the campaign furore in Parliament.
     
The Parliamentary Group chairs of the Social Democratic Party, the Left Alliance, and the True Finns issued a joint statement, saying that they would not join the Christian Democrats in the planned interpellation.
      At the same time, they cancelled the planned meeting of the opposition party leaders that had been due on Tuesday morning.
      The chairs of the other three opposition parties announced that an interpellation was not the right way to investigate the campaign funding matter, while adding that it was not the right time, either, to launch an interpellation debate as a police investigation into suspicious campaign funding is currently under way in Rovaniemi.
     
An interpellation requires the signature of at least 20 MPs, which means that the Parliamentary Group of seven Christian Democrats will not be able to launch such a debate alone.
      However, the Christian Democrats are likely to try to find stray signatures from willing MPs of various political parties in order to move forward with the motion.
      Annika Lapintie, the Parliamentary Group chair of the Left Alliance, and Tarja Filatov, the leader of the SDP Parliamentary Group, both noted that the groups have no rules relating to such a situation.
     
An interpellation is effectively a means of determining whether the government has the support and confidence of Parliament.
      Under Finnish law, such a question can be put to the government by a minimum of 20 MPs, usually drawn from the Parliamentary opposition.
      The government is obliged to reply within 15 days, and if the reply is not to the satisfaction of the assembled MPs, then the matter can lead to a vote of no confidence, at which the government would fall.
      The last occasion on which a sitting Finnish government has been forced to resign office over an interpellation was in the 1950s.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Opposition received no new information from PM on campaign funding links with KMS (13.6.2008)
  Opposition parties want Vanhanen to report on campaign funding matter on Thursday (11.6.2008)

Helsingin Sanomat