Government formation: Katainen starts from scratch

All parties still under consideration – including SDP, Left, and Greens

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The government formation process is back at square one, with all options for the composition of a coalition still possible.
      Participants at a meeting of the Parliamentary party groups decided unanimously on Tuesday that National Coalition Party chairman Jyrki Katainen should continue to work to form a government.
      Katainen will hold talks with all parties and will disclose the outcome of those talks to the Parliamentary groups on Friday.
      “Finland has a serious situation. Time has passed since the elections, and Finland needs to get a functioning majority government”, Katainen said on Tuesday after a meeting of Parliamentary groups.
     
On the practical level Katainen will need to put forward his vision for the composition of a government, or else he will have to let someone else take over the task of forming a government.
      It was obvious on Tuesday that Katainen was aware of the high stakes, which even had implications for his own future as the leader of his party. He was outwardly calm, but his demeanour revealed subtle hints of nervousness.
     
Katainen was not ruling out any alternatives for a government coalition – with the exception of the Greens taking part in a government with the National Coalition Party and the Centre Party, an option which the Greens themselves rejected on Monday.
      The Social Democratic Party and the Left Alliance, which left the government talks last week, are also in the picture again. Through the weekend and into Monday the SDP and the National Coalition Party have been snapping at each other in public.
      On Tuesday, tones were more conciliatory, and MPs of the two parties were seen sitting at the same tables in the Parliament’s café again.
     
Before the collapse of discussions last week, many National Coalition Party and Social Democratic representatives had been getting along fine in the government talks, and the breakdown of talks came as a big surprise to many.
      On Monday the Social Democrats were still calling on Katainen to say which parties he wants to enlist in efforts to form a new government. On Tuesday SDP chairwoman Jutta Urpilainen was open to giving Katainen more time until Friday. “Then we need to find a solution.”
      One possible solution might be that Urpilainen, the chair of the second-largest Parliamentary party, would take on the task of trying to compile a government.
     
Katainen admitted that the decision by the Greens to opt out of a government in which the National Coalition Party and the Centre Party would be the main partners, came as a surprise to him. Katainen asked the Centre to join last week as soon as the negotiations with the SDP and the Left Alliance broke down, but the proposed coalition was an anathema to the Greens’ delegate council.
      Previously Green party leaders and MPs had said voiced support for the option, but the delegate council took a different view.
      Katainen predicted that once the composition of a possible government is ironed out, the negotiations will proceed quickly.
     
Conspicuous by his absence on Tuesday was SDP negotiator Eero Heinäluoma, who was said to be on a previously agreed-upon trip abroad.
      Commenting on his personal relations with Heinäluoma, Katainen said: “We get along as colleagues at work.”
      He also said that there is something wrong in priorities, if personal chemistry between people is more important than the future of Finland. In his view, Finland, which is a country of coalition governments, cannot afford “mud-wrestling on a personal level”.

More on this subject:
 Soini assesses EU stances of other parties

Previously in HS International Edition:
  Government: New political situation persuades Centre Party to reconsider (7.6.2011)
  Centre Party ready to join government (6.6.2011)
  Katainen to continue efforts to form government – says no alternatives ruled out (7.6.2011)
  Nat. Coalition Party and SDP at loggerheads after govt. talks breakdown (6.6.2011)
  Social Democrats walked out of government talks despite winning many concessions (3.6.2011)

Helsingin Sanomat