Government parties ordered to change constitution

EDITORIAL

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Until now there had been broad agreement within Parliament and the government that the constitution, which has been in force for only six years, should not be tampered with yet. The Centre Party, the Social Democrats, and the National Coalition Party had separately agreed, because of the Presidential elections, that the position of the President would not be touched with respect to the next Presidential term.
      On Thursday the government had forgotten all that talk. The Parliamentary groups of the government parties were hastily summoned to give their blessing to putting in motion a constitutional amendment to strengthen the authority of the President.
      The government certainly did not long tolerate that the Parliament’s Constitutional Law Committee had - contrary to the views of the government - rejected the right of the President to decide in the final instance on Finnish participation in crisis management operations of the rapid reaction forces of the European Union.
      Still on Wednesday evening, Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja (SDP) and Defence Minister Seppo Kääriäinen (Centre) were calmly pondering the situation that had arisen with representatives of the Constitutional Law Committee, showing no sign that on the next day the government would be demanding that its own Parliamentary groups should give their approval to a constitutional amendment.
     
There had been a rush behind the scenes. The "gang of three" leaders of the government parties quickly won the unanimous consent of their own Parliamentary groups for changing the constitution. After that they appeared in front of the cameras to announce a joint decision. The leaders of at least the Centre Party and the Social Democrats had an obvious need to show the government’s decisiveness in the matter.
      The statement of the Constitutional Law Committee was undoubtedly also politically humiliating for the government and the President. The situation is so awkward both politically and constitutionally that the government should not have had any reason to hurry in the matter. However, now the government acted as if there were a state of emergency. The Parliamentary groups were forced to agree to a constitutional amendment with no time for consideration, even though the issue at hand is downright unique - albeit not especially urgent. After all, the planned constitutional amendment cannot take effect until sometime after the Parliamentary elections of 2007.
     
The most intense phase of the Presidential election battle is just about to start. One of the candidates is incumbent President Tarja Halonen, from whom the Constitutional Law Committee was taking away decision-making power in one specific matter, and giving it to the government. The Prime Minister of the government, Matti Vanhanen, is also a Presidential candidate. The majority of citizens do not want to reduce the President’s powers, and therefore, a candidate who is seriously campaigning in the election cannot support the transfer of power in even one single question from the President to the government - not even [when he is] the Prime Minister in office. If there was ever any doubt, Vanhanen managed to show, via the quick reaction from the government, that he is a defender of Presidential powers.
      The wisest thing for the government would have been to postpone its own actions until after the Presidential elections - after all, it is only a matter of a few weeks. Although the government denies that its planned change - or as it calls it, the "complement" to the constitution - would actually strengthen the real powers of the President, that is what will inevitably happen with this constitutional amendment, which specifically adds to the President’s authority.
      On that basis, the President will probably be able to justify participation in EU summits more solidly than before.
      The final ratification of the constitution requires the approval of a two-thirds majority in the next Parliament. This is why the opposition National Coalition Party now has to assess its attitude toward the government’s proposal also from the point of view of the government formation talks after the elections.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 3.12.2005


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Government proposes constitutional amendment on crisis management issue (2.12.2005)

Helsingin Sanomat