Halonen names incumbent Ritva Viljanen as Interior Ministry Permanent Secretary

President rejected government proposal and exercised her right of appointment

Ritva Viljanen

Ilkka Laitinen

Anne Holmlund

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As anticipated, President Tarja Halonen stood her ground on Friday and exercised her right under the constitution to appoint senior civil servants, even in opposition to government proposals, and she named Ritva Viljanen (SDP) to a second five-year term as Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of the Interior.
     
Just over a week ago, the government had put forward a unanimous proposal that Brigadier-General Ilkka Laitinen, the current Executive Director of FRONTEX, the EU’s border security authority, should be given the ministry post.
      Halonen refused to ratify the appointment on Friday of last week.
      Laitinen’s name had been initially put forward by the Interior Minister Anne Holmlund (National Coalition Party).
      Under the terms of the constitution, the President’s unwillingness to agree to the unanimous government proposal meant that the decision went back for reconsideration, and in the case that the government did not change its stand - as it did not - Halonen was empowered to appoint whomsoever she wanted to the position.
     
In a statement defending her decision in vetoing Laitinen’s appointment and naming the incumbent to the position (equivalent to the ministry's Chief of Staff), Halonen argued that Ritva Viljanen, 50, was the most accomplished of the candidates, and stated further that she had heard of no reason that would speak against the appointment.
      The President also cited Viljanen’s previous tenure at the ministry, stating that she had an unblemished record in the job.
     
The appointment has prompted widespread discussion, since hitherto Halonen has tended to follow the guidance of unanimous government proposals in her choices for senior posts.
      Such cases as this are rare in Finnish politics: in the last fifty years there has been only one incident where the President overruled a unanimous government proposal in this fashion. This took place during the long tenure of President Urho Kekkonen (1900-1986), who held office from 1956 until 1981, at a time when the presidential powers were considerably stronger than than they are today.
     
Friday’s statement by President Halonen did not provide any clear answer to why she had acted differently on this occasion.
      Halonen denied that the decision had anything to do with Viljanen’s Social Democrat background (Halonen is herself a former SDP member and from 1995 until her election in 2000 she was Minister for Foreign Affairs in the coalition government of SDP Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen), or that Viljanen was a woman.
      The President actually joked that with Viljanen’s outstanding credentials for the job, even a man would have been chosen.
     
Halonen acknowledged that the process had been a more complicated one than normally, and stated that she had sought to understand the reasons why the minister responsible for the proposal had reached a different conclusion.
      According to a report in Thursday’s Helsingin Sanomat, Interior Minister Holmlund had spoken with the President about the appointment on several occasions during the summer. Halonen said that the discussions had been constructive, even though the two sides differed in their views on the matter. She said that she had told Holmlund of her own position at their first meeting.
     
It has been argued that Laitinen was felt to be the right choice for the position, because the Ministry of the Interior is currently responsible for internal security and immigration issues. Holmlund feels that Laitinen has demonstrated his professional skills and leadership abilities while working as head of FRONTEX.
      To some extent this fact seems also to have been instrumental in directing Halonen’s mind.
      As well as pointing out that Viljanen had held the Permanent Secretary position at a time when the ministry’s role had changed in this respect, she noted that her choice was also motivated by Laitinen’s apparent willingness to leave FRONTEX in mid-tenure.
      Halonen is eager to see Laitinen remain in a prominent EU post - as one of the few Finns to hold such a position in the Brussels establishment - for another five-year term.
      Laitinen, a serving officer in the Finnish Frontier Guard, was appointed as the first head of FRONTEX (more formally the European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union) in May 2005.
     
In any event, the furore surrounding the appointment has prompted discussion of whether the President’s right of appointment should be restricted.
      A Parliamentary committee is to consider the workability of the present constitution during the autumn. Any possible changes would only affect Halonen’s successor from 2012.
     
In its editorial on Saturday, Helsingin Sanomat noted that neither side had come out with many style-points from the week-long impasse:
      “Without going into the merits of the two main candidates in detail, it is not suitable that a general should be appointed to head a department of the civil administration, even in the case that this was the ministry responsible for internal security. In this respect Halonen was right, even though she did not use these grounds in justifying her choice.”
      “At the same time, Halonen broke with her own principles: she has earlier stated she would appoint the government’s candidate, if the government were unanimous in its decision. In this case, the unanimity was admittedly largely of a formal nature. If the government parties have no particular interests of their own at stake in some appointment, then the candidate put forward by the minister concerned will automatically become the government’s candidate”, the writer noted.
     
For all that Halonen denied party affiliation played a part in the decision, the newspaper wrote:
      “The impression left in the public mind was nevertheless one of the President's having supported her former party colleague. At least temporarily, the President lowered herself from the platform of an impartial leader to the ranks of the party politicians. It is of course quite another matter that the present centre-right government has consistently appointed candidates from the non-socialist camp over those from the SDP.”
     
Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen (Centre Party), on his return from a visit to the Beijing Olympics, commented that the discussion on the appointment was now at an end.
      "The President has made her decision", he said, and he did not accept that there was any conflict between President and government over the issue.
      Vanhanen pointed out that the head of state has an unequivocal right of appointment in such matters under the terms of the constitution.
      Vanhanen did nonetheless observe that senior positions such as that of a Permanent Secretary are not "for life", and that they must genuinely be open to all qualified applicants.
      "The government has the view that it should also be possible to replace or change office-holders", said Vanhanen.
     
The successful candidate Ritva Viljanen did not wish to comment on the appointment in any shape or form on Friday.
      In the only public statement she released, she merely thanked the President for her confidence and promised to return to the duties and challenges of the Permanent Secretary’s desk at the beginning of October, when her second term of office begins.
      Prior to becoming Permanent Secretary in 2003, Viljanen was Director-General of the Population Register Centre from 1997.
     
     
Note: This article was added only on Saturday 16th, and we have retained it for today's dailies.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  President and government at odds over appointment of ministry official (7.8.2008)
  Katainen wants to take appointments of top civil servants out of President´s hands (11.8.2008)
  President stands ground on Interior Ministry appointment (8.8.2008)

Links:
  Ministry of the Interior

Helsingin Sanomat