Heinäluoma calls for more joy, passion and self-confidence in SDP

Election defeat blamed on successful strategy of National Coalition Party

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After suffering a setback in the Parliamentary elections in March, the Social Democratic Party is launching an extensive programme of largely unspecified reforms. The SDP leadership spent nearly four hours on Tuesday analysing the election result on the basis of a report more than 100 pages long written by MP Antti Kalliomäki.
      The party noted that the basic tone of the campaign proved to be a failure, when the National Coalition Party, which SDP strategists chose as its main opponent, never responded to the challenge put to it by the Social Democrats. The Kalliomäki report also noted that the SDP failed to react to the changes in its operating environment, resulting in a loss of votes in all directions.
      According to Kalliomäki, the party's lengthy period in government turned from a blessing into a burden. He says that the party's credibility and reliability were shaken. Similar problems were also linked with the activities of the party's chairman, Eero Heinäluoma.
      "There was a credibility problem, which got worse toward the end."
      It was also observed that the SDP could not decide whether or not to focus on Heinäluoma's campaign for Prime Minister; according to the report, he should have run in the Uusimaa electoral district, instead of Helsinki, so that he might have challenged Matti Vanhanen (Centre).
      "All of the land mines went off at the SDP's feet", said Kalliomäki at a press conference on Tuesday.
      The SDP drew other conclusions on Tuesday. Heinäluoma declared that in the future, the party's activities would be marked by "joy, passion, and self-confidence".
     
The four-hour meeting did not touch upon the future of Heinäluoma as leader of the Social Democratic Party. Kalliomäki said that the chairman now has to show his stuff - adding that the party will give Heinäluoma the opportunity to do so.
      Heinäluoma said that the SDP train will now be lifted back on track. A key element of this is to be an emphasis on the social aspects of Social Democratic politics - that of helping those in need. The party chairman added that policies on growth an employment "are already on the right track".
     
In the autumn, the SDP will hold a meeting in Lahti aimed at reforming the main policy lines of the party. Organisational reform is to be launched immediately, as well as opening up toward civic society, and the recruitment of new party activists.
      The SDP hopes to work actively in good cooperation with civic organisations. However, Kalliomäki emphasised that this must happen independently without placing labels anywhere. This is an apparent reference to the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK), whose appeal to voters in a television spot during the election campaign was seen to be an indirect and somewhat heavy-handed endorsement of the Social Democrats, which ultimately may have done the party some damage.
      Values are to be given priority over money. The Social Democrats also resolved to desist from negative campaigning against opponents.
      A number of documents are to be prepared for the 2008 Social Democratic Party Congress. Heinäluoma himself is preparing a document on the future of work in Finland. Psychological well-being and culture, climate and the environment, municipal affairs and organisational reform will also be topics of separate documents.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  SDP working group faults party leaders for election campaign failures (15.6.2007)

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