Lipponen biography: From fiery red glow to cool blue dreams
Katja Boxberg wrote her book on her own without help from Paavo Lipponen
By Unto Hämäläinen
Journalist Katja Boxberg is the first to have carried out what has been the secret dream of many a journalist by writing a book about the Speaker of Parliament Paavo Lipponen , who is also the chairman of the Social Democratic Party, and the former Prime Minister. The title of the book is simply Paavo Lipponen. That name is quite sufficient, considering that Lipponen is indeed a giant of Finnish politics. Each of us has an opinion about him.
The timing of the publication of the book is quite ingenious. Lipponen, who turns 63 in late April, is at yet another turning point in his life. He is working hard to get a leadership position in the European Union. In the summer it will be seen if Lipponen gets to start a new career, or if he really is on the road to the status of a political bygone - travelling first class in his post of Speaker of Parliament.
The timing is quite suitable, considering that Lipponen has recently suffered a stinging defeat in the very areas of politics that are closest to him - in foreign and security policy, and in Finland’s relations with the West.
I need to emphasise that this is my own interpretation - not that of Katja Boxberg’s book.
Nevertheless, I have come to this conclusion, this view was strengthened by reading the book.
The book meticulously examines Lipponen’s political awakening in the 1960s. It tells about how a sensitive young man with a keen interest in cultural pursuits first became active in student politics, and soon after that as a real politician.
A bright red flame burning inside Lipponen. In foreign policy he was considerably to the left of President Urho Kekkonen, with an abiding suspicion of the West, and a willingness to listen to the East.
The rocking-the-boat phase lasted only a few years. In the early 1970s, the powerful diplomats of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, led by Ambassador Risto Hyvärinen, converted Lipponen to the official policy line.
The book also documents Lipponen’s second conversion phase in a quite credible manner.
When Finland decided to accept a free trade agreement with the EEC in the autumn of 1973, Lipponen, who was then the SDP’s secrtetary of international affairs, worked to persuade his fellow party members to support the free trade agreement.
However, not everyone was convinced. His most important Social Democratic opponent was Member of Parliament Erkki Tuomioja.
The struggle between Lipponen and Tuomioja over the political line of the SDP has lasted for more than 30 years. In the early 1990s Lipponen was one of the very first in Finland to propose applying for membership in the European Community. Tuomioja hesitated for a long time, but was finally persuaded to become a supporter of membership.
At the end of the last decade, Lipponen, as the chairman of the SDP and the country’s Prime Minister, pushed through Finnish membership in the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). In this decision as well, Tuomioja was among those bringing up the rear.
The book quotes Lipponen’s core idea, according to which "Finland’s interests cannot be efficiently promoted with one foot inside the EU and one foot outside. In the changes facing the EU and Europe, we are constantly threatened by the danger of being left a target of bilateralism - in a position in which we would be targets of the policies of Moscow and Berlin."
Lipponen constantly goes back to this theme. He often brings up the Tilsit Treaty, where the Emperor Napoleon and Tsar Alexander I agreed in 1807 that Russia would get Finland as payment for isolating Sweden.
Lipponen points out how many times the same pattern has been repeated in history.
In his view, Finland must be involved in all integration, so that any attempts to make agreements above our heads could be prevented in advance.
Meanwhile, Tuomioja writes, in his book Suomen ulko- ja turvallisuuspolitiikka anno 2004 ("Finnish Foreign and Security Policy Anno 2004") that Finland "...is still affected by a Tilsit syndrome of sorts".
Naturally Tuomioja will not say who is most seriously afflicted by the syndrome, but it is not difficult to guess. In Tuomioja’s opinion, there is no point in sticking to the Tilsit Syndrome, because the setup cannot be repeated, and consequently, Finland does not need to be involved in all types of integration.
Tuomioja’s view has prevailed in the NATO debate. Finland is not trying to become a NATO member, but the situation may have been different, if Lipponen’s position in the foreign policy leadership would have remained as powerful as it was when the EMU decision was made.
The Presidential elections of 2000 and the Parliamentary elections last year were decisive defeats. Lipponen lost his most important supporter in foreign policy, when President Martti Ahtisaari decided in the spring of 1999 not to seek re-election.
Until then the "balance of power" in the foreign policy leadership had been two-to-one, and the "one" was Foreign Minister Tarja Halonen.
Halonen was more cautious than Ahtisaari and Lipponen in taking new steps in Western integration.
After the new President took office, the power balance was now one-to-two, as the new President and Tuomioja, who had replaced Halonen as Foreign Minister, were both equally careful.
The strengthening of the wait-and-see attitude was already apparent at the end of Lipponen’s Prime Ministerial term, and losing the post of Prime Minister last year sealed his defeat. Now the balance of power in the foreign policy leadership is three to zero, because Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen is following the Halonen-Tuomioja line.
Is it any wonder that Lipponen is looking for work outside Finland?
At the end of her book, Boxberg has an impressive bibliography, which reveals her main sources. Other sources have not been named as carefully.
Paavo Lipponen did not participate in the production of this book in any way. He did not grant any interviews, or open his archive. This did not discourage the writer. Boxberg says that she gathered information using journalistic methods - interviewing, reading historical articles, going through archives and memoirs, and reading texts written by Lipponen himself. Another sign of good journalism is that the disconnect between the writer and the topic did not turn to vindictiveness. The book did not contain too much of the resentment feared by Lipponen. I raise my hat to Boxberg for that.
What could still be written about Lipponen?
Lipponen is such a big man, that anyone taking a pot shot would certainly not miss the target. For the debate to be more honest and open, it would be fair for some commentator to write a critical book openly using his or her real name.
Lipponen’s defenders, on the other hand, would do well not to write a book too soon. Instead, it would be best to wait, without excess haste, for a book of memoirs. The best writer about Paavo Lipponen would probably be Paavo Lipponen himself.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 7.4.2004
UNTO HÄMÄLÄINEN / Helsingin Sanomat
unto.hamalainen@hs.fi
|
| 14.4.2004 - THIS WEEK |
 Lipponen biography: From fiery red glow to cool blue dreams |
|
