Minister Paula Lehtomäki's autumn baby may cause slight cabinet reshuffle

"God controls these things, not I", Lehtomäki comments

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Foreign Trade and Development Minister Paula Lehtomäki (Centre) is pregnant. The baby is due in the autumn.
      "Babies come when they come", Lehtomäki said on Tuesday.
     
The contented 32-year-old minister from the eastern town of Kuhmo commented on her pregnancy: "The Lord controls these things, not I."
      Lehtomäki and her husband Jyri Sahlsten got married at Easter this year. Already then the bride announced that she wanted children.
      On Tuesday, Lehtomäki suspected that her maternity leave would be "relatively short".
      "Of course it depends on the circumstances, but I believe my leave will end up being quite short."
     
The Centre Party has previous experience of short maternity leaves at the ministerial level. In Esko Aho's government during the 1990s, ministers Eeva Kuuskoski and Hannele Pokka both had relatively short leaves from office after giving birth.
      Kuuskoski's maternity leave lasted only two months. After returning to the office, she breast-fed her baby in the so-called ministerial hotel of the Government Banqueting Rooms, used for cabinet sessions.
      Provisionally Lehtomäki has discussed her forthcoming maternity leave with Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen (Centre).
      After her presumably short absence, Lehtomäki will return to make arrangements for Finland's turn at the rotating EU Presidency in the autumn of 2006.
     
According to Chancellor of Justice Paavo Nikula, a minister's temporary absence of up to two months can be covered by other ministers. To cover longer non-attendances, a replacement has to be found from outside the sitting government, to be sworn in as a new minister.
      In such a case Lehtomäki would have to formally resign, only to be reinstated after her maternity leave was over.
     
If an outside replacement is needed, Centre Party MP Mari Kiviniemi is a strong candidate. In a way she is already "in" the government, as the Prime Minister's assistant.
      In any case the replacement is likely to be a woman. The group of Centre Party female ministers has been shorthanded since the resignation of Prime Minister Anneli Jäätteenmäki in June 2003.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Private wedding, public divorce (12.4.2005)

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