Minister Saarela apologises for husband's ill-chosen remarks

Eero Heinäluoma

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Minister of Culture Tanja Saarela (Centre Party) apologised on Wednesday for comments made by her husband film director Olli Saarela on Minister of Finance Eero Heinäluoma (SDP) in an interview given to a glossy magazine, Image.
      In the interview Saarela described Heinäluoma as a "miserable, large, bald-headed wuss", whom he would have liked to "punch in the nose".
      According to the magazine, Saarela was brassed off by the way the Social Democrats - led by Heinäluoma - had criticised his wife in conjunction with summer budget talks by saying she was an incompetent negotiator. In the budget discussions, Minister Saarela's request for improvements to student benefits was denied.
      Yesterday Minister Saarela described her husband as a temperamental man with a colourful turn of phrase, who speaks his mind. "With him you don't have to read between the lines. But in this case he simply lost it. No explaining can help with such bad comments or jokes", Saarela told the Finnish News Agency STT.
      Saarela compared her husband's behaviour with that displayed by two members of the Helsinki HIFK and Jokerit ice hockey teams, who got into a punch-up on the ice in the first minute of Tuesday night's local derby match: "Apparently this kind of defiant posturing is in some men's nature", sighed Saarela.
      Minister Heinäluoma dismissed the film director's comments as a joke.
     
Public image researcher Erkki Karvonen views the incident as a textbook example of ill-advised public speaking. Because of his wife's ministerial position, Olli Saarela should have been able to foresee the stir his statement would create, Karvonen says.
      "From the PR point of view, such amateurish comments bearing a likeness to toilet-wall doodling or Internet chats under the shelter of anonymity can be dangerous."
      "Saarela's outburst certainly didn't do any favours to his wife's credibility", Karvonen remarks.
     
Docent of Political Communication, Professor Pekka Isotalus, in turn views the incident as rather inconsequential from the political point of view. "But a clear conflict involving a minister that has been previously at the centre of attention creates perfect headlines", he says. Isotalus also notes the exceptional nature of the roles being played - there have been several cases of a minister having to step in and defend his or her spouse, but this is a first.
      "Then again, in this drama the gender roles are also rather traditional. The situation would be altogether different if a wife defended publicly a male politician for his undertakings."


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Government´s last budget proposal focuses on employment and poverty (24.8.2006)

Links:
  Minister of Culture Tanja Saarela
  Minister of Finance Eero Heinäluoma

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