Prime Minister Vanhanen meeting with Parliamentary groups

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Prime Minister and Centre Party leader Matti Vanhanen, who is also likely to be the Prime Minister of the next government, is holding further discussions with representatives of Finland’s Parliamentary groups on Tuesday.
      On Wednesday, Vanhanen received responses to a set of questions he put to the Parliamentary parties on what they would like to see in the policy programme of the next government.
      In the responses, there were no significant differences or conflicts among the key parties.
      Two parties did stand out in their views on taxation policy: the Left Alliance led by Matti Korhonen, and the True Finns, under Timo Soini.
      All other parties were in favour of some degree of tax relief during the new Parliamentary term. In contrast, the Left Alliance and the True Finns take a negative view on the matter. The two parties are also calling for the restoration of the wealth tax. The Left Alliance also wants to impose a heavier tax on capital gains, while the True Finns want to increase the progressive character of the taxation of income.
      The two parties were the only ones not to indicate readiness to take part in negotiations aimed at forming a majority government.
      The True Finns also effectively excluded themselves from further discussions by opposing the draft constitution for the European Union.
     
The EU constitution could also be the stumbling block for the Christian Democrats, who would like to see the treaty renegotiated. Party chairwoman Päivi Räsänen set electoral reform as a threshold issue.
      When submitting her party's responses to Vanhanen’s questions, Räsänen took aim at the Green League, saying that electoral gains alone do not automatically mean that the party should get into government. She added that on issues of developing basic social security, the Christian Democrats are closer to the Centre Party and the National Coalition Party than the Greens are.
      All parties come out in favour of changes to basic social security. Most of them disagree with a model proposed by the Greens in which all residents would get a basic monthly benefit. However, the Greens are not insisting that the system be enacted during this electoral term.
      On the awkward issue of nuclear energy, the Greens merely say that building more nuclear power will be unnecessary if their energy policy model is enacted.
     
Deal-breaker issues raised by most parties do not seem to be major bones of contention for most of the others.
      For instance, the Swedish People’s Party will not join a government that endangers Finland’s bilingual status (Finnish and Swedish are Finland’s official languages).
      The Greens and the National Coalition Party want action to fight climate change, and the National Coalition Party also insists on easing taxation.
      After meeting with all parties on Tuesday, Matti Vanhanen plans to announce on Wednesday which parties will continue in actual government formation talks.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Poll: About half of Finns prefer centre-right government (2.4.2007)

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