Paavo Lipponen, the presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party, says that the government should aim at having Finland fully inside the European Union and its cores.
Lipponen commented on the recent decision on setting up the EU’s European Stability Mechanism (ESM) on Monday as he made public the themes of his presidential campaign.
“Finland cannot be the deviant country. We have much invested in the EU.”
Social Democratic Party chairwoman, Minister of Finance Jutta Urpilainen said at the weekend that Finland is committed to decision-making by consensus in the ESM.
Lipponen said that the ESM needs to be able to make decision in exceptional situations. He warned that talk about large countries rolling over the others in decision-making makes it more difficult to make a decision in Finland.
Lipponen says that he has seen signs that the people are being misled by talk of a return to the old Finnish currency, the markka. Most recently Centre Party MP Mauri Pekkarinen called on the government to start preparations for a disengagement from the euro.
Lipponen dismisses such proposals as populist, and warns that such a move would be expensive for the Finns.
“The euro will prevail. It is the core of the EU.”
The colour scheme in Lipponen’s campaign material is “patriotic blue and white”. Those Social Democrats who would have wanted a touch of red will be disappointed.
Lipponen’s campaign manager Esko Ranto says that the period of establishing basic fitness is over, and now is the time of preparation for the competition itself. He calculates that the actual competition period will not begin until advance voting starts.
