TV news: Editors of largest newspapers support NATO membership

Opposition party leader calls for pre-election debate

Janne Virkkunen

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The editors-in-chief of Finland’s largest newspapers want Finland to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.
      According to a survey by the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE, the editors of Helsingin Sanomat, Aamulehti, Turun Sanomat, Kaleva, and Kauppalehti were openly in favour of joining the alliance.
      The editors of the late edition tabloids Ilta-Sanomat and Iltalehti did not disclose their views.
      "We are in such close cooperation with NATO that if we were to join in the final phase - that is, membership - it would not be as dramatic as it would have been during the cold War", said Janne Virkkunen, editor-in-chief of Helsingin Sanomat.
      Nearly all of the editors felt that NATO would become an important theme in the upcoming Parliamentary elections.
     
The issue of possible NATO membership was taken up recently by the Speaker of Parliament Paavo Lipponen (SDP). Lipponen had said that debate on the issue should take place after Parliamentary elections in March.
      Opposition National Coalition Party chairman Jyrki Katainen has rejected Lipponen’s view that public debate on the issue should be deferred until after the elections.
      In an interview with the Kuopio-based newspaper Savon Sanomat, Katainen accused Lipponen of vacillation and political manoeuvring on the issue.
      "He is afraid that the Social Democrats would use the NATO question irresponsibly - giving the impression that they oppose membership. If this were to happen, after the elections they would be hopelessly too far from NATO", Katainen said to Savon Sanomat.
      Polls in recent years have consistently shown that a majority of Finns are opposed to joining NATO. Supporters of Katainen's National Coalition Party are the least opposed to NATO membership.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Rising political stars reject NATO membership and expanding nuclear energy (9.8.2006)
  Minister Kääriäinen expects new offer from NATO on closer cooperation (19.6.2006)

Helsingin Sanomat