Vanhanen got campaign contributions from nonprofit housing foundation

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Centre Party Chairman, Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen has repeatedly received election campaign contributions from Nuorisosäätiö, a nonprofit foundation which provides rental housing for young people. The foundation has close ties with the Centre Party.
      The chairman of the foundation, Centre Party MP Antti Kaikkonen, has used the foundation for campaign funding for himself in municipal, Parliamentary, and European Parliament elections.
     
On Saturday, Vanhanen told Helsingin Sanomat that Kaikkonen arranged for a campaign contribution of EUR 23,360 from he foundation in the Presidential elections of 2006.
      This was not the only time that he received campaign support from the foundation, but donations for other elections were “just a fraction” of what was granted for the 2006 Presidential campaign.
     
Last year Nuorisosäätiö received about EUR 3 million in subsidies from the Finnish Slot Machine Association (RAY), which uses revenues from legal gambling to support associations and institutions that operate for the public good.
      On Monday RAY starts an extensive audit of Nuorisosäätiö.
      The managing director of Nuorisosäätiö is Seppo Pyykkönen (Centre), RAY’s former administrative director.RAY is one of the last entities in Finland where administrative posts are allocated along political party lines. Pyykkönen was part of the Centre Party’s quota.
      RAY is very careful about whom it supports. A recent poll shows that Finnish consumers see RAY as the “best bearer of social responsibility” in Finland.
     
Both Vanhanen and Kaikkonen welcomed the inspection. Vanhanen said that he expects the inspection to clear the foundation’s name.
      Vanhanen himself served in the administration of Nuorisosäätiö for 20 years. He was the chairman in 2003, and passed his duties on to Kaikkonen when he became Minister of Defence.
      On Saturday Vanhanen said that the party has no intention to return any of the campaign finance money, and that he had little knowledge of the financing of his campaign. The issue has also been discussed within RAY. According to one commentator on Saturday, Kaikkonen went too far.
      Vanhanen emphasised that no RAY or state funding was used for the subsidies, which were paid out of the foundation’s own strong revenue flow.
     
Another foundation with close ties to the Centre Party, Maaseudun kukkaisrahasto, which was set up in the late 1940s to support the education of Finnish children and young people.
      The foundation gave EUR 50,000 to Prime Minister Vanhanen’s Presidential campaign, more than twice as much as Nuorisosäätiö.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Centre Party to pay back all Nova donations (18.9.2009)
  National Coalition Party and candidates to return donations from Nova Group (17.9.2009)
  Centre Party silent about major contributor (12.6.2009)

Helsingin Sanomat