Finnish parliamentary election – 14 April 2019

[Helsinkian]

The five parties have come to an agreement on the government coalition. The 19 ministerial portfolios will be divided in this way:

Social Democrats

• Prime Minister
• Transportation
• Labour
• Basic services
• Municipalities
• International trade and development
• Europe

Centre Party

• Finance
• Economic affairs
• Science and culture
• Defence
• Agriculture

Greens

• Foreign affairs
• Interior
• Environment

Left Alliance

• Education
• Social and health services

Swedish People's Party

• Justice
• Equality and Nordic co-operation

Overall, I'd say that SDP's portfolios, aside from Prime Minister, are pretty lightweight. Greens got the portfolios they wanted. And Centre got the agriculture portfolio which they always like to have. SPP's second minister is a Mickey Mouse portfolio that was added at the last minute because the party wanted to have two ministers.

The Left Alliance membership still has to ratify the party's participation in the coalition, but I'm sure that will happen. The other parties have no such requirement.

[Helsinkian]

Why did the SDP get so few "important" ministries? And why did the Greens get so many (it looks to me that they got 2 of the 4 most important positions in the government)?

SDP did get to write much of the economic part of the government programme, increasing public expenditure. Though the Greens were never opposed to that, so I'm not entirely sure of the reason.

Centre was able to get elected regional councils into the programme. It was supposed to be implemented by the last government but it fell apart because of the NCP's scepticism toward it.

SPP was able to make Swedish a mandatory part of the school-leaving examinations again.

[Helsinkian]

So do you think Centre entering a leftwing coalition will help or hurt them?

Probably help somewhat, though I can't see them rising to the top of the polls anymore in the near future. I don't think they can go much lower in support than what they got in the election. Many in their base are sympathetic toward SDP co-operation, though on the other hand they are always sceptical toward the Greens because they clash on environmental issues in relation to agriculture.

[Helsinkian]

Greens

• Foreign affairs

Is a Palestine recognition (following Sweden) likely now?

There's nothing about that in the coalition programme, and I would expect that it would have been made explicit in the programme if the Greens were insistent on it.

[Helsinkian]

Have they released an official government program?

Yes, 190 pages long. In Finnish: https://interactive.sanoma.fi/arkku/files/25992474Neuvottelutuloshallitusohjelmasta3.6.2019.pdf

[Helsinkian]

The Rinne cabinet will have 11 women and 8 men.

Rinne also insisted that Finland's EU Commissioner be a woman because all the previous Commissioners have been men; that will be Jutta Urpilainen, Rinne's predecessor as SDP's leader.

It had been speculated that Centre's Antti Kaikkonen would become Finance Minister, as he is a favourite to become Centre's new leader in the autumn party congress. In the end he was made Defence Minister, while the Finance portfolio went to Mika Lintilä. Kaikkonen's position is complicated by the fact that he received a suspended prison sentence for a campaign finance violation in 2013, and many questioned how he can be the Finance Minister with such a background. The Finnish constitution requires cabinet ministers to be "citizens known to be honest", though the exact meaning of that is unclear, and there have been other ministers with old criminal sentences.

Matti Vanhanen, Centre's former Prime Minister, will become the parliament's Speaker. Juha Sipilä will be a backbencher.

[Helsinkian]

 So how did the Greens get the interior ministry, and do they have any exciting plans on what to do with it?

I suppose they prioritized it higher than SDP or Centre. I don't know about exciting plans, but I know that they want to improve the asylum seekers' position in various ways. The new Interior Minister is Maria Ohisalo who will be the Greens' next leader (as she's the only candidate). Last year an aide to the Greens' parliamentary group disrupted a Finnair flight about to take off from Helsinki's airport because she wanted to stop the deportation of an Iraqi rejected asylum seeker. The aide was sentenced to pay a fine. Ohisalo had some trouble commenting on that case when journalists asked her about it this week.

[Helsinkian]

Some points from the program...

The government

• will begin the process to make Finland carbon neutral by 2035
• is strongly committed to the EU and will be in the frontlines of building a stronger union; continues to support the Stability and Growth Pact
• will repeal the previous government's unemployment benefits reform which was viewed as too harsh for the unemployed; will seek to reduce unemployment by other means (more "carrot", less "stick")
• will raise the smallest pensions
• will achieve parity in maternal and paternal leave
• believes that Finland needs more work-based immigration
• will strengthen the asylum seekers' legal protections; rejected asylum seekers may get to stay on a work-based permit
• will strive to ensure that patients coming to public healthcare in non-acute cases won't have to wait longer than one week
• will establish elected regional councils (numbering 18, not counting the already autonomous Åland) which will take over healthcare and social affairs administration previously administered at the municipal level as well as emergency services
• will raise taxes on fossil fuels, alcohol, tobacco, sugary drinks
• will build infrastructure to support electric vehicles
• will make completing upper secondary schooling, or vocational schooling, compulsory by raising the age of compulsory education; will make Swedish again a mandatory part of the school leaving exam at upper secondary school
• will replace the Defence Forces' aging fighter jets with new ones
• will balance the public finances by 2023; will lower the debt to GDP ratio