Finnish parliamentary election – 14 April 2019

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Have they released an official government program?

[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.

[rob in cal]

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

[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.

[mileslunn]

Since I cannot read Finnish, what are some of the major points in the coalition document.  I would be interested on environment, social programs, taxes, immigration, debt/deficit, and European Union.

[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