Farce. National Coalition leader, Jyrki Katainen is trying to coalesce a government from a hodge podge of Center, Left of center and Left of Left parties. How a “conservative” PM can hope to run a government according to his own party’s platform, and do it with a bunch of Leftists (Social Democrats, Green League, Left Alliance) who will comprise almost half of the government is beyond me. The other half will be comprised of the National Coalition, the Swedish Peoples’ Party and the Christian Democrats.
Then there are the political and moral gymnastics that the (hard) Left Alliance will have to preform in order to gain entrance into the “Minority Coalition Government of Losers” who were the NC’s biggest detractors, True Finns, Timo Soini:
“This is a declaration of bankruptcy by the political left. First they spend four years criticizing the National Coalition and then join in making Katainen the Prime Minister. It’s a bazaar cabinet, everything is for sale,” Soini said in a comment to YLE.
The Left is indeed bankrupt Timo, but so is the National Coalition and Finnish politics in general, having once sold its “collective” soul to the socialist agenda, there’s no turning back until the whole enterprise collapses on its head, and /or the people say enough is enough and demand their individual liberty back and own personal responsibility over their own lives. Until then, fruit basket coalitions (Finland has a long history of Leftists and fake “conservatives” in government coalitions) will continue to be the hallmark of Finnish politics. KGS
Differing Policies Plague Gov’t Formation
The EU’s financial bailout package for Portugal continues to plague efforts to form a new Finnish government. The Left Alliance, which has now been invited to join formation talks, still plans to vote against the package in Parliament.
One way out of the conflict could be for the current caretaker government to present the Portugal bailout package to Parliament next week, allowing the Left Alliance to express its opposition to the EU deal before it actually enters a new cabinet.
Talks on creating a new government and finding agreement on a government programme are not expected to be easy. The parties invited to the negotiations have radically opposed positions on a number of issues. Somehow an understanding has to be reached between the Greens and the Christian Democrats on differences over same-sex marriage, the leftist parties and the conservative National Coalition still have widely varying views on taxation.
Timo Soini, leader of the True Finns that decided not to join in the talks, is highly critical of the situation.
“This is a declaration of bankruptcy by the political left. First they spend four years criticizing the National Coalition and then join in making Katainen the Prime Minister. It’s a bazaar cabinet, everything is for sale,” Soini said in a comment to YLE.
The move by the Left Alliance into the new government will be facilitated if Parliament is able to vote on the Portugal package next week, before the cabinet takes office. In this way, it can blame the old government.
“In any case, we do not approve of the Portugal package. Of course, the sooner it comes, the easier it will make this situation. I told Jyki Katainen that if you know our MPs at all, then you know they will push the red button on this,” said Left Alliance leader Paavo Arhinmäki.
