These Leftists are the worst of the worst….
Greens set for government?
In a leader article HS takes note of Green Party leader Touko Aalto’s shift in tone when commenting on last week’s budget plans announced by the government. Opposition leaders typically try to score points by criticising the plans, picking holes in policies and generally promoting themselves as an alternative.
Aalto, meanwhile, told Iltalehti that the proposal contained “many good ideas and policy lines in the right direction, which I will support”. That’s a very different register to that used by Aalto’s predecessor Ville Niinistö, and it was interpreted by HS as a shrewd move by Aalto.
His party is polling at record high levels, running second in most opinion surveys, and if that result carries through to the 2019 election then the Greens are very likely to go into government. The last obstacle was removed with the implosion of the Finns Party, which under Timo Soini defined itself as the antithesis of the Greens, and so there seems little point in Aalto irritating possible government partners at this stage of the election cycle.
