FINLAND’S LIKELY new prime minister has insisted that the new administration will not seek radical changes to a euro-zone bailout for Portugal.
Jyrki Katainen, head of the National Coalition Party that topped the poll in Sunday’s general election, said he was confident a “spirit of compromise” would prevail.
Doubt about Finland’s commitment to Lisbon loans and guarantees follow the strong election showing of the populist True Finns, a Eurosceptic party opposed to bailouts.
“We’ll see what is possible, but the changes would not be very big anyway,” said Mr Katainen at a party conference. The 39-year-old outgoing finance minister told party confidants he has already begun “putting out feelers” to other parties and is confident he can “mesh together” a coalition.
In the new 200-seat parliament, the top three parties are the National Coalition Party with 44 seats, followed by the Social Democrats (SDP) and True Finns with 42 and 39 seats respectively.
Mr Katainen’s most likely coalition partner, SDP leader Jutta Urpilainen, said yesterday it was by no means certain the True Finns would be brought into a three-way coalition.
But Ms Urpilainen, whose party had its own criticisms of bailouts, said a majority government was important. In an apparent shift away from blanket opposition to bailouts, she said her party would be looking for private bank involvement in future arrangements.
“The liability of banks and investors must be reflected in the management of the crisis in some way,” said Ms Urpilainen. “We intend to stick to this line and, in this regard, the True Finns have been closer to us than the National Coalition Party has.”
True Finns leader Timo Soini has stuck to the anti-bailout position that gave his party a fourfold increase in support to 19 per cent. He said “Finland shouldn’t be sitting in the first carriage” in an EU drive to federal construction.
The party is determined to reduce Finland’s contribution to the EU budget and renegotiate the deal with Lisbon, but Mr Soini admitted yesterday that it “might take some time” to find common ground with his pro-EU potential coalition partners.
Though Mr Katainen said Finland had insisted that tough conditions be attached to the Portuguese loan, he said it was necessary. “It is such a big issue for Finland. It is in our own interest.”
Finland’s new government will have to agree a strategy towards Portugal ahead of a mid-May EU foreign ministers meeting to work out details of the bailout. A spokeswoman for the European Commission said the results in Finland had had no impact on preparations for the Portugal deal.
“It hasn’t changed anything for us,” said Pia Ahrenkilde-Hansen, spokeswoman for European Commission president José Manuel Barroso. “We are fully confident that Finland will continue to honour its commitment.”