Woman to take charge of government, again
Her name is Mari Kiviniemi and she will head the government of Finland for the next ten months. She received a convincing mandate from her Centre Party, which she also leads as chairperson. Despite Finland’s forthcoming elections in April 2011, major hiccups in government policy are not anticipated, writes Kyösti Karvonen, managing editor of Kaleva newspaper.
On June 22, two days short of seven years since the dramatic end of the tenure of Finland's first female prime minister, Anneli Jäätteenmäki, Parliament will endorse Mari Kiviniemi as its second.
Jäätteenmäki’s tenure lasted only 69 days as she had to resign after an unprecedented political scandal, dubbed the Finnish Iraqgate. It is easy to predict Kiviniem's watch will last longer, but not necessarily more than ten months, until the parliamentary elections in April next year.
Kiviniemi faces an uphill battle to turn around historically low opinion poll ratings for the Centre Party. Were the numbers to translate into electoral performance, the party would garner under just 19 per cent of the votes, the lowest figure for four decades in party history.
Such a poor result would either entail only a secondary role in the next coalition government or even a move into opposition. However, with fresh, untainted faces in the new party leadership, there is enough time to break the vicious circle the party has been stuck in recent years.
With Kiviniemi as prime minister and Mrs Tarja Halonen as president, Finland will stand out as a rare example of gender equality in the world. Women and men hold an equal number of government posts in the present coalition, and women outnumber men among the Centre Party ministers.
Convincing victory, sweet revenge
Kiviniemi will rise to the number one position in Finnish politics having been elected to lead the premier government coalition partner, the Centre Party, in a heated conference on June 12 that ousted all but one of the old faces in the party leadership.
"I am ashamed to be in the Centre Party", one delegate confessed in her speech, a revealing admission of the profound crisis felt at the party’s grassroots.
Kiviniemi's convincing victory was a sweet revenge, coming two years after she, then one of the vice chairs of the party, was voted out from the leadership. At that time she was regarded as too liberal by the rank and file.
The change of the guards in the prime minister’s office won't cause any major hiccups in government policy as the present four-party coalition will stay in power until the elections, perhaps making minor adjustments to the government programme.
Former Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen represented Finland in June's EU summit and then left his post, after seven years in office. During his tenure the Centre Party has not fared well in a single election and has been under fire and intense scrutiny because of alleged irregularities in election financing.
Vanhanen's personal role in the financing scandal is still unclear. Not finding Vanhanen's initial report satisfactory, the Chancellor of Justice Jaakko Jonkka (the country's leading judicial officer) recently called on him to clarify further why he did not incapacitate himself when the Government decided on an appropriation to Finland's Slot Machine Association that financed Youth Foundation, a Centre-led organisation that in turn poured money into Vanhanen’s presidential campaign coffers in 2006.
Rotation, first sign of leadership style
The first sign of her leadership style will be seen when Kiviniemi decides how, if at all, to rotate ministerial posts held by the Centre Party in the present government. As party leader, it is her prerogative to handpick ministerial candidates of the Centre Party.
Less than a year before the elections, many MP hungrily eye ministerial posts. It has been a Centre Party habit to rotate government posts even just for show, but Kiviniemi says she is not for rotation merely for the sake of it.
One change is dead certain; Kiviniemi leaves her own post as Minister for Local Government empty.
However, Kiviniemi insists that every Centre Party minister must be a candidate in the next parliamentary elections. That may be interpreted as a swipe particularly at Paavo Väyrynen, the 63-year old Minister for Foreign Trade and Development, who also ran for the party chair.
His poor showing, fewer than 300 votes out of some 2,500 in the first round, was a humiliating disappointment for Väyrynen, for some reason convinced of his own chance. He demonstratively left the conference hall without waiting for the runoff and allegedly not congratulating Kiviniemi on her victory. Returning to the conference the next day, Väyrynen insisted he had congratulated the runoff contenders.
Väyrynen's tasteless protest was in striking contrast to Mauri Pekkarinen, Minister for Economic Affairs, who was beaten in the runoff, with 1,035 votes against Kiviniemi's 1,357. Pekkarinen gave her a bear hug and promised to support her day in and day out. "It was a fair fight, and the best contestant won," Pekkarinen said.
Carnation revolution
Kiviniemi's well-anticipated victory became all but a certainty a few days before the conference, as one after another the Centre Party big shots endorsed her.
Accordingly, the nastiest duel was fought over who would be elected as Secretary General, in charge of party organisation, election campaigning and financing.
Jarmo Korhonen, the bulky and bullyish incumbent Secretary General grown to symbolise the election financing scandal that had surrounded the Centre Party for several years, was given a thorough beating.
The conference delegates chose Timo Laaninen, a 55-year-old seasoned party hand and grey eminence, with a landslide victory and literally fired Korhonen from the post he had held for four years. "Good bye. I'm going home", a visibly shaken Korhonen told the conference.
With a white carnation in his lapel, Laaninen called Korhonen's ouster a Carnation Revolution. "The election financing scandal is now politically over", he said in a YLE TV interview.
Modest Mrs Clean
Mari Kiviniemi, the Finland's Prime Minister-to-be, has been seen on TV news for several years, but to an ordinary Finn, she is still more or less an unknown entity.
One thing is for sure: unlike the outgoing Prime Minister and Centre Party chairman, Matti Vanhanen, Kiviniemi has not been tainted by the election financing scandal that has surrounded Vanhanen and the party for years almost on a daily basis.
That is why Kiviniemi can be easily and appropriately called Mrs Clean. During the 2007 parliamentary election campaign she did not receive donations from an infamous circle of businessmen. And unlike her countless Centre Party colleagues, her name has not been mentioned in the avalanche of party financing news.
Kiviniemi cannot be called a prototype of a Centre Party politician, either. She paid a price for it two years ago, when she was voted out of the party leadership. As Minister for Local Government, Kiviniemi was reproached for not standing up enough against municipality mergers. Small municipalities are the strongholds of Centre Party power across the country.
Although her roots are in the countryside, Kiviniemi lives in Helsinki, the capital. A student with straight A's at school, and playing piano and flute, Kiviniemi nowadays resembles more a modern businesswoman than a politician.
It can be taken for granted that as Prime Minister Kiviniemi won't rock the boat. Her real test comes in the next parliamentary elections, to be held in April 2011.
Kiviniemi's goal is to maintain her party as the largest group in Parliament. That is more easily said than done, though. Her debating skills in crucial TV interviews are yet to be tested.
Charisma is seldom mentioned when Finnish politicians are discussed. That applies also to Kiviniemi. During the intra-party campaign, Kiviniemi joked how, in the Parliament building, the water in the members’ swimming pool turned cold.
In one campaign appearance, Kiviniemi mostly stayed silent as two of her rivals stole the show. Despite that, she received most votes in an exit poll held right afterwards.
Only 41 years of age, Kiviniemi is already serving her fourth term as an MP and she is an experienced government minister. Before the present government, she served for a short time as Minister of Foreign Trade and Development.
In addition to music, with a monthly visit to opera, Kiviniemi's hobbies include jogging, roller skating and cross country skiing.
By Kyösti Karvonen for thisisFINLAND