Now we know all 20 ministers of our brand new XL-sized Vanhanen II cabinet, and also this second round of revelations brought one controversial surprise. I'm a transatlantic pro-NATO airhead, so after seven years with one left-wing socdem occupying the President's palace, and another holding the foreign office, it was indeed a delight to see that the latter institution will be finally taken over by someone a bit more likeminded. As for the issues themselves, I'm still scenting the wind of change - yet now it's the new wind section itself that is making me nauseous. There's a nasty stink in the air.
Putting his libertine tendencies aside, Ilkka Kanerva is a domestically experienced and internationally mediocre former KGB-informant; I think he'll be adequately competent in his job and probably won't screw up anything, at least irrecoverably, but I don't believe that he's the best person to hold it either. If you worry about his juvenile opportunism, do remember that it's been Ms President herself who has often stressed that we should not pick on those things and times. Such would be nasty.
But after reading who will be the Minister for Foreign Trade and Development, this foreign office joke starts to get a little bit too wild for my taste. It's Paavo Väyrynen - nothing more, nothing less.
If Ilkka "Ike" Kanerva is a political boy wonder of the Coalition, then Paavo Väyrynen is something similar to the Centre. He was born in 1946 and was elected to the Eduskunta at the age of 23. He was Kekkonen's protégé and, like Kanerva, had always very warm relationship with the Soviets. (As an anecdote, when he defended his PhD thesis in 1988, his theme was Finnish foreign policy and one of the arguments that that there will be no changes in Finno-Soviet relations in the foreseeable future. But oh well, he wasn't the only believer.)
He was the Foreign Minister when Finland left its EU application in 1992. Then he resigned as a protest. He was the Centre's presidential candidate in 1994; he lost, and blamed the "media games". He was also the biggest critic of Finland's accession treaty, campaigning against it on a CAP-ticket, but lost that race too. Then he was elected to the European Parliament, where he even became the liberal bloc's debuty chairman, and has stayed in Brussels/Strasbourg up to date. He threatened, or promised, to go back were he not given anything important in Helsinki.
Paavo Väyrynen is a die-hard protectionist and possibly Finland's fiercest Euroskeptic/phobe, and I have a feeling that his nomination is meant to tame grassroot centrists, who have always been at odds with the party leaders what comes to things European. Whether this will tame Mr Väyrynen, remains to be seen. Responsibility may have such effects, so let us hope so.
[Update: Ah, now this announcement might explain something. Paula Lehtomäki, our next Minister of Environment, is pregnant and soon off to maternity leave - which probably had its own impact on the Centre's negotiation priorities. Babies make a difference.]
Putting his libertine tendencies aside, Ilkka Kanerva is a domestically experienced and internationally mediocre former KGB-informant; I think he'll be adequately competent in his job and probably won't screw up anything, at least irrecoverably, but I don't believe that he's the best person to hold it either. If you worry about his juvenile opportunism, do remember that it's been Ms President herself who has often stressed that we should not pick on those things and times. Such would be nasty.
But after reading who will be the Minister for Foreign Trade and Development, this foreign office joke starts to get a little bit too wild for my taste. It's Paavo Väyrynen - nothing more, nothing less.
If Ilkka "Ike" Kanerva is a political boy wonder of the Coalition, then Paavo Väyrynen is something similar to the Centre. He was born in 1946 and was elected to the Eduskunta at the age of 23. He was Kekkonen's protégé and, like Kanerva, had always very warm relationship with the Soviets. (As an anecdote, when he defended his PhD thesis in 1988, his theme was Finnish foreign policy and one of the arguments that that there will be no changes in Finno-Soviet relations in the foreseeable future. But oh well, he wasn't the only believer.)
He was the Foreign Minister when Finland left its EU application in 1992. Then he resigned as a protest. He was the Centre's presidential candidate in 1994; he lost, and blamed the "media games". He was also the biggest critic of Finland's accession treaty, campaigning against it on a CAP-ticket, but lost that race too. Then he was elected to the European Parliament, where he even became the liberal bloc's debuty chairman, and has stayed in Brussels/Strasbourg up to date. He threatened, or promised, to go back were he not given anything important in Helsinki.
Paavo Väyrynen is a die-hard protectionist and possibly Finland's fiercest Euroskeptic/phobe, and I have a feeling that his nomination is meant to tame grassroot centrists, who have always been at odds with the party leaders what comes to things European. Whether this will tame Mr Väyrynen, remains to be seen. Responsibility may have such effects, so let us hope so.
[Update: Ah, now this announcement might explain something. Paula Lehtomäki, our next Minister of Environment, is pregnant and soon off to maternity leave - which probably had its own impact on the Centre's negotiation priorities. Babies make a difference.]
5 comments:
Talking about Kanerva, Väyrynen and Finlandization, on should remember the Vladimirov incident. Väyrynen tried to get that old drunk, Karjalainen, elected for president. So he began negotiations with a (probable) KGB agent, Vladimirov, in order to increase exports to the USSR. Karjalainen, as the chairman of the barter committee (or whatever), would then get the praise, which in turn should have helped his campaign. Fortunately Karjalainen wasn't nominated even by his own party. Anyway, involving the USSR directly in the Finnish presidential campaign was pretty foul play even by the standards of the time.
I may be exhibiting my neanderthal sexist tendencies, but isn't it a bit frowned upon to take maternity leave right after an election?
Yep, it's this repulsive stink of the Good Neighbour Relations which makes these nominations so hard to swallow, especially as they happened to hit (mainly) the same ministry.
Kanerva is a spineless socialite who will gladly let the foreign ministry's civil servants to sail the ship, but about an utterly narcist know-it-all such as Väyrynen you can't really predict anything. Let's see how much loyalty he'll have towards Matti.
Furthermore, I'd love to be a fly on the ceiling when Paavo goes to the world trade talks.
Egan: It was a dodge but not a bad one, I'd say; pregnancy can still block one's career ladder too often, so these kind of things do have their positive side as well.
(OK, OK...and nothing about demography and fertility rates this time.)
Certainly not the cleanest way to run your own part of the negotiations, though - thus a good thing is that Lehtomäki's post wasn't heavier. A Foreign Minister who as her first decision takes a maternity leave would be something dubious.
And I bet the remainings of my Azerbaijanian 3-manat cognac that the first journalist to say it aloud will be branded as a neanderthal sexist.
Does she get a replacement in parliament? How long will she take? And did she actually still want the job?
As you know, out political culture is different. It has been reformed, but Baldwin texted me excitedly a while back to say that Barnsley Bitter was 'only' £2 a pint in the HoP (it's £1.60 in Sheffield). Now MPs have to go to work before 2pm, and usually finish by 7pm, as part of our family friendly reforms, but a pregnant woman who didn't tell anyone before she was elected and then immediately took the best part of a year off.....well she'd get torn to pieces.
She'll of course get a replacement in the ministry, but I'm not sure about the parliament. Probably not.
She's off in the autumn, we don't know yet for how long. When she took her first maternity leave in 2005 it was for 6 months or so.
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