Jussi Halla-aho, the chairperson of the Finns Party, is not prepared to rule out coalition co-operation with any of the political parties in Finland. The opposition party, he admits, must regain the confidence of voters if it is to be part of the next ruling coalition.
The National Coalition and Social Democrats are naturally free to choose which parties to co-operate with, says Jussi Halla-aho, the chairperson of the Finns Party.
Halla-aho told Uusi Suomi on Wednesday that the Finns Party is prepared to co-operate with any party as long as the co-operation enables it to promote issues that are important to it and its supporters. “We’d be willing to sit down with all parties after the elections,” he stated.
Petteri Orpo, the chairperson of the National Coalition, and Antti Rinne, the chairperson of the Social Democrats, estimated earlier yesterday that it would be outright impossible to form a coalition government with the Finns Party. Both Orpo and Rinne drew attention to the considerable differences in the values of the parties.
“It’s difficult to distinguish these parties from each other. What they regard as their key values are relatively far away from the alternative that is the Finns Party,” responded Halla-aho.
The Finns Party, he confirmed, does not see eye to eye with the two parties on issues such as immigration policy and the federalisation of the European Union. The party has voiced its staunch opposition to the federalisation and indicated it would consider leaving the bloc if the development began to undermine the sovereignty of the member states.
“Both [the NCP and SDP] want to do away with the labour availability consideration and [advocate] a very generous asylum policy. In that light I consider it logical and understandable [that they believe co-operation with us would be difficult],” said Halla-aho.
The Finns Party will according to him seek to be part of the next coalition government. “That has to be the objective in a majority government system such as that in Finland,” he explained.
Halla-aho added that the party will first have to regain the confidence of those who supported it in the parliamentary elections of 2015, following a damaging one-year stint in the government of Prime Minister Juha Sipilä (Centre).
Aleksi Teivainen – HT Photo: Markku Ulander – Lehtikuva Source: Uusi Suomi
