HELSINKI (MNI) – Finland’s rising nationalist party True Finns,
which actively opposes any new Eurozone bailouts, including the one
currently pending for Portugal, announced Thursday that it will not join
the government despite its strong third place showing in last month’s
parliamentary elections.
The decision, announced by True Finns’ party chief Timo Soini,
clears the way for the National Coalition Party and the Social
Democrats, the two largest parties in the yet-to-be formed government,
to give Finland’s approval to the E78 billion Portugal bailout package.
That should virtually guarantee that it will be approved at Monday
night’s meeting in Brussels of Eurozone finance ministers.
After making some skeptical noises during the election campaign —
due at least in part to the surprising success of the True Finns — the
Social Democrats returned to their pro-European roots and agreed
Wednesday night with National Coalition to put Finland’s stamp of
approval on the proposed plan for Lisbon.
Soini said that his True Finns did not wish to participate in any
way in supporting the aid package for Portugal or any of the EU’s
financial bailout mechanism, which the party also opposes.
“We would have wanted to be part of the government, but life goes
on,” Soini said at a press conference held at the Finnish Parliament.
“It just wasn’t possible to agree on these issues,” he added.
In exchange for their support of the Portugal aid plan, the Social
Democrats insisted on certain conditions, including that states
contributing to the bailouts would enjoy senior creditor status relative
to private investors.
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