News
The article is more than 11 years old

PM sails through confidence vote

Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen easily won a vote of confidence on Thursday in Parliament. Just 16 of the 200 MPs voted against him.

kansanedustaja Pentti Oinonen
Image: Yle

The motion of no confidence was instigated by Finns Party MP Pertti Oinonen and a few party colleagues based a costly report that the premier commissioned from a philosopher-consultant Pekka Himanen without the standard bidding process.

In June, Parliament's Constitutional Law Committee declared that Katainen did not break any laws when he ordered a 700,000-euro report without open bidding. The Chancellor of Justice said that the report should have been subject to tenders, or that the decision not to seek bids should have been explained.

The Finns Party as a whole did not back the vote of no-confidence.

The vote was 141 to 16, with 14 MPs abstaining and 28 absent.