Speaking on Yle’s Saturday discussion programme Ykkösaamu, Finance Minister Jutta Urpilainen said that the budget provisions decided in cabinet discussions two weeks ago -- including a decision to cut 110 million euros from child allowance payments -- won’t change and won’t be rolled back either.
Urpilainen noted that if new savings measures need to be introduced, they won’t be implemented by the current administration, but by the next. She added that the Katainen government had already implemented historic savings policies.
The government's package of spending cuts and tax hikes resulted in the departure of the Left Alliance from government over the potential impact on the poor. Meanwhile MPs in the ranks of the Social Democratic party led by Urpilainen expressed concern over the fallout on the middle class.
On Friday, the opposition parties the Finns and Centre parties as well as a Left Alliance splinter group filed an interpolation in parliament over the child allowance cuts and government's family-related policies.