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Jutta Urpilainen

Tuesday's papers: Crystal balls out ahead of SDP leadership vote, and is Finland the dawdler of the EU?

With the annual conference of the government’s second largest party now a week away, papers are turning their attention to whether leader Jutta Urpilainen will manage to hold on to her chair – and her posts of Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister – in the leadership vote. Also, new stats put paid to the image of Finland as the goody-goody of the EU.

Jutta Urpilainen ja Antti Rinne vierekkäin
Image: Yle

Helsingin Sanomat’s poll of both the public and the party puts Urpilainen a full 13 points ahead of union boss and challenger Antti Rinne. “Both the public and the party have got behind Urpilainen,” the paper claims, adding that the Finance Minister’s popularity has increased since February where she trailed union boss Rinne by four percentage points. The paper puts this down to undecideds gradually turning towards Urpilainen.

But over at Ilta Sanomat the numbers tell a different story. “Rinne’s leading the race,” the tabloid proclaims, having interviewed the chairs of the party’s local branches. “Urpilainen’s gaining ground, but that doesn’t mean she’s going to win,” the article insists. The heads of almost all of the largest district parties will be throwing their weight behind the challenger on May 8th, according to the poll, and the number of floating voters to be picked up by either candidate is still sizeable.

But Ilta Sanomat grants that anything can happen in the next week – “News of new investment into the forestry industry, for instance, would mean Urpilainen’s home and dry,” the paper predicts.

The slow man of Europe?

Politics of a different scale makes the front page of Tampere’s Aamulehti, with the declaration that Finland is, in fact, the dawdler of the EU. “A sizeable proportion of member states are bringing directives into operation faster than Finland,” the paper announces,“ adding that parliament’s Grand Committee is worried by the findings. “Contrary to popular belief, this country is not the EU’s model student,” says Aamulehti.

Finland is among the slowest third of member states when it comes to making directives into reality, though according to the Prime Minister’s Office, Finland’s thoroughness is at least partly to blame, as directives are often incorporated into new packages of legislation rather than introduced simply as they are. But outgoing EU trade commissioner Olli Rehn calls for Finland’s legislative structure to be streamlined. “Less bureaucracy would benefit the public and business,” he told the paper.