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Urpilainen to relinquish finance portfolio

Finance Minister Jutta Urpilainen says that following her replacement at the head of the Social Democratic Party on Friday, she will give UP her cabinet portfolio and return to her job as a rank-and-file MP.

Jutta Urpilainen.
Image: Yle

At a press conference on Friday afternoon, Urpilainen announceD that she will leave the cabinet, saying that power and responsibility should be in the same hands - and that power is now in the hands of the freshly-elected SDP chair Antti Rinne.

Urpilainen added that she hasn't given further consideration to the future, as she believed that she would continue to head up the party right until the vote that ousted her from the chair. She did mention that her short-term plans included a pizza with her family, a nap and then dinner with other delegates attending the party convention in Seinäjoki.

Urpilainen and Rinne are to have talks soon centring on transferring the finance portfolio. She said this is not likely to happen before the mid-summer holiday. After that she will focus on her seat in Parliament.