European Commissioner Jutta Urpilainen is expected to announce her presidential candidacy this weekend. The former Social Democratic Party finance minister is scheduled to speak at a party council meeting in Tampere on Sunday.
On Saturday, the SDP nominated its candidates for next summer's European Parliament elections. Leading the ticket will be MEP Eero Heinäluoma, who is seeking re-election. The former finance minister received more than 128,000 votes in the 2019 European Parliament elections, the largest vote total in Finland that year. The four other candidates include MPs Suna Kymäläinen and Ville Merinen.
An opinion poll published by Yle this week showed Urpilainen with about four percent support, without having officially declared her candidacy.
Urpilainen, 48, has had a low profile in domestic politics since becoming European Commissioner for International Partnerships nearly four years ago. She was SDP chair in 2008-14, serving as finance minister for the last four years of that period.
Lindtman calls for even-handed labour market support
In a speech in Tampere on Saturday, SDP chair and opposition leader Antti Lindtman criticised the government’s proposed labour reforms, saying they represent the wishes of employers and undermine trust between groups on the labour market.
He demanded that the government offer even-handed incentives to unions and employers' groups in labour-market disputes rather than favouring corporate wishes. The SDP has traditionally received extensive campaign funding from trade unions.
Lindtman also called for expanding work-based immigration and the number of study slots in higher education. He also proposed a subsidy package for the struggling construction industry.
Lindtman took over as leader of the Social Democrats in early September, succeeding former prime minister Sanna Marin. She resigned her seat in Parliament soon after that, taking a job with the controversial Tony Blair Institute for Global Change.
Marin asked Urpilainen to be the party's presidential candidate in August, but she has still not said whether she will run.
The SDP has 43 seats in the 200-seat Parliament, behind the two main government parties, the pro-business National Coalition and the nationalist Finns Party with 48 and 46 MPs respectively.
18.11: Updated with European Parliament candidates.
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