Employment Minister Arto Satonen (NCP) survived a vote of confidence in Parliament on Thursday which an opposition party called because of his role in the government's plan to curtail political strikes.
The vote fell 92-56, with the majority voting for continued confidence in the minister. There were 19 abstentions.
The largest opposition party, the Social Democrats, filed a motion of no confidence in Satonen during a plenary session in parliament on Tuesday.
SDP vice-chair Matias Mäkynen accused Satonen of providing false information to Parliament, adding that he later repeated the false claim, rather than correcting the statement or apologising.
The SDP complaint focuses on Satonen's repeated claim that political strikes in neighbouring Sweden are limited to just one or two hours. The SDP, which has 43 seats in Parliament, argued that there were no grounds for the claim.
Satonen, a millionaire real estate developer, said that his statement was based on one by Per Ewaldsson, the senior legal counsel at the Swedish National Mediation Office. Ewaldsson later clarified that Sweden has no legal limit on political strikes, except in the public sector.
Limiting the right to political strikes is one of a series of controversial labour-market reforms proposed by the government led by PM Petteri Orpo (NCP). In response to these plans, Finland’s biggest labour confederation said on Wednesday that it would begin a new, two-week wave of political strikes next Monday.
Centre, MN challenge cabinet over regional policy
Meanwhile, two other opposition parties have filed a separate interpellation question over the right-wing government’s regional policies.
The second-largest opposition party, the Centre, is backed in the motion by Movement Now (MN). The Centre has 23 seats in the 200-seat legislature, while MN has just one.
The parties said that the government's regional policy is discriminatory. They accuse the government of only investing development funds in a few growth centres, while undermining living conditions in rural areas and ignoring the concerns of countryside residents.
The two parties did not ask other opposition parties – which are further to the political left – for support on the interpellation.
Neither challenge is likely to succeed, as the four government parties hold a solid majority of 109 seats in Parliament.
Edited at 18:47 for clarity -- earlier edit added Satonen confidence vote count.
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