Minister of Finance Riikka Purra (PS) gestured while speaking to reporters after the summer meeting of the Finns Party Parliamentary Group in Kouvola on 27 August 2024. Purra said the “tax-funded bubble” is much larger than she expected when taking on the job of minister of finance a little over a year ago. (Markku Ulander – Lehtikuva)
- Next Article Orpo admits Finnish government’s anti-racism got off to bad start
ALTHOUGH the Finnish economy is beginning to emerge from the downturn, the economic outlook remains cloudy as the government holds for its budget session this week, views Minister of Finance Riikka Purra (PS).
“The economy still isn’t really providing any kind positive boost, there’ll be no help from the outside and many details – the well-being services counties being by far the largest – are increasingly desperate,” she stated last week at a meeting of the Finns Party Parliamentary Group in Kouvola, according to Helsingin Sanomat.
The ruling four-party coalition will convene to thrash out its budget proposal for next year on Tuesday and Wednesday. Despite the significant spending cuts already made by the government, its budget for next year is expected to show negative gap of 12 billion euros between expenditures and revenue.
The social welfare state has become “extremely bloated,” concluded Purra.
“The tax-funded bubble is much worse than I thought before taking on this job. Do taxpayers really have to pay for this too, I often wonder in my office as people under the window are marching, screaming and threatening. Sometimes for a reason, sometimes just for having to give up on yet another achieved privilege.”
She also criticised the opposition parties for failing to offer feasible alternatives to the spending cuts they are opposing.
Jani Mäkelä, the chairperson of the Finns Party Parliamentary Group, said the Finns Party must be in the coalition government primarily to work toward its own objectives and fulfil the will of its supporters. While he lauded what the populist right-wing party has accomplished in the coalition, he viewed that it has to continue developing tools to promote its objectives in the best possible way.
He also pointed to mistakes the party made while part of the coalition government headed by Prime Minister Juha Sipilä (Centre). The party saw its popularity plummet as voters reacted to government actions and ultimately split into two.
“We can’t afford to repeat those mistakes. In the government, we can’t forget who we are and become strangers to one another,” said Mäkelä.
With the Finns Party polling about six percentage points below its vote share in the previous parliamentary elections, the eyes of political journalists and observers were on the summer meeting to see if the party was under any pressure to appeal to its base.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
- Next Article Orpo admits Finnish government’s anti-racism got off to bad start
Source: www.helsinkitimes.fi