A display showing the results of a vote in the session hall of the Parliament House in Helsinki on Tuesday, 17 December 2024. Finnish lawmakers approved a bill that will result in the discontinuation or scaling down of hospital services in several parts of the country, despite some ruling-party members breaking with the party line. (Antti Aimo-Koivisto – Lehtikuva)
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THE FINNISH PARLIAMENT on Tuesday approved a government bill to prune the hospital network by a vote of 101 for and 96 against.
The vote expectedly exposed fissures within the ruling coalition, with five ruling-party members breaking with the party line in a rare demonstration of defiance: Markku Eestilä and Juha Hänninen of the National Coalition, and Mikko Lundén, Mikko Polvinen and Sanna Antikainen of the Finns Party.
Two other ruling-party representatives were absent from the vote, Janne Heikkinen (NCP) and Antti Kangas (PS).
“It’s clear that if you vote against in the session hall, there’ll be consequences,” Matias Marttinen, the chairperson of the National Coalition Parliamentary Group, was quoted saying to journalists after the vote by Helsingin Sanomat.
He declined, though, to specify the nature of the consequences.
Marttinen also argued that the bill passing should be taken as proof of the government’s ability to function and revealed that the leaders of ruling parliamentary groups were aware roughly how the vote would play out already on Monday.
The Finns Party Parliamentary Group will weigh up ramifications for the lawmakers who broke with the party line, according to chairperson Jani Mäkelä.
“It’s undeniably exceptional that someone from a ruling party votes directly against a government bill,” he conceded. “The most important thing is that we move forward, because you can’t change the past. It’s a fact that this has brought up questions out in the field, and there you have to have answers to the questions.”
All 91 opposition lawmakers present at the plenary session opposed the bill.
Tytti Tuppurainen, the chairperson of the Social Democratic Parliamentary Group, viewed after the vote that the bill passing only by a slim majority shows that the “widespread discontent” of people has broken through to the governing coalition.
“It’s only a matter of time before the discontent becomes so big that it changes the policy direction,” she said according to Helsingin Sanomat.
The bill will result in the discontinuation of downsizing of night-time hospital and health care services in several regions across Finland: Iisalmi, Jämsä, Kemi, Oulainen, Raahe, Salo, Savonlinna and Varkaus. Pruning the hospital network is projected to consolidate the public economy to the tune of almost 27 million euros as of 2026.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
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Source: www.helsinkitimes.fi
