Finland’s Uncertain Future

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32313, 3 June 1970, Page 16

Finland’s Uncertain Future

The result of the election in Finland in March emphasised that the Finns need all the talent they possess for political compromise. The ruling LeftCentre coalition, led by the largest single party in Parliament, the Social Democrats, and including the Communist, the Leftist Social Democratic Union, Centre, and so-called Swedish Parties, held 165 of the chamber’s 200 seats. The March voting changed the political balance drastically, the extreme Left-wing groups losing much ground. The Communists lost five of the 41 seats won in 1966, and the Leftist Socialists, holders of seven seats in the old Parliament, were summarily banished from the political scene.

Efforts by President Kekkonen to construct a new coalition were fruitless, and early last month he appointed a caretaker Cabinet, none of whose members has a seat in the House—a device which owes something to constitutional practice in the United States, where the Executive is not directly answerable to Congress. The new Prime Minister, Mr Teuvo Aura, is a Liberal and a former mayor of Helsinki. Three of the Ministers have no party affiliations. Mr Kekkonen was careful not to include any of the party leaders, which may suggest that his makeshift solution is intended to prepare for another election at an early date. It is thought that Mr Kekkonen would like to avoid a second appeal to the country for 18 months or two years; but Mr Aura has said that he does not expect his Government to last more than three months. In that event the President, if developments do not force him to change his thinking, will be in for another tricky exercise in improvisation. The Russian reaction to the stalemate has been little publicised. The so-called “ Kekkonen line ”, however, is based on continued consultation and friendship with Russia. The President has refused to commit Finland to participation in the proposed Nordic Union, which would involve a close economic association with the Scandinavian countries. Russia would hardly approve that idea, although the previous Prime Minister, Mr Maino Koivisto, had favoured Finland’s membership. Nevertheless Mr Kekkonen apparently feels that present relations with Russia permit him a reasonably free hand in foreign policy. Although he has strongly supported the Russian proposal for a European security conference, he has also nominated as his Foreign Minister Mr Vaino Leskinen, a Social Democrat leader who a few years ago was disliked in Moscow for his supposed pro-Western views. Mr Leskinen is hardly likely to have been appointed unless he is now more acceptable to Moscow—and he may not, in any case, have long in office to show signs of liberal tendencies or leanings towards the West