... but not immediately.
Prime Minister of Finland, Jyrki Katainen of National Coalition Party, has announced that he won't seek re-election as the party chairman and as such will step down from his position of Prime Minister once the new chairman has been elected. Reported by YLE News.
YLE News wrote:PM Katainen to stand down
The centre-right National Coalition Party (NCP) will have to find a new leader at its summer meeting in June, after current chair Jyrki Katainen announced his intention to stand down.
Finland's Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen is to give up the post this summer, along with the chairmanship of the National Coalition party. Katainen said that he would be interested in becoming Finland's next EU commissioner after the European elections in May.
“I've considered this very carefully and decided that I will not be available to continue as NCP chair after the party conference,” said Katainen in a speech on Saturday evening. His decision means that the premiership, which traditionally goes to the leader of the biggest party, will also change hands.
Katainen has led his party for ten years, winning several elections and finally becoming prime minister in June 2011 at the head of an unwieldy six-party administration spanning the political spectrum.
At an event held to launch the NCP's European election campaign on Saturday, Katainen said he would be interested in a post at the European Commission. Finland's current commissioner Olli Rehn is to step down after the elections.
The second-largest government party the SDP also faces a leadership election in the coming months, with current leader Jutta Urpilaihnen trailing in polls of SDP delegates. If she loses, Finland would have a new Prime Minister and finance minister by the Midsummer holiday.
Further speculation about the current government's capability of surviving the departure of Prime Minister. While the new party chairman would become by default the new Prime Minister, it just might prove to be too much to handle for him or her.
YLE News wrote:Can government survive PM Katainen's departure?
The news that Finland’s Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen is to seek new challenges in Brussels brought wide coverage and plenty of speculation both in Finland and abroad. The premier’s chances of securing a big EU role and the future of Finland’s five-party coalition government dominated the discussion.
Katainen’s decision to bow out at the top, after a decade of improving election results—or winning elections—for his National Coalition party (NCP) was covered widely in the international press Reuters, Bloomberg and AP all quickly published stories on the move. Bloomberg's summary focused on the tough economic times, pointing out that Katainen's administration has survived 15 confidence votes in three years, during which Finland's public finances have suffered because of the recession.
In Finland reaction focused on the consequences for the current government. Katainen’s administration, which was born after arduous negotiations between six parties from the conservative right to the far left, has lost several ministers since it was formed in 2011.
Heidi Hautala, Jukka Gustafsson, Maria Guzenina-Richardson, Paavo Arhinmäki, Merja Kyllönen, Stefan Wallin and Jyri Häkämies have all left the cabinet, with Katainen now set to be the latest casualty. Last month the Left Alliance quit the government altogether to cut the administration’s parliamentary majority to twelve seats.
Yle’s chief political reporter Pekka Ervasti pointed out that Katainen is introducing a measure of uncertainty at a time when the government still has to pass several major reforms and austerity measures.
With an upcoming SDP leadership election, which could see Finance Minister Jutta Urpilainen turfed out by union leader Antti Rinne, Ervasti says the government is now ’creaking at the seams’.
Helsingin Sanomat’s editorial also said that Katainen’s departure weakens the government, and suggested that the coalition could collapse at the budget talks due in the autumn. The paper says that NCP and Centre party figures would like to form a ’traditional bourgeois’ government, with both large parties and enough smaller non-leftist parties (meaning the Swedish People’s party, the Christian Democrats and possibly the Green League) to form a majority.
Other media speculated on a possible successor to Katainen, with most judging the frontrunners as likely to be Jan Vapaavuori, Alexander Stubb and Henna Virkkunen.
Yle's coverage continues on Sunday, when Katainen is interviewed by political journalists on Radio Suomi at 14:03 as part of a regular 'Prime Minister's question hour', and Yle broadcasts a special progamme on Sunday evening focused on the government's future, titled 'Prime Minister departs -- can the government survive?'.
This was not entirely unexpected, although it does make political scene in Finland even more jittery and nervous than it was before. Social Democrats especially are going to be nervosu about the government's ability to survive, their support is at all-time low for various reasons and they still haven't figured out how to raise it again. We'll have to see what future has in store for us.
