Finland’s new economic affairs minister and member of the nationalist Finns Party, Vilhelm Junnila, survived a confidence vote in parliament on Wednesday.
MPs votes on the measure fell 95-86 with three abstentions and 15 absences.
The confidence vote was called by three opposition parties, the Left Alliance, Green and Social Democratic parties, due to Junnila’s previous controversial statements and links to far-right groups.
Seven Swedish People’s Party MPs voted against Junnila, with the other three abstaining. Three National Coalition MPs were absent for the vote, but the other government party MPs voted their confidence in the controversial politician.
Junnila has joked about his election number (88) referencing ‘Heil Hitler’, campaigned at an election under the “gas” slogan and spoken at at least one event organised by a far-right group.
The recently-appointed minister apologised last week for his comments and actions, following two days of media controversy about the matter.
MPs also voted on the government programme, with 106 voting to support it, 78 voting against, and one abstention. 15 legislators were away for that vote.
If he was elected, and wasn’t doing a bad job (at economy stuff), what reason was there to call a vote of confidence?
If anything this ironically sheds an undemocratic light in the leftist parties…
Legally our ministers are required to be “known for their integrity and ability to serve” and be truthful. Those aren’t possible with ties to undemocratic organizations
Also do note that the called confidence vote was larger than our leftists
undefined> Also do note that the called confidence vote was larger than our leftists
Is the article not detailed enough, or are you telling me that Greens and Sodial Democrats are not generally on the left?
The two you mentioned are in somewhat of a grey area. Mostly centrist policies when they get a chance to govern. Even dipping their toes to pure right-wing to limit nurse’s worker’s rights with their previous term.
In any case it’s not quite approved to publicly state to be against capitalism at our government level but the Left Alliance is currently the only one with leftist suggestions.
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Yes, but for some reason those were not the ones voted in by the people ._.
Could you please name one country where ministers are voted into their minister jobs by the people?
Well not directly, but people vote for the Parties, and they than choose their “best” members for the minister role. Roughly…
I get what you’re saying, but at the same time, we can’t start fucking around with nazis and letting them creep in. We just can’t.
Remember, the nazis taking power in Germany in the 40s was done democratically, and everything they did after that was “legal.”
I’m not anti-democratic, but just because something’s done democratically or legally doesn’t necessarily mean it’s right.
It’s a very common misconception that the Nazis democratically came to power in Weimar Germany. Besides the regular everyday street violence they conducted with their brownshirts, president Hindenburg had been ignoring the parliament and setting up his own government via presidential decree for some time. Prussia (a social-democrat stronghold) had been illegally overtaken in a coup by the then chancellor Franz von Papen.
The only reason Hitler became chancellor is because of the internal squabbles the conservatives around Hindenburg had, and the compromise they agreed upon was to give (again via presidential decree, the parliament was absolutely irrelevant) Hitler the chancellorship and the police, since they thought that he was an inexperienced fool they could easily handle.
With the police in his hands, the SA could start killing, looting and burning places belonging to their political opponents without any worries. After the Reichstag fire, the socialists (2nd biggest party) and the communists (3rd biggest party) were were being murdered and arrested in such quantities, they had to open up concentration camps just to have a place where to put them. The election campaign of 1933 was a symphony of Nazi violence, and they still didn’t have a majority in the Reichstag. It took a lot of threats, violence, backroom deals and the support of Hindenburg for the Nazis to get the enabling act through the Reichstag, after which they were essentially the law.
The Nazi seizure of power was everything except democratic. The courts, people and most parties were against democracy to begin with, but by the time the Nazis had any real “legal” power, the voice of the people was absolutely irrelevant since the president could and did rule by decree, bypassing the Reichstag, and even outright illegal actions such as the coup in Prussia was just brushed over by the courts stacked with conservative judges who’ve been there since Bismarck.
He hasn’t had time to do anything, he’s barely had time to move into his new office. The new government was formed just last week.
??? Do you think the average voter cares that much? That the average voter looks at a track record of any politician? Ever heard of propaganda? The thing Nazis are the best at…
A minister of economics might have a hard time making any trade deals with countries like Germany. And considering the role of migration policies he may be part of in the future, it really doesn’t give a good impression. Then again the True-Finns are in power so I guess impressions don’t really matter in this case
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