The government’s plan to freeze the interest rate passport only partially ran into legal obstacles, but the real reason was the government’s messy last-minute compromise, writes Jussi Pillinen, the forerunner of the Economic and Political Editorial Board.
When prime minister Sanna Marin (sd) under the saints on December 21 stepped in front of the cameras at the Estates House, he had a clear message.
Finland would again have strict centralized interest rate restrictions, but with one exception. With a coronary passport, “low-risk” events could still be open if the regions consider the disease situation to allow it. On the other hand, in high-risk events, the corona pass could no longer be used anywhere in Finland.
“For example, in libraries or at events or activities with designated seating, such low-risk events would still allow a passport to keep those events and activities going,” Marin said.
“The Department of Health and Welfare has made such a risk assessment table, and it is possible to see from it what is a low-risk activity, ie these could be kept open in the passport.”
Marin’s full speech can be watched in the video:
Government the alignment already had an effect when Marin said from a strange extra piece to an already confusing patchwork of restricted Finland.
The day before the government’s negotiations, the Regional State Administrative Agency of Southwest Finland had banned all public and outdoor meetings during the Christmas holidays. These prohibitions cannot be waived with a corona passport, not even on “low risk” occasions.
Marink acknowledged this at the Estates House, but expressed the government’s intention that not everything should be closed in areas where the disease situation is milder.
“Of course, it is possible that the regions will impose even tighter restrictive measures,” Marin said.
“It simply came to our notice then the fact that low-risk opportunities in the passport could be maintained. “
The aim was to make the “partial freeze” of the corona passport possible on 28 December, ie yesterday Tuesday.
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On Tuesday, it emerged that the government had promised too much.
Marinine since the announcement, in the areas surrounding the largest cities, the regional government agencies have introduced a total closure.
According to the HS inventory on Wednesday, all public events were banned in Uusimaa, Southwest Finland, Satakunta, Pirkanmaa and the municipality of Punkalaitumen and Northern Ostrobothnia.
Elsewhere in Finland, there are milder restrictions that have so far been able to be circumvented with a corona passport. Theaters, sporting events and occasions could therefore have taken place as long as a passport has been requested at the door.
The continuation of this situation in low-risk events – such as the cultural rallies and sporting events of the newly numbered seat – was therefore also the will of the government and a promise from the Prime Minister.
Read more: The government froze the corona passport, but in many areas everything remains the same: Such restrictions are now in place in Finland
Tuesday it turned out that the government promised too much.
The partial freezing of the Koronapass was to be done by a decree issued by the government, not by an amendment to the law taken to Parliament. It is therefore possible by law to freeze the passport completely if the disease situation worsens.
The ambiguity concerned whether the government could only partially suspend the passport on its own by decree. A partial withdrawal would have allowed the government to put the various traders in a very unequal position by their own decision.
Attorney general Tuomas Pöysti indeed, just below the Government session, he noted that there were still “open legal issues” in the government’s plan and asked for the matter to be excluded from government decisions.
In practice, therefore, the government tried to push through a rate decision that was not based on law.
A crisis arose, which ended the rest of the day. In the early evening on Tuesday, the government had to hold another session so that even something could be decided on the corona passport. If nothing had been done, in a non-closed Finland, everything would have been circulating on the corona passport as of today, as if there had been no self-transformation of the coronavirus.
The end result was that the government withdrew a promise made by Marin on the steps of the Estate House: the corona passport was not partially but completely frozen. Otherwise it was not legally possible.
This means that even in areas with lesser restrictions, even using a corona passport can no longer fill theater stands or sports gallery – you have to satisfy 20 or 50 spectators or put whistles in a bag.
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A similar legal mess arose when the government tried to bring restrictions on movement to Finland.
Read more: The government then ended up freezing the corona pass, Chancellor of Justice Pöysti overturned the original plan
Episode in the sleepy atmosphere of the intervening days, there was very little political attention – not even the opposition has taken it very lightly. In corona management, however, it settles into the same continuum as many other political compromises with a hasty decision.
A similar legal mess arose in the spring, for example, when the government tried to bring restrictions on movement to Finland. The result of the political negotiations was such a complex tangle of different thresholds that the whole idea fell into its own legal impossibility in Parliament.
The same taste remains from the coronary pass episode. The partial freezing of the passport was a political compromise in which the government did not want to take responsibility for the closure of the whole of Finland, but wanted to keep at least part of Finland open until the end – and leave difficult closure decisions to the regions.
In connection with the total shelving of the Koronapass, the government announced that it would now prepare more thoroughly for the reform of the passport regulations so that the restrictive measures could be “more precisely targeted” in the future.
One corona mix would have been avoided if this need for more thorough preparation had been identified in good time.
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