Eastern border | Chairman Lindtman: Sdp will demand further changes to the “conversion law”

Sdp’s it is not yet possible at this stage of the legislative process to take a final position on the acceptability of the so-called “conversion law”, the chairman of the party’s parliamentary group Titti Tuppurainen says.

Tuppurainen commented on the matter to the media together with the chairman of the party Antti Lindtman with Sdp’s parliamentary group after a three-hour discussion on Tuesday.

“It now remains to be seen whether this presentation can be modified sufficiently so that it can be put into a more acceptable form,” Lindtman, on the other hand, assesses.

Sdp’s parliamentary group discussed the topic after the parliament’s constitutional law committee had given its opinion on the exceptional law proposed by the government, under which people could be temporarily prevented from applying for international protection at Finland’s borders.

The statement calls for changes to the draft law, for example, regarding the legal protection of those who aspire to land. Next, the exception bill will be considered by the administrative committee of the parliament.

Lindtman’s and according to Tuppurainen, the Sdp will nevertheless demand additional changes to the exception law in the parliament’s administrative committee on top of what the parliament’s constitutional law committee has already required. However, no precise decisions on the required changes were made at Tuesday’s meeting.

According to them, changes are needed to the sections of the exception law, which deal with, for example, the types of circumstances related to minors, health or vulnerability that international protection can be applied for despite the exception law, and how the border guards are able to verify these issues at the border.

“The procedures that can be used to ensure that the legal protection of the applicants is not violated too much or that the prohibition on return is not violated in a way that is not the purpose of the law,” states Tuppurainen.

Second The possible change demand that emerged on Tuesday is related to the role of the parliament in the use of the exception law.

In the government’s current proposal, the Government, in cooperation with the president, can decide to limit the acceptance of applications for international protection.

“What kind of role would the parliament play afterwards, if such a law were needed?” Lindtman brought up.

Lindtman’s according to Sdp’s final position on the exception law will be decided after the bill has been discussed in the parliament’s administrative committee.

According to him, in this context, it is also necessary to evaluate whether the bill should go through the constitutional committee again after the administrative committee.

“We have already agreed that we will meet for an extra meeting of the parliamentary group when the administrative committee’s report starts to be ready,” Tuppurainen commented on the intentions of the parliamentary group.

Parliamentary group Both Lindtman and Tuppurainen describe the discussion at the meeting as good-natured.

“We discussed the matter for a very long time and seriously. All the speeches that were requested were used, and there were many and from different perspectives. This discussion continues”, Tuppurainen stated.

Since the Constitutional Law Committee decided to pass the law as an urgent matter, it requires a five-sixths majority of the votes cast in the plenary session of the Parliament to be approved. The exception law therefore requires the support of the majority of the opposition parties as well.

The Green Party and the Left Alliance have already said that they have a negative attitude to the exception law.

Chairman of the center Antti Kaikkonen told on Tuesday in the message service X that the party is ready to support the law, so the passage of the law in parliament depends on Sdp.