HS Analysis | Annika Saarikko is now destabilizing the government in a way that she herself said she disliked

In support problems chairman of the wrestling center, minister of finance Annika Saarikko has tightened its grip on the public. Saarikko pushes his party’s goals by pushing the prime minister’s party, Sdp, against the wall.

On Sunday, he slept prime minister From Sanna Marin (sd) a clearer line in the EU’s forest policy. In practice, the center wants the Sdp to walk over the greens to the so-called to the restore setting in the related position formation and the government tightens the line it agreed upon.

It is an EU regulation according to which EU countries must return at least 20 percent of the Union’s land and sea areas to their natural state by 2030.

Last week Saarikko also said, that the so-called capital gains tax prepared under his leadership should be ditched. The government has agreed on the wish of left-wing parties in particular to propose a tax that would target some wealthy people who move abroad.

“I wonder why the prime minister’s party is so strongly attached to this”, Saarikko acknowledged for Sdp.

In the board challenging the already agreed line can, in extreme cases, even lead to the fall of the government.

However, the center may emerge victorious from the twists and turns. It calculates that the Sdp will bend to its will, because the fall of the government would be a bigger blow to the prime minister’s party than to the center.

Island now seems to be working in a way that he said he hated before he became chairman.

“I am not a representative of sudden wrong moves or strong will politics. We must firmly bear responsibility in the government and create bridges. This is completely new to me, that there is always a government issue on the agenda. I don’t recognize the center I joined from the hard work,” he said In an interview with Helsingin Sanomat under the presidential race in August 2020.

Saarikko has not made the restoration of forests or the value increase tax directly a government issue.

However, it is clear that, for example, he is not going to give an agreed presentation on the capital gains tax. In this case, the Sdp must either accept the will of the center or dissolve the government.

At times in the contentious government, layoffs have been made by others than the center.

A year ago, Prime Minister Marin demanded that the already agreed cuts for the beneficiaries of Veikkaus should be cancelled. This was also done. Saarikko photographed the prime minister’s actions in the dispute as “exceptional”.

This fall, part of the parliamentary group of the left-wing coalition again failed to vote on the government agreement of the Patient Safety Act.

Among the government partners, Saarikko is respected as a skilled and consistent politician. Perhaps, however, he now considers that the center will not achieve anything by building bridges in Marini’s government.

Pressure Saarikko also comes from the parliamentary group. The center considers itself to have been branded as too much of a support party for the left and the greens during this government term.

Visible back wins in issues related to forests and taxation could bring relief to the center’s public image, the party estimates.

On the other hand, the resignations might make the rest of the government’s term just a vague mess, which does not look good for any government party. However, the center is ready to take that risk.

The party doesn’t have much to lose at the moment.