Turku has been suffering for years over the memory of the late Mauno Koivisto. Proposals have been pouring in, but none have worked yet. Now the city is in a hurry, because next year it will be one hundred years since the president’s birth.
President Mauno Koiviston almost five and a half years have passed since his death, but Turku has not yet reached an agreement on what would be the right way to honor the memory of the iconic man who died in May 2017.
The birth of Koivisto, originally from Turku, will be one hundred years old next year.
With the jubilee year, the mayor of Turku Minna Arve (kok) has now established a new commemoration committee to prepare the commemoration of Koivisto in Turku. The city announced the new committee on Monday. Its task is to consider what kind of permanent tribute to the president will be implemented.
Koivisto remembering has become an almost eternal theme in Turku. Only four months ago, Turku’s nomenclature committee gave its own suggestions for suitable memorial sites. However, these are not suitable for the new committee.
“Let’s just say that they are not enough at least”, formulates the chairman of the city council appointed as the chairman of the party committee Mika Maaskola (sd).
In June, the Naming Committee proposed that Turku’s main library or the planned new ship terminal could be named after Koivisto. The third proposal was to establish a park named after Koivisto in the renewed harbor area.
Read more: In Turku, Mauno Koivisto’s monument has been twisted for five years – Now the president’s library or terminal emerged
“We now want to consider all previous proposals from a clean slate, and we are happy to hear new proposals as well,” says Maaskola.
Paradoxically, according to Maaskola, the abundance of proposals has been the reason why Turku has been stuck in a quandary when it comes to remembering Koivisto.
“Over the years, there have been so many good ideas, but they haven’t really supported each other. Maybe there has been a bit of a lack of abundance.”
Maaskolan my favorite proposal is a square or a monument that would be established in connection with the Museum of History and Future to be built in the harbor. He says that this has already been discussed with Koivisto’s relatives.
The port area has been emphasized in the commemorative discussion, because Koivisto worked at the port of Turku before his career in politics. He focused on the port topic in his dissertation as well.
The Turku harbor area is currently being renovated. The current terminal for Swedish ships is to be replaced by a new joint terminal and a museum will be built in the vacated space. In addition, the surroundings of Turku Castle will be transformed into a new kind of park-like area.
However, the problem with these projects is time. The reforms of the port area will not be completed in time for the president’s anniversary. For example, the new museum is supposed to open in 2029, but the final decision on its construction has not been made. Therefore, according to Maaskola, something else is needed.
“It would be good to have something more concrete at this point. Of course, some sort of celebratory decision [valtuustossa] could come into question”, he reflects.
Read more: Ten years ago, there was so much enthusiasm for one exhibition in Turku that it was decided to establish an entire museum for it – Now the exhibition has been destroyed, but the museum project is only expanding
Maaskola flashes that at least a celebration seminar is in the plans. In addition, he hopes that some kind of project will be started to compile the memories of the townspeople related to the president.
17.10. at 15:53: Corrected an error in the text. Mika Maaskola has not been a Member of Parliament, but a Deputy Member of Parliament.
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