Junker | “You can do better”, Annika Saarikko teased Petteri Orpo in Yle’s A-talk – this can have wider effects

Rarely in the debates of politicians, you can see such a complete clash as yesterday Thursday in Yle’s A-talk.

“Petteri Orpo, you can do better”, Minister of Finance Annika Saarikko (mid) tokaisi. Right after the prime minister Sanna Marin (sd) called Orpo’s comment a moment earlier “amusing” and a little later still “funny”.

The collapse of the ruling parties was completed by the chairman of the opposition party Basic Finns Riikka Purrawho was surprised that the coalition talks about a billion tax cuts without telling how they will be covered.

Well, conversations come and go. And the robbery experienced by Orpo does not necessarily have a worse effect on the support of the coalition. Nevertheless, Thursday’s discussion may have had a more far-reaching meaning.

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Marin and Saarikko took all the joy out of Orpo’s answer.

in A-talk was the topic of next year’s budget proposal announced by the government on Thursday, which has a deficit of more than eight billion euros.

As you might have guessed, the opposition parties strongly criticized the state’s indebtedness.

Petteri Orpo repeated several times in A-talk that the government should have even tried to find some savings targets. Orpo said that it would have been worthwhile for the government to go through the budget proposal paragraph by paragraph and see where there could be some tweaks.

After this, Orpo was asked for specifics – that is, what exactly the coalition would be willing to cut.

Naming the concrete targets for surgery is the basic oat of election debates. I myself have dozens of times in the election exams demanded the presidents to tell how they plan to finance their spending increases and what they would be willing to cut accordingly.

Rarely has anyone actually answered this question.

The presidents say something general in the exams about cutting business subsidies and making the administration more efficient, but it’s usually useless to wait for concrete savings targets, no matter how hard you try.

However, Orpo made an exception in Thursday’s A-talk. Namely, he went to name a few concrete objects.

Orpo said that the government could have applied for savings on, for example, the administrative costs of the war, the subsidy for gas cars, the subsidy for wetland cultivation and the number of political assistants.

Concrete, good!

But at the same time Orpo’s answer admittedly sounded funny. If there is a deficit of eight billion in the budget, it will not be fixed by cutting the support for wetland cultivation.

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Orpo’s defeat may have an impact on next spring’s parliamentary election campaign.

Say Marin and Annika Saarikko took all the joy out of Orpo’s answer.

“It’s funny that Petteri Orpo brings up the costs of assistants from this big budget. And at the same time, you are presenting billions in tax cuts. It’s fun to listen to you now,” Sanna Marin said.

It didn’t help, even though Orpo had meant that the state budget should be reviewed moment by moment and look for savings targets everywhere. And he had only tried to mention some examples of these. The support of wetland farming and Orpo’s lack of sense of proportion stuck in the listener’s mind.

It was undeniably hilarious. But at the same time a bit sad.

Orphan the experienced knock-out may have effects on next spring’s parliamentary election campaign. Namely, he will hardly ever again talk about cutting subsidies for wetland farming or any other concrete cut.

In recent months, the coalition has been at the top of support polls, which has been reflected in the coalition’s results over the summer. There have been very few of them.

The coalition is holding its breath and hopes that the first place in the polls will remain until the elections. The problem, however, is that the election is still seven months away – which is a long time to hold your breath.

Although many voters in general are worried about the indebtedness of the state economy and hope for spending discipline, few are ready to give up their own interests.

Because of this, talking about savings on a concrete level is a risk for the party, because the cuts always fall on some voter group. Support for wetland farming is important for wetland farmers.

And since the coalition is careful not to take risks, Orpo is unlikely to be as eager to list concrete savings targets in the future. You could guess that way.

The next government will inevitably have to start balancing the state finances. It is sad from the point of view of the people’s power, if the citizens only find out after the elections and government negotiations, what that balancing at the level of budget items really means.

That is why party leaders should be encouraged right now to speak concretely – no matter how cheesy it sounds.