Junkkari | The weekend party meetings saw a very exceptional phenomenon

Congressman Veronika Honkasalo was elected the first vice-president of the Left Alliance.

That previous sentence contains all the news about the new leaders of the three party assemblies this weekend. So everyone.

Honkasalo was the only new name to rise to party leadership at these meetings.

He will continue as chairman of the Left Alliance Li Andersson and other vice-chairs Minna Minkkinen and Jouni Jussiniemi – both were previously Vice-Chairs.

The chairman of the Coalition Party will continue Petteri Orpo and as Vice-Chairs Antti Häkkänen, Elina Valtonen and Anna-Kaisa Ikonen. They, too, were already in the party leadership.

The same thing happened in the center, no changes were seen in the party leadership. Annika Saarikko, Riikka Pakarinen and Markus Lohi continue.

Oh yeah – and in all three, the former party secretary will continue.

Personal choices the meetings thus saw stagnant water. This can be considered truly exceptional. Almost always at least one of the chairmen changes at party meetings.

But now two meetings went without any changes. And even in the Left Alliance almost.

What can be deduced from this?

I do not know.

It is certainly a coincidence.

But there may be more to the background – such as the coronavirus. The parties have been in the last couple of years in terms of meetings with austerity, so perhaps this has also saved the party leadership.

The party convention crowd may have wanted to give the sitting leadership a chance to show their nails even during normal times.

Self I was at a downtown meeting in Lappeenranta over the weekend. The atmosphere was quiet. Even so quiet that the voice of the center, Finland, described the meeting as “hand-warm”.

“At the meeting, no era ended or a new one began,” Suomenmaan Pekka Pohjolainen wrote in his analysis.

Parties often complain that the media focus too much on personnel choices in their party convention news. Instead of names, they think we should talk about things and the line of the party.

But in fact, it is in the context of personal choices that the party population often has to consider most concretely which direction they would like the party to go.

The Coalition Party and the city center decided to continue with the old model, and at least in the city center, not many people even wanted to change this direction.

So there wasn’t really a line discussion – except for what is now Paavo Väyrynen a little tried. However, Väyrynen did not find support for his ideas at the meeting.

At the downtown meeting, concerns about party support were rampant in the speaker stand. But quite a few concrete ways were offered to reverse the low levels of support in the lowlands.

For the rest of the season elected Annika Saarikko can be satisfied with every puncher who has been to the bowl. They say the party crowd is not yet completely immersed in pessimism, despair and apathy.

The Coalition Party is doing so well in the polls that, at least because of that, the party assembly did not have to consider changing leadership. The downtown is not doing well, but on the other hand, it has recently changed chair like socks. There have already been three presidencies during this parliamentary term.

Annika Saarikko has only led the party for less than two years.

Saarikko was elected chairman of the center in September 2020 at the Oulu party conference. At the time, Saarikko estimated that the problem in the center was too much inward turning and low self-confidence.

These same things continue to plague the party.

In a speech on Saturday, Saarikko said the center “doesn’t need masks or circus tricks”.

“It is enough to tell us who we are, what we think and we work hard for a Finland where work and caring for others go hand in hand,” Saarikko said.

The comment can be considered surprising in the sense that party support is at a historic low. One could imagine that is why the party should strive to change. In his speech, however, Saarikko wanted to prop up the self-esteem and confidence of the centrists earlier.

“We are ourselves and that is enough,” Saarikko said.

On Sunday Saarikko spoke about time in his closing speech at the party meeting. About how the cycle of the year defines the life of a peasant. There are four seasons a year that rhythm the peasant’s sowings and harvests.

The year of a peasant is thus divided into quarters.

According to Saarikko, quarterly thinking does not fit into politics in the same way. If politics only follows the latest measure of support, responds to daily emotional turmoil, and seeks quick gains, it will not be sustainable in the long run.

In addition to quarters, there is also a longer quarter, a quarter of a century. When making political decisions, according to Saarikko, one should always think about how the decisions will affect the distant future. How they affect our children.

“The quarterly economy overturns the idea,” Saarikko said. He also warned that “fast food policy” would drown if the idea was not clear.

According to Saarikko, instead of tricks, the party should try to sense the spirit of the times and understand the feelings of the citizens.

Parliamentary elections will be held in April 2023. The island now has three quarters of time to sense the spirit of the times, understand people’s feelings and glorify the idea of ​​the center.

If he fails to do so, then at the next downtown party convention, more people will change from party leadership.

Correction 12.6.2022 at 18.24: Corrected Riikka Pirkkalainen to Riikka Pakarinen.