Parliament The center is coming together to reflect on its NATO line – and it may not be difficult because of the peasant roots: “When the frost took away the grain, it didn’t help the squeak”

The researcher estimates that the center has been moving in a more pro-NATO direction for a long time, although the actual change is only now visible.

WHEN I CENTRAL The party council will begin its meeting on Saturday, one of the biggest issues to be discussed in years: Like all other parties, the center will soon have to take a position on whether Finland should apply for membership in NATO.

Unless there are any surprises in one direction or another, the meeting is expected to give its support to the state leadership so that it can make the necessary decisions for Finland ‘s security, for example, a decision to apply to NATO.

Party leader Annika Saarikko said last weekend request such a mandate from the party council.

What kind of decision to advocate for NATO membership would be for the center as a party?

DowntownLista when it comes to foreign and security policy, the mind easily returns to the president To Urho KekkonenYYA-Finland and the company with equilibrium between East and West.

Against this historical background, one might think that a military alliance with the West would not be the most painless in the center.

Opinion polls look different.

In the polls of the HS The translation of NATO’s position has been historically rapid among pro-center supporters since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February.

Mightily survey of downtown party commissioners membership was supported by almost two-thirds of respondents.

Former longtime party secretary of the Center, political scientist Pekka Perttula seeks an explanation for the NATO turnaround alongside the war itself with a peasant mentality.

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The center knows how to adapt to conditions, as it did during the Cold War.

“When the frost took away the grain, it didn’t help the squeak,” he sums up.

Perttula the importance of the solutions made during the Cold War to the world of thought of the present party should not be exaggerated at all. “Kekkos burden or Kekkos responsibility” should not be placed on the shoulders of the party’s current actors, he says.

“It has been 40 years since Kekkonen’s time. Yes, it also feels a bit pretentious to have such a strong tradition for this new generation that has lived in a completely different Europe, ”he says.

Of course, part of the party’s history still lives on in the foreign policy thinking of the current center.

Former party secretary of the Center Pekka Perttula

Perttula refers to Kekkonen’s speech at the UN General Assembly in the 1960s, in which he described Finland’s role in international politics as a doctor rather than a judge. In other words, Finland will stay away from the contradictions between the great powers, not take a stand but solve problems, for example by mediating peace.

“It may have contributed such a deep current to the nature of the city center,” Perttula says.

The thoughts of maintaining relationships and understanding the thinking of a neighbor have been important in the party to this day. This, more than a special positive attitude towards Russia, is represented by the fact that several of Perttula’s central influences in recent years have sat as chairman of the Finland-Russia Society. They are Paula Lehtomäki, Katri Kulmuni and Petri Honkonen.

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Finland Researcher arguing over NATO debate Iro Särkkä The University of Helsinki states that although the NATO translation of the center is only now clear, the direction has been the same for a long time. In the speeches of the party’s representatives, a more positive attitude towards NATO has been heard since the beginning of the millennium.

Researcher Iro Särkkä

Särkkä believes that the change was influenced by, among other things, the inclusion of rhetoric about the NATO option in the debate and the Partnership for Peace. They offered party representatives more acceptable ways to start talking about NATO.

“This is not what the center wants to say out loud, but there is a clear trend towards a more pro-NATO direction in the 21st century.”

There have been few clear pro-NATO positions so far.

To the city center, like all other parties, the question of NATO membership is still difficult and great.

Särkkä states that there is certainly still a group in the party whose foreign policy is based on ideas from the Cold War.

This line is once again most clearly represented by the veteran politician who has announced his desire for the presidency Paavo Väyrynen. Of course, his role in the party is small today.

“However, if you look at the party leadership, it is a whole new generation. I believe that they are no longer ready to return to that Cold War world, ”says Särkkä.

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Read more: Paavo Väyrynen is running for the presidency of the city center again

In itself Making big decisions like the NATO decision is no stranger to the center as a long-term regent party.

The previous really high-class foreign policy line, EU membership, was passed through the central prime minister Esko Ahon under. The resistance on the party field was fierce. Aho threatened to leave his party leadership if the party did not turn to the EU.

Now, some key centrist politicians have publicly compared the NATO decision to the EU decision.

However, Pekka Perttula believes that the NATO decision is not as painful for the center as the EU decision was at the time. However, it requires a broad and in-depth discussion and a proper process in the same way.

Perttula believes that there could be support in the center, especially for NATO membership, which would involve certain mitigating factors. He refers to the so-called Norwegian model, which is used, for example, by the Bank of Finland’s central governor Olli Rehn has been on display in public.

The Norwegian model is NATO membership where the others are. However, Norway itself has imposed some restrictions on its operations, such as the absence of NATO bases on Norwegian territory.

“The center may be inclined to join under certain boundary conditions,” says Perttula.

Read more: The “Norwegian model” of NATO membership arose from a desire not to irritate the Soviet Union – HS explained what it was all about

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