Prime Minister | Petteri Orpo Jani Mäkelä’s company director statement at Ylell: “I don’t understand this point of view at all”

Prime minister From Petteri Orpo (kok) could not be found on Sunday during the prime minister’s interview session Ylen Radio in Finland understanding of the chairman of the parliamentary group of basic Finns Jani Mäkelän for comments about Finnish business leaders.

Mäkelä told Helsingin Sanomat in an interview published on Tuesdaythat he doesn’t consider Finnish business leaders “the same as me”. According to Mäkelä, business leaders know nothing more than “running organizational changes from year to year so that organizations are completely messed up”.

“I don’t understand this point of view at all. We have world-class companies in Finland. New ones are born, great startups. We have really high-class international expertise in our company management”, Orpo said during the interview session.

“This is the government’s vision and policy.”

According to Orpo, the government is doing everything it can to get investments in Finland so that companies can grow and employ in Finland.

“Even in the last few days, I have been able to get to know new emerging Finnish companies and their innovations. There is really a lot of potential there at the moment, as long as we get the conditions right,” said Orpo.

Opinion of company directors, it is not the first time that Orpo has had to comment on board partner Mäkelä’s speeches in public.

At the end of August, Orpo said that he “didn’t appreciate” Mäkelä’s comment that the summer 2023 racism uproar was “an idle day” and that the “consequences of the uproar are still being borne in the form of various posing campaigns”.

When asked, Orpo denied that Mäkelä’s comments would make it difficult for the government to cooperate with basic Finns on big issues and in terms of implementing the government program.

“Of course, government work and work between parliamentary groups of government parties would be easier without actual dismissals or comments of this type, but no [sillä] has had an impact on the work of the board.”

In interview class foreign and security policy topics were also discussed. According to Orpo, NATO’s so-called two percent goal must be adhered to even after the HX fighter project, which is currently fattening up Finland’s defense spending, ends.

Orpo stated that after the HX project and the Laivue 2020 project, defense spending would fall below two percent without new decisions.

“But at the same time, we know that, for example, the land forces are in need of necessary investments and reforms. So yes, there are those needs. And since this behavior of Russia and the war in Ukraine continues, it is necessary for us to take care of our defense capability, from the point of view of our own security and our own defense.”

Defense acquisitions are long processes, so according to Orpo, new policies on acquisitions will have to be made already in the current government term. Orpo says he wants to emphasize parliamentary cooperation in the matter.

“Perhaps I could suggest in this context that the so-called “Kanerva kakkonen” could be in place. In time, a representative was made [Ilkka] heather (cok) led by parliamentary work, where together we sought commitment, also financially, to the long-term development of the Defense Forces.”

Orphan said he was the president of the republic By Alexander Stubb along the same lines regarding the recognition of Palestine.

Stubb has said that the recognition of a Palestinian state is mostly a matter of time, but the time is not now. Stubb said at the beginning of August that Finland cannot recognize the Palestinian state right now, because “then we will give a reward in our own way to the terrorist activity that Hamas is currently doing.”

Orpo stated during the interview session that Finland’s long line has been to support the two-state model.

“It means that recognizing Palestine as a state is our goal. But I agree that it is not worth doing at this very moment. When a cease-fire and humanitarian support are put in place and the conditions are created for a proper peace process, recognizing it at the right point can be of much greater importance than just declaring it now.”

Interview class at the end, Orpo also briefly commented on his predecessor Sanna Marini (sd) last week’s discussion about the company’s financial statements.

In the public discussion, it has been brought up in particular that Marin and his company partners Tuulia Pitkänen The MA/PI company distributed a dividend of eight percent of its distributable equity, i.e. just as much as a dividend can be distributed from an unlisted company with tax relief, so to speak.

When he was prime minister, Marin pushed for the removal or tightening of tax relief for unlisted companies.

Orpo said that he remembers very personally the several arguments he had with Marin about things like tax policy and justice.

“There is, of course, a contradiction when looking at them. Of course, I hope that this would indicate that entrepreneurship is valued more and more widely in Finland, because without entrepreneurship, Finland cannot move forward.

Orpo also said that he hoped that the current Social Democratic Party would have clear views on tax policy.

“The former prime minister is allowed to continue his life. What matters now is what you think Antti Lindtman social democrats are about tax policy. What kind of tax system do they support and how do they see Finland growing? Now they have presented mainly billions of additional tax extortions, so what is their line?”