Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen told Yle on Wednesday that no decisions would be made until next week on how the portfolios held by the two outgoing Left ministers will be handled.
The premier said that the decisions must be made by the time the two ministers formally resign, which is likely to be on Friday of next week.
Katainen declined to speculate on whether new ministers would be brought into the cabinet or whether the departing ministers’ duties would be divided among their 17 remaining colleagues.
A tilt to the right?
If new ministers are appointed, they would probably come from the two main government parties, Katainen’s conservative National Coalition Party and deputy prime minister Jutta Urpilainen’s Social Democratic Party.
Katainen dismissed a suggestion that both might go to the SDP to help maintain the left-right balance within the five-party ‘rainbow coalition’. Urpilainen also declined to predict how the Left’s abandoned portfolios would be handled.
Left Alliance chair Paavo Arhinmäki was Minister for Culture and Sport while Merja Kyllönen was Minister of Transport – a potential hot potato as funding for some transportation projects may under threat as budget cuts continue. The Left announced late Tuesday that it was quitting the cabinet as it could not accept the deep budget cuts planned over the next four years.
