New Tensions in Finland
GOODRICH, AUSTIN
NEW TENSIONS IN FINLAND Inter-party struggles and Soviet pressures increase political instability By Austin Goodrich HELSINKI PARADOXICALLY, with the approach of the Midnight Sun,...
...Most recently these strange political bedfellows cashed in on a strong denunciation of their common enemy, the SDP, by no less a figure than Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev...
...The left-Socialist Helsinki newspaper, Paivan Sanomat (itself printed on Communist presses), called the SDP Committee statement "hypocritical" and wrote editorially: "When a ship is running aground, the only thing to do is to jettison some of the cargo...
...Undoubtedly Khrushchev will have more to say on the subject of a neutral Nordic bloc in the course of his scheduled August visit to Denmark, Sweden and Norway...
...and it added significantly, "the Social Democratic party reserves its indisputable right to judge evidences of imperialism...
...The same applies to the Social Democratic party...
...Whether continuously increasing trade with their eastern neighbor is economically compatible with economic integration with their Scandinavian neighbors to the west remains to be seen...
...In an interview carried on the front page of Pravda, Khrushchev blasted the Socialist leaders by name (Chairman Vaino Tanner, Secretary Kaarlo Pitsinki, V. Leskinen and O. Lind-blom), accusing them of "serving circles in the West, particularly on the other side of the ocean, interested in worsening Finno-Soviet relations...
...NEW TENSIONS IN FINLAND Inter-party struggles and Soviet pressures increase political instability By Austin Goodrich HELSINKI PARADOXICALLY, with the approach of the Midnight Sun, political illumination in Finland grows dimmer by the hour...
...The minority Agrarian Government of V. J. Sukselainen, successor to the broad coalition which fell victim to Soviet and domestic pressures at the end of last year, is still in office but appears to be living on borrowed time...
...Recently the SDP irritated the Communists no end by rejecting the latter's bid for "united front" cooperation between themselves, the Socialist left wing and the SDP in the Diet, with respect to passage of unemployment insurance and paid vacations legislation...
...Internationally, the Finns are faced this spring with the problem of negotiating a long-term trade agreement with the Russians and...
...So far, the Soviets have not opposed Finland's membership in the NCM, the Kremlin's policy apparently being to use Finland as a lever to wedge Denmark and Norway out of the Atlantic alliance...
...The Social Democratic party (SDP) is now permanently split, the leftist opposition having established its own organization called the Social Democratic League of Workers and Small Farmers...
...The only man empowered to call special elections, President Urho Kekkonen, seems to agree with the wait-and-see view of his former party colleagues...
...The ultimate resolution of the struggle will doubtless favor the parent party, but probably not before the general elections scheduled for 1962...
...The Social Democrats are not swerving from their traditional staunch opposition to Communism despite the foreign and domestic charges being leveled against them...
...Supported at the outset by the non-Communist parties in the Diet, the Agrarians are leaning more and more toward the left in an effort to stay in power, in the face of Socialist and Conservative demands for expanding the cabinet base...
...But the Agrarians, whose electoral strength is jeopardized by the pro-Soviet policies of its "asphalt farmer" leadership are opposed to new elections at all costs...
...Perhaps the most unhealthy development in Finnish politics is the continuing injection of foreign policy questions into the partisan struggle not only by the Communist-dominated forces (which everyone is used to), but also by the Socialist left wing and the Agrarians...
...Though not labeled a political party, the League is organized and operates like one...
...The statement went on to reject the claim that "actions of the party or its leaders have been or are guided by the desire to please some imperialist powers...
...And the paper called for the immediate resignations of the persons fingered by the Soviet boss...
...And what shaped up two years ago as an intramural feud based primarily on personality conflicts at the top is now an all-out, no-holds-barred fight for the non-Communist labor vote...
...at the same time, preparing for active and fruitful membership in the Nordic Common Market...
...In reply, the SDP Executive Committee issued a statement pointing out that the Soviet leader's professed "respect for the sovereignty of states as well as national interests of all countries" did not jibe with his attack against Finnish Socialist leaders...
...The SDP and Conservatives are both on record as favoring dissolution of the Diet and special elections in the near future...
...The present line of the Socialist left wing is perhaps best illustrated by its acceptance, together with the Communists and, to a lesser degree the Agrarians, of the Khrushchev charges...
Vol. 42 • June 1959 • No. 25
