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Finnish party removes misleading graphic on economic recovery
🇫🇮 Finland /Economy & Trade

Finnish party removes misleading graphic on economic recovery

From Helsingin Sanomat · () Finnish

Translated from Finnish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Outcome reported
  • The National Coalition Party removed a social media graphic that misrepresented the start date of Prime Minister Petteri Orpo's government.
  • The graphic implied economic recovery began with the current government, but some of the depicted growth occurred under the previous administration.
  • The party attributed the error to a graphic designer's carelessness, stating it was not intended to mislead voters.

The National Coalition Party has removed a graphic from its social media channels after it was criticized for misrepresenting the timeline of Prime Minister Petteri Orpo's government and its impact on the economy.

The graphic, shared on the party's Instagram, depicted the Orpo government's term as starting in early 2023. However, the government actually took office on June 20, 2023. This misrepresentation created the impression that purchasing power had risen almost immediately after the government began its term.

Mistakes happen, but deliberately lying to voters is quite sad.

— Johanna KirjavainenDeputy mayor of Tampere criticizing the misleading graphic.

Critics pointed out that some of the economic developments shown in the graphic occurred during the previous Sanna Marin government. The graphic's coloring also suggested a rise in purchasing power coinciding with the Orpo government's tenure. The graphic was removed on Friday after being visible on Instagram earlier that morning.

The graphic designer made a coloring error, a carelessness error, frankly, so we decided to remove the image.

— Jenny ThunebergNational Coalition Party's communications manager explaining the reason for the graphic's removal.

Johanna Kirjavainen, deputy mayor of Tampere, shared the graphic on Instagram, stating, "Mistakes happen, but deliberately lying to voters is quite sad." In response, Jenny Thuneberg, the National Coalition Party's communications manager, told Helsingin Sanomat that the error was due to a graphic designer's carelessness and denied any intent to mislead. "The graphic designer made a coloring error, a carelessness error, frankly, so we decided to remove the image," Thuneberg said.

Thuneberg acknowledged that the issue of purchasing power is complex, influenced by factors like wage growth and inflation. She stated the graphic was intended to illustrate positive developments and the party's work towards them, apologizing for the unfortunate misstep. "I understand that this was an unfortunate miscalculation this time. And that's why we have removed the image," she added.

I understand that this was an unfortunate miscalculation this time. And that's why we have removed the image.

— Jenny ThunebergNational Coalition Party's communications manager apologizing for the error.
About this summary

Originally published by Helsingin Sanomat in Finnish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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