Garden Helsinki | Orpo breaks silence to STT: Denies lying

Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo has broken his silence on the Garden Helsinki project, denying allegations that he misled the public regarding its employment impacts. In an interview with STT, Orpo asserted that he has consistently used the same set of figures, which were estimates provided by the project during the spring 2025 growth agreement discussions.

Orpo's statements come after Helsingin Sanomat reported that Orpo had justified state support for Garden Helsinki based on inflated employment estimates. The newspaper also suggested that Orpo later provided an incorrect explanation for these figures. "I have only ever had one set of numbers in all my statements. Those were the numbers we had available in the spring 2025 growth agreement. They were the project's own estimates. I have never spoken of other numbers," Orpo told STT.

The Prime Minister also addressed communications from lobbyist Jan Vapaavuori. In one email to Orpo and his aides, Vapaavuori expressed confidence that Orpo's team would secure support for the Garden project during an upcoming mid-term review. In another message, Vapaavuori thanked Orpo's staff for their efforts in "engineering" the project's backing.

Orpo denied any prior knowledge of these specific emails or Vapaavuori's involvement. "As I have said before, I had a brief conversation with him. He informed me that he was involved in this project, and that was all that was discussed. I have not gone through this project with him nor negotiated anything," Orpo reiterated to STT. He added that he is prepared to provide a prime minister's statement to Parliament in the autumn regarding the hall project. The government decided in the spring 2025 framework session to grant Garden Helsinki's project company a conditional investment subsidy of 35 million euros.