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Orpo Tells Chancellor of Justice He Was Not Disqualified from Garden Helsinki Decision
🇫🇮 Finland /Elections & Politics

Orpo Tells Chancellor of Justice He Was Not Disqualified from Garden Helsinki Decision

From Helsingin Sanomat · () Finnish

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

At a glance

News Named sources Under investigation
  • Prime Minister Petteri Orpo has responded to Chancellor of Justice Janne Salminen’s request for information about possible conflicts of interest.
  • The inquiry concerns state support for the Garden Helsinki arena project and ownership and financing arrangements involving Valmet Automotive.
  • Orpo said he did not personally benefit from the decisions and did not believe his links to a major Kokoomus donor required him to recuse himself.

Prime Minister Petteri Orpo has told Finland’s chancellor of justice that he was not disqualified from decisions involving Garden Helsinki or Valmet Automotive.

Chancellor of Justice Janne Salminen opened the matter after receiving numerous complaints. The review covers a conditional state grant of €35 million for the planned Garden Helsinki sports and events arena, as well as ownership and financing arrangements involving Valmet Automotive.

The arena project became politically contentious because construction company SRV was expected to build it. SRV’s principal owner is Ilpo Kokkila, a major financial backer of the National Coalition Party. Kokkila and his companies have also provided direct election support to Orpo. The government later withdrew the Garden Helsinki support decision.

I did not personally benefit from the decision or seek to gain from it for any individual election donor

— Petteri OrpoHe denied benefiting from the decisions under review by the chancellor of justice.

The Valmet Automotive case involved a roughly €120 million state rescue package after the contract vehicle manufacturer faced severe financial difficulties when Mercedes-Benz ended vehicle assembly in Uusikaupunki. The state subsequently became the majority owner. Kokkila’s family investment company, Pontos, was among the company’s owners before the arrangement and remained a minority participant in the battery-business transaction.

Orpo chaired the government’s economic policy ministerial committee when the Valmet Automotive ownership arrangements were decided. In a July interview, he said he had attended the meeting but did not believe recusal was necessary because the effect was relatively small and the matter had nothing to do with election financing. “I did not personally benefit from the decision or seek to gain from it for any individual election donor,” Orpo said in his written response.

I did not feel at the time that there was reason to recuse myself, because the effect was relatively small and the matter had nothing to do with election financing

— Petteri OrpoHe explained why he remained involved in the Valmet Automotive decision.
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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