PM’s meetings with Garden Helsinki developer conflict with Orpo’s account

The company behind the Garden Helsinki arena project says it contacted Prime Minister Petteri Orpo several times, but Orpo has told the Chancellor of Justice that no meeting or phone call took place between him and the project company.

Projekti GH submitted four new lobbying disclosures to Finland’s transparency register on August 25. The entries identify Orpo as involved in contacts linked to efforts to secure possible state support for the project.

The first contact fell between April and June 2024 and was described as a meeting concerning the project’s potential state aid. A second contact, on the same subject, took place between July and December 2024. The third, between January and June 2025, included a meeting or visit, a text message, an instant message or private social-media message, and email or other correspondence. The fourth entry records phone contact between January and June 2026.

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I have not officially discussed the project with Vapaavuori before, during or after the 2025 framework session. The project company did not present the project to me in greater detail, and no meeting or telephone conversation was arranged between me and the project company or its representatives regarding the project.

Orpo gave his response to the Chancellor of Justice’s request for clarification on August 31. He said he had not officially discussed the project with Jan Vapaavuori, chair of Projekti GH’s board, before, during, or after the 2025 budget framework talks. Orpo said Vapaavuori emailed him about the project on April 14, 2025, and had mentioned in other contexts that he was involved in Garden Helsinki. Vapaavuori responded to questions about the newly disclosed 2024 contacts by saying that “everything was already dealt with during the summer.”

The arena project triggered a major public debate during the summer, prompting Parliament to return from its recess for an extraordinary session. The government’s budget negotiations granted the project 35 million euros in conditional state aid outside the official process, according to the article’s description. The report was still being updated.

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Everything was already dealt with during the summer.