Finnish government faces no-confidence vote

HELSINKI — Finland’s government faced a motion of no-confidence in Parliament on Thursday over election and party funding, and Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen’s Cabinet was expected to survive the vote with the support of his four-party governing coalition.

However, Vanhanen also was facing a separate allegation in a television program on Monday that accused him of accepting free building materials for the construction of his house.

Both issues have gained a lot of public attention in Finland, a small Nordic country that has long been described by international surveys as one of the least corrupt in the world.

The no-confidence vote, sponsored by opposition left-wing parties, was over alleged irregularities in accepting election and party funding from youth and sports foundations by Vanhanen’s Center Party.

The ballot in Parliament followed months of furor over malfeasance in election funding by most parties — including those in the opposition. There have been claims of corruption, wrongdoing and ignorance.

The scandal started with the Center Party, which Vanhanen heads, and personal allegations about his own affairs have tarnished his reputation and made him an easy target for the opposition.

The main opposition Social Democrats, backed by the Left Alliance, have demanded his resignation, claiming the government has lost credibility and cannot function normally.

Last year, the government promised to change the funding system by preparing new legislation, and Vanhanen has dismissed demands he resign or that Parliament be dissolved.

“The resignation of the government or the prime minister would not heal the wound which has been born from people’s distrust in the political system,” Vanhanen said in Parliament on Wednesday.

Separately, Vanhanen has denied claims he received free timber from a construction company for the building of his house, as alleged by an anonymous source in a television program on Monday. The prime minister told reporters that “there was nothing” to the allegations and challenged national broadcaster YLE TV2’s “Eyewitness” program to clearly outline the claims.

The program only said that timber “of substantial value” for Vanhanen’s house, which was built in the late 1990s, had been paid for by an unidentified construction company. It gave no other details.

The National Bureau of Investigation said the statute of limitations applied since the house was built more than 10 years ago and was completed three years before Vanhanen first became prime minister in 2003.

“The program did not reveal the name of the construction firm, the value of the goods or the (exact) time when the deed took place,” a police statement said. It also said that after talking to the TV program team it was apparent that the case went back more than 10 years, “so the described event is dated.”