Belated transparency. The scandal worsened over the past few weeks when the Finnish press revealed that the current Prime Minister, Matti Vanhanen (center party), received, during the campaign for the 2006 presidential elections, secret financial support from the Youth Foundation, a structure whose resources mostly come from RAY, an organization in charge of redistributing the money of hazard games to social projects. Even though, since 2007, the law forces Finnish MPs to publish their campaign accounts, many elected representatives are not subject to this. The scandal was revealed when Nova Group went bankrupt this summer, showing that it transferred funds to several members of the center party for the 2007 legislative campaign. To make a right impression, Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, also senior manager at the center party, announced that he gave the money received back and published his support list. This sudden transparency logic forced the conservatives and the socio-democrats to do the same. The voluntarism displayed by all those politicians isn’t enough to stop new revelations. The government is now working on a bill to regulate parties’ funding, which shouldn’t be introduced to Parliament before a few months.
also senior manager at the center party, announced that he gave the money received back and published his support list. This sudden transparency logic forced the conservatives and the socio-democrats to do the same. The voluntarism displayed by all those politicians isn’t enough to stop new revelations. The government is now working on a bill to regulate parties’ funding, which shouldn’t be introduced to Parliament before a few months.
Questioning the links between parties and trade organizatio
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