FM survives no-confidence motion

Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto on Tuesday survived a no-confidence motion brought against him in parliament by the opposition parties over his treatment of a ministry official during the repatriation process of Finnish children from the Al-Hol camp in Syria.

He won the motion by 101 votes to 68.

Last year, Haavisto had been promoting the repatriation of Finnish nationals from the al-Hol refugee camp in Syria. Initially, he put foreign ministry’s Consular Services Director-General Pasi Tuominen in charge of the administrative preparations.

Tuominen objected to this decision, arguing that Haavisto could not attribute political responsibility for a life-and-death situation to a single official.

Haavisto then shifted the assignment to another civil servant and allegedly launched preparations to transfer Tuominen to other duties.

Although Tuominen was not transferred at the end, Haavisto has been widely criticised in public for the way he had treated the ministry official.

Earlier, the matter was reviewed by the Constitutional Law Committee and the committee on 9 December said Haavisto should not be prosecuted over his dealing with the repatriation process of Finish nationals from the al-Hol Camp in northern Syria.

Although the committee observed that Haavisto broke the law, it did not find any basis to prosecute him.

The committee, however, found that the foreign minister had acted in contravention of the Administration Law and the Foreign Relations Act.

Earlier, in February this year, parliament’s Constitutional Law Committee asked the state prosecutor to open a criminal investigation into the way Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto had treated one ministry official over repatriations from Syria.

The opposition lawmakers, however, brought the no-confidence motion in parliament to express their opposition to the foreign minister.