Finland Times

 

Minister for International Development Heidi Hautala speaking at a press conference on Friday.Photo – Lehtikuva.

The Minister for International Development, Heidi Hautala on Friday announced that she would resign from the cabinet following the controversy raised regarding the Greenpeace issue.

 

Hautala, also responsible for the corporate governance at a press conference clarified her position regarding the reported obstacle created by an official of her state department to lodge criminal complaint against Greenpeace activists last year.

 

“I have to take the responsibility of the role of my assistant to handle the issue,” said the minister at the press conference, adding that the best way for her is to quit the ministerial position under the present circumstances.

 

However, the lawmaker from Vihreät (Green Party), one of the components of the six-party alliance government, said that she would have handled the issue in the same way.

 

Photo – Lehtikuva.

The Green Party’s former chief, who arrived in the country curtailing her visit to the United States of America, admitted that she did not give clear instruction to the assistant in this regard.

 

The minister told the press conference that her assistant communicated with the Arctia Shipping company to refrain them from making a police complaint against the Greenpeace activists.

 

The assistant also communicated with the official of the state corporate governance, Pekka Timonen who later dealt the issue with the shipping company.

 

 “Even I did not abuse my power. The action might have been same, if there was another group,” claimed the minister, adding that nothing had been done specially for the Greenpeace activists.

 

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister, leaders of other components and the own party chief of Hautala hailed the decision of resignation announced by the minister.

 

“Hautala has taken the right decision. She did not do anything wrong  to handle the issue that time but what she did mistake was not giving the information about the happening,”  the Prime Minister, Jyrki Katainen said expressing his reaction over the resignation decision of Hautala.

 

Chairman of the Green party Ville Niinistö speaks on the announcement of resignation by his party leader. Photo – Lehtikuva.

The Green Party president, Ville Niinistö also supported the decision of resignation and said that his party is going to choose a new minister on Wednesday.

 

The chief of Social Democratic Party, the second largest ally of the government, Jutta Urpilainen said that Heidi Hautala took the right decision as she understands that that a minister should discharge duty with trust.

 

In her facebook comment, Urpilainen, also the Finance Minister, however, thanked Hautala for cooperation during her role as a minister.

 

Earlier, the Prime Minister, Jyrki Katainen, on Wednesday asked explanation from Hautala regarding the allegation.

 

Heidi Hautala, has admitted that an official of her department created the obstacle to take action against Greenpeace activists when they took over the state-owned Arctia Shipping icebreakers in Helsinki last year.

 

“It is of course a serious matter, if political decision affected the decision of police regarding making a criminal report,” said the Prime Minister on Wednesday, adding that he would consider the matter seriously.

 

The issue came to public when Finnish language newspaper Iltalehti published a report in this regard against Hautala.

 

Hautala said that a senior official of the department, PekkaTimonen, had told the ship authority that state-owned companies should have more tolerance towards the NGO activities than normal enterprises.