Sanna Marin said that she thought that President Niinistö did not trust that she, as a young prime minister, could handle things.
Photo of the President’s castle from the press conference where Prime Minister Marin and President Niinistö comment on Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine in February 2022. INKA SOVERI
Prime minister Hello Marine (sd) in the opinion of the President of the Republic Sauli Niinistö interfered too much in matters belonging to the Prime Minister, it is said Lauri Nurmen in a recent book Sanna Marin (Zeal). Nurmi is Iltalehti’s politics editor.
In his book, Nurmi tells about a conversation with Marin that has not been made public before.
Nurmi says that he had a phone conversation with Marin in mid-March 2020, a couple of days after Finland was declared a state of emergency due to the corona virus.
In his book, Nurmi describes the conversation as follows.
– That guy tries to intervene in every matter, Marin said.
Nurmi asked if it meant the events of the week before the introduction of Mari’s emergency law.
– Much more. From the beginning, it has tried to intervene in matters that do not belong to it, Marin said.
“It doesn’t trust me”
According to Nurmi, Marin felt that Niinistö was testing the limits of the constitution and trying to use power past the prime minister.
Nurmi says that she asked Marin why she doesn’t put the cat on the table if Niinistö’s actions burden her.
– I have said – It’s fine for me that Finns love their president, but why does it have to interfere in matters that are not its business. It feels like it doesn’t trust Mu – that the young prime minister knows things, Marin said according to Nurme.
Nurmi says that he wrote down the direct quotes from the phone conversation and decided to tell about them if he were to write about Marin or the events of the corona era after the presidential and prime ministerial terms.
Marin hoped that Nurmi would later return to these events in his book, for example.
Nurmi writes that Marin had a strong experience that her skills were not trusted, and the feeling was strengthened by the fact that Marin felt that it was partly related to her age. According to Nurmi, the feeling caught Marin off guard and easily defensive, and it affected his behavior and social media updates.
Marin has not given an interview in the book.
The parties are responsible
Iltalehti asked Sanna Marin for a comment on Nurme’s claims about the content of the phone conversation. Marin’s assistant conveys the answer in writing.
– I have not participated in the creation of Lauri Nurme’s book in any way. I have also not been asked for permission to quote private conversations or given the opportunity to check the quotes, as is normal journalistic practice. Based on the coverage of the book, it is obvious that the book contains incorrect interpretations and false information about me and what I said, Marin says.
Iltalehti asked what was wrong with the claims in the book, but the assistant said that Marin would not comment further on the matter.
Lauri Nurmi writes in the book that “Marin says things so that I could someday tell about them as part of history writing”. Iltalehti asked Nurme if he had asked Marin for permission to publish the statements of the phone conversation.
Nurmi says that the book does not reveal the content of the long phone conversation except for a few quotes, and primarily wants to highlight the main issue of the phone call, i.e. the great tension between the prime minister and the president of the republic. According to Nurmi, Marin told him on the phone and later face to face that he hopes that Nurmi will later bring up the contradiction in the use of power and that Marin felt that the institution of the president of the republic questioned his position as prime minister.
– First of all, Marin has hoped that these contradictions would be written about, both face to face and in that phone conversation. Besides that, both people are no longer in these positions, says Nurmi.
– I’ve told Marin that I’m writing an analysis book about him, and he has said that’s all, but he won’t participate in these, says Nurmi.
Publisher Fairy tale Laatikainen from Into Kustannus, which published the book, urges Marin and others to read the book in its entirety before commenting further on it. He points out that in his statements to the public, Marin refers to “the news made about the book”.
– Separate information about bigger issues has now been retrieved from there, Laatikainen says.
Iltalehti also asked Laatikainen how the conversations that Marin claimed to be private ended up being published. Laatikainen emphasizes that the discussions were professional and related to Marin’s role as prime minister.
– Nurmi has written about Marin in a respectful tone in the book. We wanted that even difficult and difficult things can be covered, so that the book is versatile. The goal was this kind of multiple exposure, he says.
Laatikainen emphasizes that the book has been a long time in the making and Nurmi has met Marin numerous times as a journalist, although he was not interviewed separately for the book.
A fistfight
One power struggle between Niinistö and Marin took place over the establishment of the so-called corona fist in the spring of 2020.
Niinistö made a written initiative to the prime minister that a fist to speed up corona decisions be established in Finland. This composition would include representatives from the Defense Forces, the police, the Government Council and, for example, the Security Service Center.
The government rejected the idea in a written response. Already at the end of March 2020, Iltalehti reported that Niinistö made a proposal about fists, which Marin rejected.
Nurmi writes in his book that from the discussion of the TP-UTVA, that is, the president of the republic and the government’s foreign and security policy committee. According to Nurmi, Marin and Niinistö had a “tough discussion at the TP-UTVA meeting, which they deny with their joint tweet the next day”. Later, Niinistö and other TP-UTVA members told Nurme that denying the contradictions – even if they are true – was necessary in the sensitive corona situation.
Marin brought out his indignation on Twitter with an update where he says, among other things, that “a time of crisis is not the moment to question the competence and ability of the competent authority or to reform the management structure”.
The relationship between Marin and Niinistö has been discussed in public before.
At 15:48 Marin’s and Nurme’s comments were added regarding the publication of the content of the phone conversation.
7:49 p.m.: Added Into Kustannu’s comments.
#guy #intervene
