Prime Minister Petteri Orpo knew the Ministry of Finance had opposed state backing for the Helsinki Garden arena before the project secured a €35 million conditional support pledge, one of his closest aides has said.

Katri Manninen, Orpo’s political special adviser, told Helsingin Sanomat that the project advanced as a National Coalition Party target with at least Orpo’s approval.

She said Orpo knew officials had taken a negative view of a state loan guarantee for the project. She added that the ministry’s detailed memo was not in Orpo’s possession, but that he knew the ministry’s position.

The statement adds pressure on Orpo, who has sought to limit his own role in the decision. He said last week that he had not taken part in preparing the proposal and that nobody had presented the project to him before the government’s mid-term budget talks.

The dispute concerns the government’s April 2025 decision to reserve €35 million in conditional investment support for Helsinki Garden, a private arena and event complex planned for Töölö. The money would only be paid if the project goes ahead.

The project had earlier sought a much larger state loan guarantee. The Ministry of Finance rejected that route in late 2024, citing public finance risks, the length of the guarantee and competition from other arena plans.

New documents obtained by HS, Yle and Iltalehti show that former Helsinki mayor Jan Vapaavuori lobbied Orpo’s office before the budget talks.

In one April 2025 email, Vapaavuori told Orpo’s aides he trusted they would push the Garden support through in the coming talks. Orpo was copied into the message, according to HS and IL.

After the decision, Vapaavuori thanked Orpo’s aides Mikko Martikkala and Katri Manninen for arranging the matter during the talks, the outlets reported.

Manninen rejected Vapaavuori’s wording. She told Yle the terms used by Vapaavuori were poor and did not describe government negotiations.

She said the lobbying was normal and that she meets companies, organisations and interest groups as part of her work. She also said Vapaavuori’s role as a former senior National Coalition Party politician was not unusual in Finnish lobbying circles.

Manninen told Yle that Martikkala brought the Garden project into talks between government party aides. Martikkala declined to comment separately and said Orpo’s office would speak through Manninen.

Orpo said in a written statement that the National Coalition Party raised the project in talks at special adviser level as one of several investment proposals aimed at growth and employment.

He said he had not negotiated with Vapaavuori about the project. He said Vapaavuori had mentioned his role in Garden Helsinki and that Orpo had advised him to contact the relevant ministries and ministers.

Orpo also acknowledged that the Ministry of Finance had taken a critical view of arena projects and had raised concerns over a state guarantee.

The new emails have intensified opposition demands for answers.

Green MP Saara Hyrkkö said the messages suggest that contact between the project’s lobbyists and the prime minister’s staff was not casual. She called on Orpo to explain the matter in public.

Left Alliance MP Pia Lohikoski submitted a written question asking whether Orpo gave parliament incorrect or incomplete information about the case.

She said it was unusual if the prime minister did not know who brought a €35 million support proposal for a private arena into his own party’s negotiating goals. She said it would be more unusual if he knew but refused to say.

The government says all ruling parties approved the investment package during the budget talks and that the support remains conditional.

Manninen also rejected the claim that parties had separate quotas for favoured projects in the negotiations. She told HS that each project had to be acceptable to all government parties.

HT