{"id":124274,"date":"2026-07-07T13:58:06","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T13:58:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/124274\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T13:58:06","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T13:58:06","slug":"helsinki-garden-funding-row-deepens-as-opposition-demands-answers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/124274\/","title":{"rendered":"Helsinki Garden funding row deepens as opposition demands answers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Finland\u2019s opposition parties have increased pressure on Prime Minister Petteri Orpo over the government\u2019s \u20ac35 million conditional support pledge<\/a> for the Helsinki Garden arena project, after new ministry documents raised questions about how the decision was prepared and what ministers knew before approving the funding.<\/p>\n

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The Left Alliance chair Minja Koskela called on Orpo\u2019s government to resign on Tuesday. The Greens\u2019 MP Saara Hyrkk\u00f6 submitted a new written question asking whether the prime minister gave misleading information about the case.<\/p>\n

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The Social Democratic Party said parliament should be called back from its summer break so Orpo gives a prime minister\u2019s statement.<\/p>\n

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The dispute centres on the government\u2019s decision in April 2025 to grant conditional investment support to Helsinki Garden, a planned arena and event complex in T\u00f6\u00f6l\u00f6. The payment will take place only if the project goes ahead.<\/p>\n

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The project began under HIFK and has been promoted by former Helsinki mayor Jan Vapaavuori, a long-serving National Coalition Party politician. Vapaavuori chairs the board of the project company behind Garden Helsinki.<\/p>\n

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The row widened after Yle<\/a> reported, based on documents and messages obtained from the Ministry of Finance through a public information request, that the ministry had rejected state support for the project in November 2024 in the form of a \u20ac110 million loan guarantee.\u00a0Iltalehti<\/a> first reported on the messages on Monday evening.<\/p>\n

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According to Yle, Financial Counsellor Sakari Lehti\u00f6 told Vapaavuori and Ilkka Kilpimaa, who represented the project company, on 27 November 2024 that the ministry saw no grounds for granting a state guarantee for the project\u2019s financing.<\/p>\n

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The ministry cited Finland\u2019s public finances, the project\u2019s long financing and guarantee period and what it described as a real credit loss risk for the state.<\/p>\n

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Yle reported that the ministry also referred to other arena projects under way or planned in Turku, Vantaa and Helsinki, as well as the possible return of Helsinki Arena to use. Lehti\u00f6 wrote that those projects would add capacity to the market and that the state should not support one single project.<\/p>\n

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This point has drawn attention because Orpo told MTV News<\/a> last week that the government did not have comparable information about a rival Vantaa arena project when it made the support decision in spring 2025. He said there was no competitive setting or comparison point.<\/p>\n

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Koskela said the prime minister\u2019s statement conflicts with reporting by Helsingin Sanomat<\/a>\u00a0(on the Ministry of Finance documents and messages), which said the planned Vantaa arena had formed part of the reasoning for rejecting state support for Garden Helsinki already in 2024.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe information given by Prime Minister Petteri Orpo is inconsistent with the reporting by Helsingin Sanomat and raises more questions than it answers,\u201d Koskela said in a statement.<\/p>\n

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She accused the government of being ready to distribute tens of millions of euros to a project that officials had viewed as risky.<\/p>\n

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\u201cOrpo should submit the government\u2019s resignation today,\u201d Koskela said.<\/p>\n

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Hyrkk\u00f6 said the government must explain what documents and impact assessments formed the basis of the \u20ac35 million decision. She asked whether Orpo, Finance Minister Riikka Purra and their staffs knew about the Ministry of Finance\u2019s negative position before the government made its decision.<\/p>\n

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Hyrkk\u00f6 said Orpo\u2019s earlier answer to her first written question gave the impression that the ministry had viewed support for the project in a positive light.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIn my view, this is misleading,\u201d Hyrkk\u00f6 said.<\/p>\n

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She said the case does not add up because ministry material and messages sent to project representatives referred to the competitive arena setting months before the government\u2019s mid-term budget talks.<\/p>\n

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The Ministry of Finance\u2019s refusal in November 2024 did not end the lobbying. Yle reported that Vapaavuori sought further talks with senior officials after receiving the ministry\u2019s negative message. A Teams meeting followed in December with Permanent Secretary Juha Majanen, Budget Director Mika Niemel\u00e4 and Pauli Kariniemi from the ministry\u2019s financial markets department.<\/p>\n

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In a message sent in February, Vapaavuori told Majanen and Niemel\u00e4 that direct support of at least about \u20ac30 million or an equivalent state guarantee would suit the project. He also said he planned to meet staff from the Prime Minister\u2019s Office and Daniel Sazonov, then a National Coalition figure in Helsinki politics.<\/p>\n

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Iltalehti also reported that Vapaavuori had sought a meeting with Purra in November 2024 and wrote in the request that he was doing so with encouragement from Ministry of Finance officials and Orpo. Purra has told Helsingin Sanomat<\/a> that she declined the meeting.<\/p>\n

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Orpo has said he did not discuss the substance of the arena project with Vapaavuori or drive the support decision through the government. He has said the decision followed the normal process between government parties.<\/p>\n

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The SDP is now demanding a fuller account in parliament. Its parliamentary group chair Tytti Tuppurainen told Demokraatti<\/a> that Orpo should give a prime minister\u2019s statement without delay. That would require interrupting parliament\u2019s summer break.<\/p>\n

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Tuppurainen said the Speaker of Parliament should ensure that parliamentary accountability takes place.<\/p>\n

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Speaker Jussi Halla-aho told Ilta-Sanomat<\/a> that he had not received such a request through formal channels. He said he does not read between the lines or communicate with parliamentary groups through the media.<\/p>\n

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Halla-aho said requests to interrupt the summer break have been made before during this parliamentary term and that each case is assessed separately.<\/p>\n

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The government has defended the funding pledge as part of the normal political settlement in its mid-term budget talks. The support remains conditional and would still require a separate administrative process before any money is paid.<\/p>\n

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The opposition says that process is no longer enough without a public explanation of how the project moved from a rejected guarantee request at the Ministry of Finance to a \u20ac35 million state support pledge at the government table.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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