Antti Kaikkonen: 'Finland has become polarised, and the Centre Party has to change'

Antti Kaikkonen gives a triumphant, if uncharacteristic, howl of delight.

It’s a moment of joy at the Centre Party’s summer conference in Jyväskylä caught on camera, his own ‘Juti pumppu’ celebration - a gesture named after 1995 Ice Hockey World Championship goal scorer Timo Jutila.

“When he scored, he made a similar move as I did. I felt really good and I guess I’m a meme now,” he laughs.

Since his election as Centre Party - Keskusta - leader last weekend, it’s been a non-stop whirlwind of media interviews to reintroduce the country to a politician best known in recent years for his shuttle diplomacy as defence minister in Sanna Marin’s government, smoothing the path to NATO membership.

So what does an Antti Kaikkonen Centre Party look like?

“Well I hope that we could be a party for all of Finland, seeking solutions and progress. I think that politics has been very split in Finland in the last years, very polarised and we do not think the hard-right or patronising left are on the right course,” he tells Finland Insider in his first English-language interview since becoming Keskusta leader.

“Instead we must find a balance in the centre, and we hope there is support in Finland for that in the future.”

Change of direction

Kaikkonen’s elevation to party chairperson comes at a time when it seems like Keskusta is at a crossroads.

Once the dominant force in Finnish politics, in the last few years the party has scraped the bottom of the barrel with its worst poll numbers ever recorded, and despite his predecessor Annika Saarikko having a mandate to restore the party’s popularity, it has limped along with between 12 and 15% support for the last five years.

Something clearly has to change, and Kaikkonen agrees.

“We have to renew and reform the party. We believe in basic security, regional equality and decision-making close to the people. We are proudly patriotic and international.” In European terms, Keskusta is part of the ALDE family - the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe - where they sit with another Finnish political party the Swedish People’s Party.

So what exactly would Kaikkonen change? He’d practice more positive politics for a start.

“The present government gives people more taxes and budget cuts and I think we have to limit some of those. We need a party that can show a brighter way to the future and I think that should be our goal, to make a better path for Finland.”

Problems in government

When Kaikkonen, still a keen footballer age 50, is reminded that his party was in government and presided over some of the biggest cuts the country has endured, during the austerity budget years of Prime Minister Juha Sipilä, he concedes that mistakes were made on some reforms, although he credits that administration for changing Finland’s unemployment trends. .

“Generally the feedback we got from those years was that our policies were too much on the right-side. But in the Marin government the feedback we got was that our policies were too much on the left-side. I believe there is room and a need for a more centre-ground Centre Party in Finland the future.”

In short: Kaikkonen hopes Keskusta can find electoral success as a ‘Goldilocks’ party: not too left, not too right, just fine in the centre.

‘We don’t accept racism in any form’

Our interview takes place the morning that news broke of a stabbing at an Oulu shopping centre, the second within a week which police say was carried out by someone targeting a person with an immigrant background.

Kaikkonen condemns the attack in the strongest terms, saying “we don’t accept racism in any form,” and that he’s been “pretty worried about the political atmosphere” in the country.

“You can see it in social media too often, and in the streets. That’s something we shouldn’t accept at all,” he states.

However, he won’t rule out cooperating in the future with the far-right Finns Party, saying only that if the time comes when Keskusta gets into negotiations about joining a government, then its political line “should be something close to our ideals and values.”

Joining NATO and supporting Ukraine

When Antti Kaikkonen became the minister of defence in 2019 - first in Antti Rinne’s government, then in Sanna Marin’s government - he thought the biggest task ahead of him would be the multi-billion euro procurement process to replace Finland’s ageing F/A-18C Hornets.

“We did that, yes, by procuring the new F-35 fleet, but Finland joining NATO was a much bigger task in the minister of defence post. It was huge, but I would say that I just did what I had to do” - he notes with classic Finnish understatement - “but of course I did celebrate with a cup of coffee also.”

The challenges posed by Russia’s full-scale 2022 invasion of Ukraine also put more pressure on Kaikkonen’s ministerial portfolio as Finland prepared its military aid packages for Ukraine with little fanfare (unlike some other NATO allies).

Some experts have called on Finland to do even more for Ukraine, or criticised the red lines which have been drawn on what Finland will or won’t do - President Stubb recently categorically ruled out sending Finnish military personnel to Ukraine, while Estonia’s prime minister said she could see Estonian troops being deployed there perhaps in a training capacity.

“It’s a tricky situation,” Kaikkonen muses.

“I think it’s maybe not clever to tell in advance what Finland will or will not do in different situations, because it also tells others what our strategy is here. So maybe it’s better not to tell everything.”

“Finland has been a strong supporter of Ukraine, one of the strongest when you compare it to the size of the country, and I would say I am waiting for other countries to do more - you can find those countries in Europe too.”

“But I hope some day we can start talking about ceasefires and the peace process and maybe we had the first small step with the recent peace conference in Switzerland.”

Securing Finland’s borders from hybrid attacks

Despite an optimistic view of the future, Keskusta has strongly supported the government’s controversial new law which allows border closures even for asylum seekers.

Experts have said this means Finland is breaking international treaties and the EU’s own rules.

Kaikkonen admits there are “challenges” with Finland’s international commitments in this regards but stresses that those treaties were drawn up in an era before ‘hybrid warfare’ was even a problem for national security.

“The most important thing for a nation-state is to guarantee its own security and of its people at the same time. Of course this is an exceptional law and it is not a normal situation, but that’s why we have to do what is needed and hopefully return to business as usual soon.”