Greens’ Tynkkynen and Virta: Government squandered growth opportunities in budget talks
Instead of bold reforms, the budget negotiations produced yet another round of cuts that won’t lift Finland, says Oras Tynkkynen. The refusal to invest in education is short-sighted and harmful, adds Sofia Virta.
Green parliamentary group chair Oras Tynkkynen argues that Prime Minister Petteri Orpo’s government is cutting here and there without any real vision for reform. He criticizes especially the weak approach to trimming ineffective subsidies and to reforming taxation.
“Despite all the grand rhetoric, the government barely touched the billions in inefficient and environmentally harmful business subsidies. Yet it is slashing funding for the green transition and for research and development,” Tynkkynen says in a press release.
Green Party chair Sofia Virta echoed his view, stressing that RDI funding is one of the key tools to put Finland back on the path to growth – precisely the area the government is cutting.
Tynkkynen also faulted the government for sidelining taxation once again in balancing the economy and for making only small increases to environmental taxes.
“Raising environmental taxes would both strengthen public finances and help tackle the sustainability crisis. Economists are nearly unanimous on this, yet the government refuses to act,” he said.
Education funding as a key to growth
Virta highlighted education, noting that the government has already cut nearly half a billion euros from it and continues to undermine future growth.
“What we truly need is to restore education funding to a sustainable level. The government is making a grave mistake by failing to invest in education, even though high-level expertise is the key to productivity and long-term growth,” Virta said.
She stressed that the issue is about political choices.
“The government could have chosen differently. The Greens have consistently called for investments in education from early childhood to universities and adult learning. Instead, this government has already cut nearly half a billion from education during its term,” Virta said.
