The land of the Nokia mobile phone
elected its first woman prime minister three months ago, but Anneli
Jaatteenmaki's tenure as head of government ended up being the shortest in
Finland for nearly 60 years.
She resigned
on Wednesday but still protested her innocence, denying she had asked a
presidential aide to leak information about then-prime minister Paavo
Lipponen's conversations on Iraq with U.S. President George W. Bush.
''This is completely exceptional. We have
never seen a government resigning this quickly and for this kind of
reason,'' said Risto Uimonen, editor-in-chief at the regional daily
Kaleva.
Finns, who pride themselves on
having stable, smooth governments, were stunned over Jaatteenmaki's
actions, though many voters in other parts of Europe may be puzzled that a
leader should quit when allegations remained unproven.
Jaatteenmaki resigned on a day Bush defended British Prime
Minister Tony Blair against allegations that he had exaggerated evidence
of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.
She
also left office on a day the Italian parliament granted legal immunity to
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi as he faced trial on corruption charges.
''We are very strict concerning discipline
and honest behaviour in Finland. Perhaps it would not have been the same
in other countries, but for us it was very serious,'' Finnish President
Tarja Halonen told Reuters as she arrived in Greece for a summit of
European leaders.
''It is good that people
have taken responsibility,'' said Halonen, who as president is head of
state and in charge of foreign policy in tandem with the government.
HER WORD AGAINST HIS
''Anneli
Jaatteenmaki's short prime ministerial career has come to an embarrassing
and, looking at it humanely, tragic end. For a truly artless handling of
the Iraq controversy she paid a high price,'' the regional daily Aamulehti
wrote.
The chain of events was triggered by
the presidential aide's admission that he had leaked secret information on
Finnish-U.S. discussions on Iraq to Jaatteenmaki ahead of a parliamentary
election in March, which her Centre Party went on to win.
The information came from a Foreign Ministry memo on
the talks in which Bush reportedly praised Lipponen as a good partner and
thanked Finland for its stand on Iraq.
Jaatteenmaki used the information to attack Lipponen in the election
campaign, saying that Finland, which has tried to steer a neutral course
since 1945, was too close to Washington and had failed to do enough to
promote peace.
Jaatteenmaki denied to
parliament that she had solicited the secret information, but hours later
the aide said she had given him a secret fax number to use. She again said
she had never asked for the documents.
The
ruling coalition of the Centre Party, Social Democrats and Swedish
People's Party, which represents Finland's Swedish minority, is expected
to remain in power, with Defence Minister Matti Vanhanen tipped to replace
Jaatteenmaki.
Halonen said that parliament
and the political groups were preparing for the next steps in forming a
new government.
''I am optimistic that we
will get an almost similar government next week,'' she said.
(Additional reporting by Marie-Louise Moller in Porto
Carras and Pekka Lahteenmaki in Helsinki)
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