HELSINKI, 19 June 2003 — Finland’s Prime Minister Anneli Jaeaetteenmaeki yesterday submitted her resignation following revelations over her use of leaked secret documents in the March election, government officials told AFP. Finnish President Tarja Halonen may ask Jaeaetteenmaeki and her ministers, all of whom have offered to step down, to stay on as an interim administration until a new government can be formed, they said.
“She has tendered her resignation and has already been in contact with the president about it,” a government official told AFP. Jaeaetteenmaeki will not attend this weekend’s EU summit in Salonika, Greece, and will be represented by Finance Minister Antti Kalliomaeki, the prime minister’s office said.
Officials said Jaeaetteenmaeki changed her mind several times over whether to attend the summit. Mikko Norros, a spokesman for the prime minister, told AFP Jaeaetteenmaeki would travel to Halonen’s summer residence in the southern city of Turku for talks with the president. “Most likely the president will ask the government to continue as an interim government, until a new prime minister can be installed,” said another government official, who asked to remain anonymous.
Jaeaetteenmaeki’s move came after a presidential aide, Martti Manninen, said the prime minister had lied to Parliament earlier yesterday when she claimed she had not solicited the summaries of classified documents he sent her ahead of the March general elections. Just days before the election, Jaeaetteenmaeki cited confidential Foreign Ministry documents to support her claim that then-Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen was supporting the United States over Iraq, in clear defiance of Finland’s official stand of neutrality. Jaeaetteenmaeki went on to win the elections ousting her rival, but was subsequently accused of lying about how she got the papers, to which as head of the then-opposition Center Party she was not supposed to have access.
