Paavo Lipponen

Paavo Lipponen       (politician, journalist)
Born	23 April 1941 Turtola, Finland
Nationality	Finnish
Alma mater	Dartmouth College, University of Helsinki
Spouse	Päivi Lipponen
Member of	Fulbright Program, US/Department/State/International Visitor Leadership Program
Party	Social Democratic Party of Finland
Prime Minister of Finland from 1995 to 2003, when he attended several Bilderberg meetings. Like almost all Bilderbergers, Lipponen pursued pro-integration and pro-expansion policies in the European Union, and promised to support the occupation after 2003 invasion of Iraq.  Finland/Speaker of Parliament In office 22 April 2003 - 20 March 2007  Prime Minister of Finland In office 13 April 1995 - 17 April 2003 Deputy Sauli Niinistö Preceded by Esko Aho  Finland/Speaker of Parliament In office March 1995 - April 1995  Social Democratic Party of Finland/Leader In office 1993 - 2005 Preceded by Ulf Sundqvist

Paavo Tapio Lipponen is a Finnish politician who was prime minister from 1995 to 2003,, when he attended several Bilderberg meetings. Like almost all Bilderbergers, Lipponen pursued pro-integration and pro-expansion policies in the European Union, and promised to support the occupation after 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Education

Receiving his diploma from the Lyceum of Kuopio in 1959, he then studied philosophy and literature at Dartmouth College for one year on a Fulbright scholarship.

Soon after returning to Finland he moved to Helsinki where he eventually attained a master's degree in international relations from the University of Helsinki in 1971.

Career

He was the editor of the student newspaper Ylioppilaslehti 1963–1965 and a freelance reporter for the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) 1965–1967.

He was part of the 1974 International Visitor Leadership Program of the US State Department.

Stasi

According to Alpo Rusi's book Vasemmalta ohi, Lipponen began cooperation with the East German secret police Stasi in 1969. The book suggests that Lipponen is the code name Mungo XV/326/71 in the Rosenholz files. In a 2008 interview Lipponen said that he had been a "target of East German manipulation". It is rumored that Lipponen is on the so-called Tiitinen list, a Finnish classified government document which was given by West German Intelligence Service to the Finnish Security Police (Supo) in 1990. Alpo Rusi has also suggested that Lipponen had an alias, code, and operation in the KGB.

In November 1982, a memo was prepared by the Central Intelligence Agency, the author assessed Paavo Lipponen's ties to the Soviet Embassy as close. At the time of writing the memorandum, Lipponen was the SDP's secretary for international affairs. The CIA memo was classified at the time of writing, but became public in 2007. Kimmo Rentola, emeritus professor of political history at the University of Helsinki, pointed out that "Lipponen had close relations with the Russians. But what surprised me was the assessment, because Lipponen was known for having a lot of Western connections as well."

Western connections

Contrary to later allegations of being an East German intelligence asset, his Fulbright education and later political choices, like siding with the United States in the 2003 invasion in Iraq, and Bilderberg attendance, rather points to a US connection. He received attention from the US embassy in 1974, when Lipponen requested itinerary changes to a visit to the US .

On 2 April, 1979, he was given considerable attention, when the US embassy sent a cable regarding changes to Lipponen's schedule during a Socialist International (SI) study group visit to the US. In a meeting with US diplomats, in a cable marked "confidential" on 20 April, Lipponen gave general information of the SI study group report, that it was "expected to consist of general policy suggestions to be used for public information campaigns by SI member parties, to be presented in 1980". The diplomtic cable said that regarding a Nordic Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone (NFWZ), " Lipponen mentioned in passing the Finnish proposal for a NFWZ in the Nordic area, but added that" "consultations with other Nordic states showed they think one already exists in practice and, therefore," "had shown little interest in a formal agreement."

John Ritch, the Director General of the World Nuclear Association, an international organization that promotes nuclear power, called Lipponen, a "personal friend". "When we were both much younger, Paavo Lipponen was a frequent visitor to Washington as part of an exchange programme for "young political leaders". I was then an adviser to the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, specializing in East-West relations, and always found myself on Paavo's itinerary" said Ritch.

Also of notice is that he came to party power when his predecessor Ulf Sundqvist fortuitously had to resign after being accused of fraud (charges he was later cleared from); or how when his secret pledge to George W. Bush was exposed, the whistleblowers were punished.

Prime Minister

He held various positions in the Social Democratic Party of Finland (SDP) from 1967 to 1979, but first came to the public's attention when he became secretary of the then Prime Minister Mauno Koivisto for four years in 1979. Lipponen was a member of the Finnish Parliament from 1983. In 1993, he was elected chairman of the SDP, after the fortuitous resignation of his predecessor Ulf Sundqvist.

Under Lipponen's leadership, the SDP won victory in the 1995 parliamentary elections, and he became Prime Minister. President Martti Ahtisaari gave the task of forming the government to Lipponen, who led the formation of a joint government of the Social Democratic Party, the National Coalition party, the Swedish People's Party, the Left Alliance and the Greens. Along with Lipponen, the key figure in the government was Finnish Minister of Finance Sauli Niinistö (NCP).

Lipponen played a key role in Finland's introduction to the euro currency at the turn of the millennium. He also pushed for increased EU integration during his term as prime minister, and to be a "core country".

He mooted the concept of a European constitution during a speech in Bruges in 2000. The European Alliance of EU-critical Movements described the push for a constitution as follows: "This new European Union would become our real legal sovereign and supreme ruler for the first time, instead of our own national State or country. We would no longer be just honorary or notional citizens of an EU that has no legal personality, which we are told we are at present; for one can only be a citizen of a State. We would instead become real citizens of a real EU State and would owe it and its institutions the first duty of citizenship, which is to obey one’s State’s laws.""

NATO

He has been a "longtime advocate" for NATO membership.

In a speech at the Atlantic Council of Finland on December 12, 2000, Lipponen supported Finnish participation in EU's security and defence policy, in step with NATO's corresponding operations.

In a US diplomatic cable from 2005 regarding a meeting with US House International Relations Committee members, his position was described as "On NATO, Lipponen and Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Jaakonsaari -- both of whom are widely believed by the Finnish public to be gently nudging the nation toward Alliance membership...were non-committal in replying about the value of Finnish non-alignment in the 21st Century".

Austria

In February 2000, the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), whose then chairman Jörg Haider had attracted attention with his anti-immigration statements, became a member of the new Austrian government. As a result, the member states of the European Union announced that they would cease bilateral contacts with Austria. For Finland, the decision to join the boycott was taken by Lipponen alone, without consulting other ministers, President Martti Ahtisaari or the Foreign Affairs Committee of the parliament. Lipponen's actions caused a domestic political stir, with questions being asked about the aim of isolating Austria, how long the boycott was to last and how it was to be ended. On 7 March, Lipponen made the prime minister's announcement to Parliament that he had held a telephone conversation with Portuguese prime minister Antonio Guterres prior to his decision.

Invasion of Iraq

In December 2002, Paavo Lipponen visited the U.S. capital, Washington. He held talks with U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney on December 9 and the following day with U.S. President George W. Bush. The discussions were reported to have concerned the situation in Iraq, the enlargement of NATO, the "war on terror", Russia's attitude towards NATO and Turkey's membership of the EU. Lipponen made a preliminary promise that Finland would participate in the reconstruction and "peacekeeping" work following the planned invasion of Iraq. Members of Parliament Jaakko Laakso Mikko Elo and Anni Sinnemäkiwere the first to be concerned about the contents of Lipponen's visit, and tabled a written question on the positions on Iraq on 19 December 2002. The MPs asked how the government was going to prevent Finland appearing to be giving the green light to planned military action by the US.

The same month, in December 2002 he and President Tarja Halonen together approved Finland's public commitment to aiding in post-conflict reconstruction in Iraq, "at a time when not that many nations had come forward with such a commitment."

Exposure and election loss

The scandal began in the campaign to the parliamentary election on 6 March 2003, when Jäätteenmäki accused Lipponen of including Finland in the coalition supporting the Iraq War during the visit to Washington. The 2003 parliamentary election was held on 16 March. The Centre Party became the largest party, and Jäätteenmäki was elected Speaker of the parliament. On 15 April 2003, President Tarja Halonen appointed Jäätteenmäki as the candidate for prime minister, and the parliament elected her as prime minister. The president appointed the Jäätteenmäki government on 17 April 2003.

However, the government's time in power was short-lived. In late spring, it began to be revealed that Jäätteenmäki had received her information from documents classified as secret by the ministry for foreign affairs, which she had received from the president's adviser at the time, Martti Manninen. Jäätteenmäki initially denied receiving any documents but "heard all sorts of things." Next, she said, she received a few faxes "unexpectedly and unsolicited." However, more than two thousand pages of documents had arrived. Manninen denied Jäätteenmäki's comments and said he sent them on request. When asked if he was lying, Jäätteenmäki replied with half-truths.

Jäätteenmäki had met Manninen on 28 January 2003 and, according to Manninen, repeatedly asked him to hand over the secret document or a summary of it. Manninen said he showed Jäätteenmäki the document already during the meeting and the next day faxed a compilation of it to Jäätteenmäki's home. Jäätteenmäki received information from Manninen on a total of 39 documents.

Jäätteenmäki submitted her resignation as prime minister to the president on 18 June 2003. Deputy Chairman of the Centre Party Matti Vanhanen, who served was Minister of Defense in the Jäätteenmäki government, was appointed as new Prime Minister. Martti Manninen was dismissed from his position as adviser to the president on 19 June 2003. On 19 December 2003, the prosecutor general decided to prosecute Martti Manninen for violation of official secrecy and Anneli Jäätteenmäki for incitement and aiding and abetting violation of official secrecy. On 19 March 2004, Jäätteenmäki was found not guilty. Manninen was sentenced to 80 day fines.

Speaker of Parliament

In 2005, he was replaced as party chairman by Eero Heinäluoma. Lipponen became speaker of the Parliament of Finland from 2003 to 2007

Nord Stream

In 2008, Lipponen was hired for a year as a consultant for the Russian-German gas pipeline company Nord Stream. hH said the role was one year long and he was receiving international consulting fees. After the consulting position became public, Lipponen gave up all his positions of trust, citing the media reaction as reason. The Finnish government gave Nord Stream permission for the Baltic gas pipeline in November 2009.

2012 Presidential election

He was his party's nominee in the 2012 Finnish presidential election but received only 6.7% of the votes, making it the biggest defeat the Social Democratic Party had ever received in Finnish presidential elections at the time, losing to Sauli Niinistö.

 

Events Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
Bilderberg/1998	14 May 1998	17 May 1998	Scotland Turnberry	The 46th Bilderberg meeting, held in Scotland, chaired by Peter Carrington
Bilderberg/2000	1 June 2000	4 June 2000	Belgium Brussels Genval	The 48th Bilderberg, 94 guests
Bilderberg/2001	24 May 2001	27 May 2001	Sweden Stenungsund	The 49th Bilderberg, in Sweden. Reported on the WWW.
Bilderberg/2003	15 May 2003	18 May 2003	France Versailles	The 51st Bilderberg, in Versailles, France
Bilderberg/2004	3 June 2004	6 June 2004	Italy Stresa	The 52nd such meeting. 126 recorded guests

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