Vihreät no longer "dogmatic" about nuclear power

Once holding a negative stand towards the use of nuclear energy, Vihreä Liitö (Green League) seems to have adopted a more practical attitude.

Touko Aalto, chairman of the Green League said on Sunday the party "is no longer dogmatic about nuclear power." He told the media after the party's convention in Vantaa, near Helsinki, that "the party takes a stand when the matter comes up".

Aalto told a Finnish language newspaper Helsingin Sanomat that nuclear power "used to be opposed on ideological grounds ... but today it is actually endorsed on ideological grounds."

The party's program accepted in the convention noted that the Green Party has an "open attitude towards all research and development of all low-emissions and environmental friendly technology."

In a vote at the convention, only a small minority was categorically against nuclear power, Helsingin Sanomat reported.

The Green League's nuclear power policy has been a fact that had to be taken into account in the composition of governments during recent decades in Finland.

In 2014, the Green League walked out of the then coalition government following the government's acceptance of an amendment to the authorization for a nuclear power plant in northwestern Finland.

In 2002, the Greens ended their participation in a government coalition as a protest against the government's acceptance of another nuclear power plant project.

The Green League currently enjoys 13-14 percent backing in Finland. It is a drop from the height last year, but is still higher than the party's long time average.

Local observers have noted the next government, to be appointed after May 2019 parliamentary election, may have to take a stand on further nuclear construction such as additional output in Loviisa, on the south coast.