Finland's Prime Minister Juha Sipila threatened on Thursday night to resign over to a disagreement with his coalition partners on the Nordic country's long-planned healthcare reform.
"It is very probable that I will walk to the (office of the) president tomorrow (Friday) morning," Sipila said at a late-night press conference in Helsinki, suggesting he would tender his resignation.
The threat came after the 54-year-old leader of the Centre Party failed to win over his coalition partners to his proposed reform of Finland's healthcare system.
Sipila, a 54-year-old businessman with relatively little political experience, won April elections by promising to carry out drastic reforms and jumpstart a slumping economy.
While his supporters have lauded his fresh leadership approach, he has had difficulties implementing his programme.
His ambitious plans to cut the cost of labour in Finland foundered in the summer, after falling foul of trade unions.
The negotiations resulted in a day of unusually widespread protests and strikes on September 18.
Finland has been in recession since 2012, a situation blamed on its falling competitiveness, ageing population and economic woes of its major trading partners, Russia and the European Union.
The healthcare reform, which has been in the pipeline for nearly ten years, has become bogged down in disagreements between the Centre Party and one of its two coalition partners, the conservative National Coalition, Finland's third-largest party.
The split is about the level of centralisation to be adopted for the healthcare system.
The negotiations were to continue overnight.
Finland’s Prime Minister Juha Sipila threatened on Thursday night to resign over to a disagreement with his coalition partners on the Nordic country’s long-planned healthcare reform.
“It is very probable that I will walk to the (office of the) president tomorrow (Friday) morning,” Sipila said at a late-night press conference in Helsinki, suggesting he would tender his resignation.
The threat came after the 54-year-old leader of the Centre Party failed to win over his coalition partners to his proposed reform of Finland’s healthcare system.
Sipila, a 54-year-old businessman with relatively little political experience, won April elections by promising to carry out drastic reforms and jumpstart a slumping economy.
While his supporters have lauded his fresh leadership approach, he has had difficulties implementing his programme.
His ambitious plans to cut the cost of labour in Finland foundered in the summer, after falling foul of trade unions.
The negotiations resulted in a day of unusually widespread protests and strikes on September 18.
Finland has been in recession since 2012, a situation blamed on its falling competitiveness, ageing population and economic woes of its major trading partners, Russia and the European Union.
The healthcare reform, which has been in the pipeline for nearly ten years, has become bogged down in disagreements between the Centre Party and one of its two coalition partners, the conservative National Coalition, Finland’s third-largest party.
The split is about the level of centralisation to be adopted for the healthcare system.
The negotiations were to continue overnight.
