Finnish Communists Oust ‘Capitalist’ Party Leadership
The Finnish Communist Party elected an almost all-new Politburo on Sunday after the old leaders gambled away at least $4.7 million, trying their hand at capitalistic speculations last year.
The party’s Central Committee, meeting in Tampere, 125 miles north of Helsinki, replaced three of four Politburo members after last year’s failed attempt to save the party’s economy by investing in a fashion store and a string of harness racers.
Only former Deputy Chairman Helja Tammisola stayed in the Politburo, now as secretary general, because she escaped blame for the investments that went sour.
“Economically, I think we’ll be able to handle it, but the political damage is much greater,” said Jarmo Wahlstrom, newly elected chairman of the Eurocommunist Party, which has 16 seats in the 200-seat Parliament.
Finland’s biggest political scandal of this decade crushed the credibility of the Communist Party, which had severely criticized the country’s “casino economy” of capitalistic speculations.
The party stretched its resources in the March, 1987, election and later took loans to gamble on stocks and horses, but the October stock market crash increased the debts.
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