On November 6, 2023, Helsinki Administrative Court has rejected the appeal of the Friends of Malmi Airport (FoMA) concerning Helsinki City Council’s decision to reject the municipal initiative about a municipal referendum on the future of Malmi Airport.
Finland’s largest municipal initiative of all time was handed over to the council on August 2, 2021, and the council rejected it in December 2021. However, the strong opinion of the significant majority of Helsinkians in favor of preserving Malmi Airport, ascertained several times in the long term, is well known.
“Ignoring the will of the citizens by appealing to representative democracy is ridiculous, when the political programs and speeches of the council parties at the same time emphasize the participation of the citizens and neighborhood democracy,” says FoMA’s chairman, Mr. Håkan Lövdahl.
“The Administrative Court has now considered that the letter of the law is not an obstacle to overriding the clearly expressed will of the townspeople. One has to wonder, though, why there are such initiative mechanisms in Finland at all.”
The administrative court’s decision will be appealed to the Supreme Administrative Court. The work to save Malmi Airport continues.
Links
Finland’s largest municipal initiative: https://www.malmiairport.fi/en/finlands-largest-ever-municipal-initiative-handed-over-to-the-city-of-helsinki/
Rejection of the municipal initiative: https://www.malmiairport.fi/en/helsinki-city-council-rejects-democracy-in-the-individual-case-of-malmi-airport-and-tramples-on-the-referendum-initiative/
Complaint to the Administrative Court: https://www.malmiairport.fi/en/city-councils-rejection-of-malmi-referendum-initiative-appealed-to-administrative-court/
Public opinion: https://malmiairport.fi/en/public-opinion/