In early January 2020, the municipality of Jyväskylä, located in the Central Finland Region,
announced its intention to part-privatise between 30 and 40 per cent of its
multi-utility company Alva, including water, energy and heating. Bringing in
expertise from the private sector would better equip the company to tackle current
market challenges, the municipality stated. Moreover, mirroring water
privatisation arguments elsewhere, privatisation was said to promise increased
efficiency and lower consumer prices. However, the announcement led to an
immediate public outcry. Several critical opinion pieces appeared in various
Finnish daily newspapers, and activists from the Left Alliance party launched a
public petition to push the Finnish parliament into action. On 10 February, Jyväskylä
announced that it had withdrawn its proposal. In this post, Dominika Baczynska Kimberley and Andreas Bieler
trace the dynamics underlying this quick turnaround.
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