A big fat week in review: Political knife-edge, NATO summit and Trump shooting reaction

Hello Insiders!

I had planned a weekend edition of the newsletter just to give a full accounting of a huge last week in parliament before the summer recess (which saw politicians tackling one of the biggest and most controversial pieces of legislation this parliament has seen so far) and also to break down all the important takeaways from the NATO summit in Washington DC where there was a very high level and visible Finnish delegation taking centre stage.

But then someone shot at Donald Trump, and I thought okay let’s wrap up some of the reaction from Finland. As you might expect, the reaction has been to uniformly condemn political violence, but some Finnish political leaders have also highlighted the deep divisions which exist in American society and in American politics as being part of the problem.

Plus: An historic win at Wimbledon for a Finnish tennis player; what Finns think about the government; ‘unfair’ healthcare cuts; “no more excuses” for approving new Sámi human rights legislation; and the row rumbling on over funding for Yle.

All that still to come, but first this:

Reaction to Donald Trump’s shooting

President Stubb. “Appalled and shocked by the attack on former President Donald Trump.”

PM Petteri Orpo. (Kok) “Political violence is never acceptable in democratic societies.”

Former Finnish presidential candidate Pekka Haavisto (Green) “Democracy can only function if candidates can campaign safely.”

Keskusta leader Antti Kaikkonen. “The country's strongly divided social atmosphere has been a concern for a long time.”

Minister of Defence Antti Häkkänen (Kok). “Shocking news from former President Trump's campaign event. Political violence is an attack on democracy and is totally condemned.”

Left Alliance leader Li Andersson. “Political violence is completely reprehensible. No matter how deeply one disagrees with politics, the right to peacefully and safely participate in policy-making and public debate is everyone's interest and a condition of democracy.”

Green parliamentary group leader Atte Harjanne. “One would hope that this would be a wake-up call to break the darkening cycle of political division and violence in the United States, but I fear it will not.”

Insider Original

Summer of scams. If you’re spending part of your summer at the cottage, and part of the summer at home then you might be just the sort of ideal target that scammers are looking for. After a Finland Insider subscriber raised the issue, I take a look at how mökki life could make us more susceptible to fraudsters’ tricks.

Inside the headlines

Drugs. Finnish Customs agents seized 15kg of cocaine this week at Naantali port, with an estimated value more than €2 million. Authorities found the drugs in hidden compartments of a vehicle which was driven by a Danish national, on a boat arriving from Sweden.

Flights. Flight operations at Helsinki Airport were rerouted for a while on Wednesday, after two Russian Mig-29s were spotted operating in the Baltic Sea area. The German Air Force reported that the Russian planes had not filed flight paths or been in touch with regional air traffic control.

Business. American multinational corporation AMD is buying Finnish start-up Silo AI for $665 million (€609 million).

Vaccines. The Ministry of Health is moving to ensure COVID vaccines will be available in pharmacies during the autumn round of vaccinations and boosters.

Football. The main spectator stand of top-flight men’s football team IF Gnistan burned down this week. There were no injuries, and no other buildings caught fire at the Oulunkylä stadium blaze. Supporters and other Finnish clubs have been rallying around to offer their support.

Bruce. The Boss, Bruce Springsteen, played the Helsinki Olympic Stadium this week, his first performance in the Finnish capital since 2012 when he played the longest-ever Springsteen gig clocking in at more than 4 hours.

Tennis. Finland has its first-ever Wimbledon champion in the form of Harri Heliövaara who won the men’s doubles title with his British partner Henry Patten on Saturday in England. Watch their amazing celebrations below. Torille?

Border law legislation

The big political battle this week has been focused on the Eastern border and has caused some huge ructions.

This report from the Associated Press gives you the big picture:

“Finnish lawmakers on Friday narrowly approved a controversial bill that will allow border guards to turn away third-country migrants attempting to enter from neighbouring Russia and reject their asylum applications because Helsinki says Moscow is orchestrating an influx of migrants to the border.

The government’s bill, meant to introduce temporary measures to curb migrants from entering the Nordic nation, is a response to what Finland sees as “hybrid warfare” by Russia. It believes Moscow is funnelling undocumented migrants to the two countries’ border.

The temporary law, valid for one year, was approved by 167 lawmakers - the minimum needed for it to pass in the 200-seat Eduskunta, or Parliament. Lawmakers of the Left Alliance and the Green League were among the 31 who voted against the bill.”

The legislation needed a two-thirds majority in parliament to pass and scraped by with the minimum number of supporting MPs. Ahead of the vote one Finns Party politician said any Members of Parliament who voted against the bill should be stripped of their military rank. The Social Democrats whipped most of their MPs into voting for the measure, and denied a free vote of Demarit politicians which would have resulted in a very different outcome. And Amnesty International said “the emergency law will limit access to asylum to specific parts of the border, granting border guards powers to prevent entry, including by force. A "green light for violence & pushback."

Politicians were divided about the need to guarantee national security, and the need to live up to international treaty obligations to accept asylum seekers. Many politicians (plus experts, academics, lawyers and journalists) noted the new law violates Finland’s own constitution, EU laws, and other international treaties which the Finns have signed up to. However, the response to this was usually for government supporters to point out those treaties or the constitution were drafted a long time ago, when such a ‘hybrid’ threat from Russia had not even been imagined.

NATO Summit wrap

The 75th NATO anniversary summit took place in Washington DC this week, with a high-level and high-profile Finnish delegation of politicians, military types and think tank wonks heading west on Finnair flights (or on a Swedish government flight in the case of President Stubb who shared a jet with Swedish PM Ulf Kristersson).

The 3 key takeaways for Finland:

• NATO / US troops are going to be stationed on Finnish soil.

• Finland, Canada and the US are forging a so-called Ice Pact to build new ice-breaking ships as a counterbalance to the Russians and especially the Chinese.

• The Finns were able to hammer home their message that Finland is a net security provider: a giver, not a taker as far as NATO is concerned.

Television. Both President Stubb and Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen gave strong interviews on TV while attending the summit. Take a look:

Inside Politics

Yle. Members of Parliament have put off a final decision on the scope of likely funding cuts for public service broadcaster Yle until the next session of parliament. In short: the government (in particular the Finns Party) wants to see some major cuts to Yle’s funding. In the last week this has been whipped up into a frenzy by a column from former Yle employee Sanna Ukkola who claims the broadcaster is indoctrinating journalists into being ‘woke’ by forcing them to take diversity training which somehow impacts its journalists’ professionalism (Ukkola once wore a Native American headdress on television to make a point, which nobody thought was super professional…) Yle has repeatedly debunked Ukkola’s claims.

The arguments Ukkola whipped up inevitably prompted some Finns Party and Kokoomus politicians to call for defunding of Yle, and one even said that such ‘woke’ training for public service employees damages the safety and security of the nation (although NATO staff go through similar cultural diversity training so that argument doesn’t really hold water).

Anyway: At the heart of it all are people working at Yle who know that cuts are coming but now have a summer of uncertainty. Yle’s CEO Merja Ylä-Antillä wrote this week about her frustration that no decision has yet been made on future funding. “From the point of view of Yle's staff, this is very sad and heavy” that decisions are being dragged out, she said.

Right? Right. Something international media has been making clear for many years (but which Finnish media doesn’t always play with a straight bat) has now been confirmed by the respected Faktabaari service in Finland: The Finns Party is a far-right political movement, despite their own MPs and MEPs saying otherwise. Read more here.

Human rights. The President of the Sámi Parliament is demanding “no more excuses” from the government in Helsinki about implementing the new Sámi Parliament Act. Speaking at a United Nations forum in Geneva, Pirita Näkkäläjärvi told international delegates that delays in getting the new Act through parliament “are violations of Indigenous self-determination, and not a credit to Finland.”

A forced re-run of the Sámi Parliament election still ended with a majority of delegates in Inari who support the new Sámi Parliament Act as drafted. Read more about the current issues facing Finland’s Indigenous population in my interview with President Näkkäläjärvi here:

Brussels appointment 1: Incoming MEP Li Andersson (Left) has secured a plum new job in Brussels as head of the European Parliament’s Employment and Social Affairs Committee.

Brussels appointment 2: Green MEP Ville Niinistö has been appointed the head of the European Parliament’s delegation to Russia. Niinistö says he plans to raise “Russia's miserable rule of law and human rights situation” and will criticise Putin’s policy of war in Ukraine.

Cronyism? There’s new accusations of cronyism being levelled at the government after a senior advisor to embattled minister of economic affairs Wille Rydman (Finns) was handed a role as head of the Business Finland quango. Another senior Finns Party figure was recently made head of the Finnish intelligence service Supo.

Survey. New polling from the Foundation for Municipal Development finds most Finns think that the government has unfairly treated students (60%), children and young people (53%) and the unemployed (53%) in its decisions to cut budgets and state-funding for various organisations and programmes. The same polling finds that almost one in two also estimates that pensioners and the elderly (49%) and wage earners (45%) have been treated unfairly.

More polling. Another new survey this week carried out for Keskisuomalainen newspaper found that more than half of Finns think the right-wing government of Petteri Orpo has performed poorly during its first year in office.

New arrival. Former Centre Party leader Annika Saariko has given birth to her third child. She stepped down as the chair of Keskusta earlier this spring and was replaced by Antti Kaikkonen. In case you missed my interview with Antti after he was elected, here’s the story link:

Out of office. And if you needed any more proof that parliamentarians are out of office for the summer, here’s a video of Keskusta MP Antti Kurvinen swimming in a lake!

Thank you, kiitos, tack!

It was an absolute WHALE of a newsletter this week but so much happened that it took an extra effort to jot it all down for you.

Finland Insider is back next week with a look at Elokapina’s summer campaign of disruption to highlight the lack of progress to tackle climate change and asking how effective has it been - plus with the Olympics just around the corner I’ve got a look at the rigorous education and testing process that athletes go through en route to Paris.

Bye for now,

David