British election love, naked with NATO, hybrid war and Yle under fire

Hello Insiders!

Welcome to another week of the Finland Insider newsletter, which seems to come around faster every week, I swear.

Coming up today Prime Minister Orpo is quick to congratulate the new British Prime Minister Keir Starmer; accusations of too-tough policing at climate crisis protests. I’ll explain the new Defence Cooperation Act between Finland and the US, and of course I’m cheering for a Finnish tennis ace at Wimbledon (especially now that Sir Andy Murray has sadly retired from this year’s tournament).

All that is still to come, but first this:

Insider Originals

NATO. It might not be Top Gun, but Finnish military personnel taking part in the county’s first policing mission along with other NATO allies are not too far from an active war zone between Russia and Ukraine. I talked with the detachment commander about the tempo of operations; while a Master Sgt tells me about life after work for a jogging and cycling fanatic stuck in +37°C heat. Oh, and yes of course there’s a sauna - even if our American allies are embarrassed to get naked!

Racism. Finland’s Children’s Ombudsman tells me that there is a widespread problem with racism in the country, especially for kids with immigrant or minority backgrounds, and that the government can still move quickly to tackle the issue effectively instead of putting it on the back burner.

Inside the headlines

War. Kokoomus MP Pekka Toveri ruffled some feathers this week by saying that Finland is effectively already at war with Russia. The former general became a member of parliament last year, and has now won a seat at the European Parliament in Brussels.

"Russia plans, prepares and carries out sabotage all over Europe on a large scale. For example, weapons depots have been blown up, assassinations have been carried out, cables have been cut and there are constant information wars and cyber attacks. In addition, the West is threatened with nuclear weapons, refugees are used as weapons, GPS jamming is done and so on. And this is constantly accelerating," Toveri said, by way of explanation.

A couple of experts interviewed by Helsingin Sanomat said Toveri had gone too far with his language, while a Hesari editorial said Toveri’s statement was an embarrassment to the government. The Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee Kimmo Kiljunen (SDP) says Toveri’s comments are “exactly what Putin wants” to hear.

Hybrid. Meanwhile another Kokoomus MP Ville Kaunisto, the Chair of Finland’s OECD delegation, says the country is well prepared for any Russian disinformation operations.

Hybrid? Media outlets have been reporting many small, random acts of vandalism, some suspicious activities, and wrapping them up together. Yle reports about attempted break-ins at water and heating plants in Imatra close to the Russian border, and says a stranger speaking poor Finnish tried to get inside a building. There’s incidents reported too in Sipoo, Porvoo and Tampere, but while the implication is that there could be some foreign hybrid attack attempts going on here, it’s not yet clear if 2+2=4 in these cases.

Activism. Environmental activists Elokapina are accusing the police of being too heavy-handed while breaking up a recent protest which involved the Extinction Rebellion volunteers simply sitting in the road to block traffic, a common tactic for the group in Finland. MTV3 has some video of the event, from specific angles, so decide for yourself.

Yle. Public broadcaster Yle has come under fire this week from the right-wing. Columnist Sanna Ukkola wrote an opinion piece where she claimed Yle was sacrificing its professionalism by recruiting unqualified staff from minority groups to be journalists (all in the name of political correctness). Yle had to issue a lengthy rebuttal pointing out all the things Ukkola (who is married to the Finns Party’s chief of propaganda) got wrong - but too late, mission accomplished, the Finns Party is now demanding answers in parliament from Yle about funding for diversity training, and other issues raised in the opinion piece: even if those issues are ill-informed or completely wrong. This is a case of the tail wagging the dog if ever there was one!

Game, set, match. Finnish tennis ace Emil Ruusuvuori has made it into the third round at Wimbledon with an epic victory over 11th seed Stefanos Tsitsipas 7-6, 7-6, 3-6, 6-3.

Minorities. A well-known campaigner for Sámi rights has been hoisted by her own petard this week, after long-forgotten writings surfaced that showed her making some shocking racist comments about Roma people. Emmi Nuorgam is an online influencer and Yle columnist, but old blog posts from 2008 and 2009 when she was a member of Kookomus Youth group say some pretty nasty things about Finland’s Roma minority. She had some choice words to say about the LGBTQ community and Somali immigrants too. Nuorgam told Iltalehti she is “deeply ashamed of these writings and they have not represented my thinking for years.”

Guns. Police in Pirkanmaa say 34 guns were stolen from the Gun and Military Museum in Kuhmoinen on Tuesday night. All of the weapons are still operational. So that’s comforting…

Fire. An Ecuadorian navy ship caught fire in front of Helsinki’s Kauppatori on Thursday afternoon. The sailing ship is taking part in the Tall Ships Race which is visiting the Finnish capital this week. It is understood the fire began in the ship’s exhaust pipe and set some structures on fire on the quayside. However, the fire was already out by the time the fire engines arrived.

POV. That feeling when you’re cycling through the forest, minding your own business, when a deer comes out of nowhere and smashes right into you. I’ll be honest, I was thinking it might be a bear or a moose which would have been a much different outcome, so definitely happy it was only a small-ish deer!

Inside Politics

The end of this parliamentary term is in sight, but there’s no slacking off from political news!

Polls. Yle published a new survey of voting intentions this week which found Kokoomus the most popular party, leap-frogging the Social Democrats who slip to second place - although both parties saw a drop in their support. In third place, the Finns Party has clawed back a little support after several months of losses. The big winners in the new poll - echoing June’s European Parliament election results - were the Left Alliance which gained 2.1% support compared to the previous month’s polling.

Polls, again. Another poll this week looked at satisfaction with the new government. Almost half of people in a new HS survey were dissatisfied with the current four-party right-wing government, led by Prime Minister Petteri Orpo. That’s up 10 percentage points since the same survey was carried out six months ago. Dissatisfaction with Orpo personally is up slightly. The survey also measured the popularity of some government ministers and found more than half of Finns are dissatisfied with Finance Minister Riikka Purra (Finns); Minister of Economy Wille Rydman (Finns), and Minister of Social Affairs and Health Kaisa Juuso (Finns).

Brussels. MEP Henna Virkkunen (Kokoomus) has been formally nominated by the Finnish government as the country’s next EU Commissioner. She’s an experienced Brussels operator and well-regarded by other Finnish MEPs for her professionalism.

Yet. More. Racism. Interior Minister Mari Rantanen (Finns) is in hot water again about things she’s written or liked online. The far-right minister, who has previously spread the ‘great replacement theory’ about population change (the same theory that Finland’s intelligence service Supo warns has been used by the far-right to justify violence against minorities) just can’t seem to help herself. Now she’s been caught out on old social media posts clicking ‘like’ on a text that says migrants should drown. Rantanen is the government minister in charge of immigration policy, and says she might have clicked ‘like’ by accident. Oops! Minister Rantanen has recently started deleting a number of her old social media posts…

Finland International

Defence. Parliament approved the Finland-USA Defence Cooperation Agreement DCA this week. The agreement was already signed last year in Washington, but needed to be approved by Eduskunta before it can be formally adopted. So what does the DCA mean, big picture? It basically sets out all the ground rules for Finland’s interactions with the US military, including allowing US forces to operate at Finnish military bases; the logistics of shipping equipment and weapons into Finland; and legal jurisdiction in the event of a crime involving American military personnel (this has proved contentious in other countries: just ask Japan).

Congrats. Prime Minister Opro was quick out the blocks on Friday morning sending a message to the new incoming British Prime Minister. But “heartfelt congratulations”? Get a room you two!

Washington. All the big political players are heading to Washington for the upcoming NATO summit which starts next Tuesday. President Stubb will be leading the delegation, and Speaker of Parliament Jussi Halla-aho will also be attending the summit, to meet with his counterparts from other NATO countries.

And finally…

I really enjoy Jade Ventioniemi’s videos about her life in Finland. She’s an American content creator who lives in Lahti, and shares her thoughts about lots of different subjects including this video on how to cope with summer heat:

Kiitos, thank you, tack!

If you made it this far, all the way to the end of the newsletter, then I salute you for a strong effort!

Thanks for reading and supporting Finland Insider and if you have any story tips, or ideas of things you’d like me to cover, just send an email to [email protected] and I’ll take your suggestion on board.

Have a great weekend and catch you next Friday.

David