Dog days of summer, mink lobbying and Top Gun landings

Week 36

Author

David Mac Dougall
September 06, 2024

Hello Insiders!

Are these the dog days of summer? It could be! Finland has just passed a record-breaking 66th day this year where the temperature topped +25°C. The previous record was set back in 2002 according to the Finnish Meteorological Institute FMI.

Enjoy the mini-heatwave while it lasts over the next few days because as we all know, inevitably, winter is just around the corner!

Coming up in this week’s Finland Insider I’ll take you back to the Paralympics in Paris; have a look at foreign relations as the red carpet’s rolled out for a Middle Eastern regime; ask why Finland is still supporting the cruel practice of fur farming - and catch up on the latest in politics as the government presents its budget.

All that still to come, but first this:

Inside the headlines

Radiation. The operators of Olkiluoto 3 nuclear power station admitted this week that four workers were exposed to “high radiation dose rates” during maintenance work carried out in June.

Sick. About 1000 military personnel in the Kainuu Brigade have fallen ill with suspected Adenovirus this week, the military says. Many of those infected also tested positive for COVID and for mycoplasma, a bacterial infection that targets the respiratory tract. At least 10 conscripts were hospitalised, and two ended up in intensive care.

Paralympics. Finnish athletes have so far scooped three medals at the Paralympics in Paris. First, Toni Piispanen won silver in the 200-metre T51 final. This category includes people with a number of different types of disabilities including spinal cord injuries and cerebral palsy. And then both Leo-Pekka Tähti and Amanda Kotaja won bronze medals in the 100-metre in the T54 final. This category includes athletes with spinal cord injuries who compete using a wheelchair in track events.

Searches. According to Google Trends, Finns have been really interested in Paralympic sports over the past week. Among the top 5 most popular searches were wheelchair tennis, and Paralympic archery, powerlifting, and athletics.

Inside Politics

Eye. Former presidential candidate, now a Kokoomus MEP, Mika Aaltola spent Monday in hospital having surgery for a detached retina, which can apparently just happen spontaneously, and yes it’s as gross as it sounds! Get well soon Mika!

SDP. The Finnish Social Democrats celebrated their 125th birthday this week, and party leader Antti Lindtman used the occasion to say that the Finns Party had “pulled the rug” from underneath PM Petteri Orpo over the government’s anti-racism campaign.

Birth. President Stubb used a radio interview with public broadcaster Yle this week to say that in future he thought the president would not necessarily need to be a native-born Finn - it could be someone with a migrant background, for example. The constitution currently limits candidates for presidency to people born in Finland.

Critters. The EU plans to designate mink as an invasive species which should not be used for breeding - but the Finnish government reportedly wants to ask for an exemption so that mink farmers can continue breeding the animals for fur. Atte Harjanne from the Greens calls this a “stupid and unethical” use of EU lobbying resources.

Finland Insider’s take. That the practice of breeding mink or raccoon dogs for fur in Finland is cruel and unusual (with animals often kept in cramped conditions, caged, injured or diseased, fattened up for slaughter), is not open to discussion. It’s something I’ve written about before (beware graphic images). Other EU countries have banned fur farming, overseen a managed decline of the industry, or imposed regulations so tough that it’s not worth the time or expense of the farmers to try and meet them. So why does Finland linger on, supporting this industry? There’s only an estimated 2,000 people involved in fur farming in the whole country, and even then, most are not 100% reliant on it for their incomes. An industry-wide managed decline, with government help available for farmers to find other income streams, would be easy to roll out. Except it’s a political hot potato for the Swedish People’s Party and the Centre Party because of their traditional links to rural parts of the country and in SFP’s case many owners of fur farms are Swedish-speakers. And so in this government, the SFP continues to be held hostage by a few rich fur farmers, who propagate this cruel industry. And until both SFP and Keskusta can shake free of the fur farm grip, nothing will change.

Budget. A rare thing happened in politics this week: agreement. The four parties which make up the right-wing coalition government have all agreed on the 2025 state budget plan. Members of Parliament will get to debate the plan during the autumn, and vote on it finally before Christmas. The opposition parties have strongly criticised the draft budget already.

Hiring. Two Finns Party MPs have come in for scrutiny this week after it was revealed they hired relatives or close friends as their assistants. Veijo Niemi hired his son Kalle last autumn, it has been revealed. Meanwhile Mikko Polvinen hired a close female friend as his assistant. It’s not forbidden to hire close family members or friends as staff - their salaries are paid by parliament - but usually someone with experience of the role would be expected to get it via open competition. Before going to work in parliament, Kalle Niemi was a musical theatre performer.

Polls. The latest political polling at Yle showed the Social Democrats pulling slightly ahead of the National Coalition Party as the most popular party in Finland. It’s an increase of 1.9 percentage points for Demarit, while NCP is also up 0.3 percentage points, and the Finns Party in third place is up 0.8 percentage points since the previous survey in August. The Centre Party, Greens, and Left Alliance all lost support, according to the latest figures.

Finland International

Neighbours. Estonia’s foreign minister Margus Tsahkna is in Helsinki on Friday for meetings with PM Petteri Orpo, Speaker of Parliament Jussi Halla-aho, and foreign minister Elina Valtonen.

Balkans. Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen (NCP) has been visiting Albania, Serbia and Kosovo this week. On the agenda was EU enlargement, OECD issues (Finland takes over the rotating presidency of the organisation soon) and Ukraine.

“The security and stability of the Western Balkan region affects the whole of Europe, including Finland. Finland supports the countries’ EU path,” Valtonen wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

President Stubb meets Amir of Qatar in Helsinki, September 2024 / Credit:

Qatar. President Stubb hosted the Amir of Qatar this week, ostensibly to celebrate 50 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Finnish flags were flying all across the capital to welcome the unelected Amir, an autocrat who presides over an oil-rich country where political parties are banned.

In a radio interview before the visit began, Stubb said that problems couldn’t be solved by working only with like-minded countries, and insisted that human rights were going to be raised during the Amir’s visit. However in the official press release from the President’s office after the talks concluded, there was no mention at all that Finland had raised the issues of human rights abuses directly with the Qatari leader. There was also no mention in a handout from the PM’s office which said the pair discussed “investment, energy and education.”

President Stubb is said to be following a foreign policy of “values-based realism” the meaning of which has been discussed this week by members of the Foreign Affairs Committee in Parliament.

Reminder. If you were scratching your heads wondering why Qatar is so problematic, because your last memory is the football World Cup which went off fairly successfully at the end of 2022, here’s a reminder:

“The authorities continued to curtail the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, including by arbitrarily detaining individuals for exercising their human rights” - Amnesty International

“Qatari laws continue to discriminate against women and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals” - Human Rights Watch

“While family law provides that the husband should “refrain from hurting [his wife] physically or morally”, women remained inadequately protected in law against domestic violence” - Amnesty International

“Women in Qatar must obtain permission from their male guardians to marry, pursue higher education on government scholarships, work in many government jobs, travel abroad until certain ages, and receive some forms of reproductive health care” - Human Rights Watch

And when it comes to the environment: “Qatar continued to be one of the world’s top five CO2 emitters per capita. It also expanded its production of liquefied natural gas, and in June [2023], signed a 27-year supply agreement with China and European oil companies.”

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Finland Insider’s take. It would be really nice to have the luxury of running an ethical foreign policy: Where you didn’t sell weapons to despots in conflict zones, or you pulled no punches when it comes to calling out abuses of human rights. But the world we live in means this is not always possible: just ask Sweden! The previous foreign minister tried and failed to run an ethical foreign policy programme - when the need to make a point about the human rights record of a particular country, like Saudi Arabia, is dwarfed by the economic realities of needing some lucrative contracts. However, if you are in a position of power, like President Stubb, and you do invite the Amir of Qatar for a visit and dinner (a questionable decision in the first place), then the least you can do is communicate in your public messaging that you were tough on issues like children’s rights, or women’s rights, or political rights, or LGBTQ rights, or migrant rights. Instead, when countries like Finland say nothing, the rest of the world will see how Qatar is normalised, and go along without looking too hard at the facts, as the Middle Eastern nation lobbies for votes to host a future Olympic Games…

EU. The issue of which national politicians will get which portfolios in the new Commission is gripping folks inside the Brussels bubble at the moment. Finland’s candidate is Henna Virkkunen an MEP from the National Coalition Party, who was nominated back in July.

Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had asked each country to nominate one man and one woman as potential candidates, so she could match the best portfolios with the right gender and political balance but a government spokesperson confirmed to Finland Insider that Virkkunen was the only name being put forward.

Now, Euronews reports that a draft list of Commissioner roles has been leaked in Brussels, and Finland could be set to get the transport, Green Deal or competitiveness portfolios.

And finally…

It’s like watching Top Gun: Some amazing flying on display this week as the Finnish Air Force conducted its annual exercise to practice landing on highways, instead of at airport runways. And for the first time ever, US F-35A Lightning jets took part. Here’s the video:

Thank you, kiitos, tack!

If you made it to the end, thanks for reading so far! Remember, if you have a story idea, a scoop, or some topic you’d like me to take a closer look at then feel free to send an email to [email protected] and I’ll see what I can do.

In the meantime have a great week, and catch you next Friday.

David