Donald and Alex play golf, sky high unemployment, and a shopping mall record

Hello Insiders! 

I know that I sound like a broken record when I say it’s been yet another busy week in news but it’s true! From domestic politics to international intrigue we’ve got something for everything in this week’s newsletter.

So if you want to spend 15 minutes a Sunday evening kicking back, catching up on all the stories big and small from Finland, I’ve got you covered.

In this week’s newsletter: Rising unemployment, pedophile election candidates, a musical clothing collaboration and striking bakers.

All that and more is still to come. But first, this.

Inside track: Ukraine, Russia and Donald Trump

🏌️‍♂️ Finnish President Alexander Stubb spent Saturday in Florida visiting US President Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort. The pair had talks, lunch, and played a round of golf. But the picture which emerged of their meeting was a little confusing to say the least.

🇺🇸 According to Trump: “President Stubb told me in the strongest possible terms that the United States is strong and has made a comeback. I agree!" which veers way off into sycophantic territory. Everyone knows The Donald likes to have his ego stroked, and Stubb praised him by later saying he was “positively surprised” by Trump's golf skills. So did Alex Stubb fly all the way to Florida just to fluff the president?

Well maybe not.

A more nuanced picture is emerging of Stubb’s shuttle diplomacy this week to London and Paris, and a meeting with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and then his flight to Florida to apparently deliver a message from Europe on Ukraine.

🎙️ On Sunday, Stubb gave a press conference in London where he said that patience with Russia in the White House was running out, especially when they say they want a ceasefire then continually set new conditions. Stubb said he stressed to Trump that Russian President Vladimir Putin cannot be trusted.

🛳️ The two presidents briefly discussed ice-breakers: America wants some, Finland wants to sell them some (but Trump has been rabidly against paying other countries for goods and services he thinks should be made in America instead - so let’s not count our chickens before the eggs are hatched…)

⚡ To say there has been a mixed reaction to Stubb’s golf diplomacy is an understatement! Here’s a flavour of what’s being said (my own Bluesky timeline lit up with reactions - mostly negative I have to say, about how chummy the picture of Stubb and Trump is at a time when the US is threatening to invade a Nordic neighbour and increasingly siding with Russia against the interests of Europe and Ukraine).

🥳 Helsingin Sanomat is positively cock-a-hoop with delight over Stubb’s visit to Mar-a-Lago, and manages to gloss over any uncomfortable questions:

The HS editorial calls Stubb’s meeting with Trump: “An exceptional diplomatic assault, with which the Finnish president strengthened his position as one of the key operators in world politics in these turbulent times.”

🔗 The United States “may see Finland as a weak link in Europe”. That’s a headline in Ilta- Sanomat on Sunday with analysis from Teivo Teivainen, Professor of World Politics at the University of Helsinki. He says that Stubb is doing himself and Finland a disservice by flattering Trump, and that the White House might have specifically sought out the Finns as some sort of ‘easy touch’ among European allies:

“It is possible that someone in the US foreign policy leadership thinks that Finland is a weak link in the European Union. Finland has a strong tradition of security policy survival, where things are more flexible than in Sweden or Norway,” says Teivainen.

🌐 Chatham House expert Minna Ålander writes: “I hope that Stubb does not now imagine that he could become a Trump whisperer, as Niinistö imagined himself to be a Putin whisperer,” and adds that now would be a good time for Finland to again stress strong support for Denmark over Greenland. “Finland should understand its own interest in prioritising those Nordic partners closest to it.”

🏛️ Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee was given an outline of the visit in advance, and will meet with Stubb on Wednesday for a debrief. “I hope Stubb was able to convey to Trump how important it is to comply with international law and a rules-based system," says the Left Alliance’s Veronica Honkasalo.

🇫🇷 A few days before, Stubb was in Paris and gave an interview to France24 television in which he talked about the need for an EU negotiating team to match the American and Russian sides; and also for an EU Special Envoy for Ukraine.

“We (Europeans) need two things," Stubb states. "One is a negotiating team, just like the Americans, the Ukrainians and the Russians have. And they had that in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. And then probably eventually we need a special envoy who would be kind of in charge and coordinating everything, because right now, although we have really good leadership coming from France and the UK, there is still that question, 'OK, who is the European envoy? Who should I call'?"

Watch Stubb’s full interview with France24 here:

Insider Originals

🗳️ Elections. The municipal elections will soon be upon us, with voting day on Sunday 13 April. Ahead of that date I’ll be interviewing the main candidates to be the Mayor of Helsinki, arguably the single most important race to watch on election night given the importance of the capital city to the country’s economy. I’m also working on a primer with everything you need to know about the municipal elections and the regional social and healthcare board elections which are being held at the same time.

In a few days you’ll get the next Election Special edition direct to your email inbox, and an interview with Kokoomus candidate Daniel Sazonov.

First: The Vihreät candidate Atte Harjanne talks about housing policy, green spaces, how to make Helsinki more welcoming for foreigners, and reversing the downtown decline. Click here to read the full story:

Inside the headlines

🌈 Conversion. The Finnish government is getting itself into hot water over controversial conversion therapies for LGBTQI+ people. On Friday, parliament voted 125 to 49 to adopt a Citizen’s Initiative to ban the therapies. However, Justice Minister Leena Meri (Finns) announced there was no time in the parliamentary calendar to actually put together a law to ban the therapy, and besides she said the ruling coalition parties were split on the decision (despite the overwhelming vote of MPs in parliament).

This prompted a pretty swift backlash:

🔴 Social Democrat MP Elisa Gebhard accused Meri of acting like “a dictator”:

“This is an incomprehensible disparagement of democracy from Meri. The Minister of Justice cannot act like a dictator. Prime Minister Orpo should now intervene in the situation so that the cause supported by the vast majority of Parliament and his own party can move forward. The Prime Minister must show leadership, that is his job.”

🟢 The Green Parliamentary Group Leader Oras Tynkkynen said that Leena Meri had “put herself above democracy.”

"So-called conversion treatments are quackery and mental violence that do not belong in modern society. I thank the citizens who submitted the initiative and the clear majority of MPs for their support for this latest step towards human equality,” he said.

🔵 The Christian Democrats and Finns Party have been strongly against banning conversion therapies and ex-CD leader Päivi Räsänen - who has a recent history of saying controversial things about LGBTQI+ people - said there was no way the government could promote a bill when so many of the coalition partner MPs are against it.

📺 Media. Finns are putting increasing amounts of trust in their media sources. That’s the findings of a new study published this week by EVA the Finnish Business and Policy Forum. Overall, 61% of Finns believe that domestic media provides a diverse and truthful picture of world events (the exception to this is Finns Party voters!) Finns’ views of the media are generally more positive than in the 1990s, and clearly better than the 1980s.

Among the most trusted news brands in the country, public broadcaster Yle scores 76%, while 69% trust STT the Finnish News Agency; and 61% consider Helsingin Sanomat to be a trusted source of news.

📈 Jobs. Finland’s unemployment rate claimed to 9.4% in February. According to Statistics Finland’s new Labour Force Survey which came out this week, the number of unemployed people was 43,000 higher in February 2025 compared to the previous year. In February, the non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate - or the proportion of the unemployed among the labour force - stood at 9.4%, having been 7.8% just one year earlier.

Unemployment among men topped 10% meaning it’s the worst figure per capita in the EU.

🍞 Bread. Around 2,000 bakers will go on strike from Sunday night, after the latest round of talks to give them a pay rise collapsed without agreement.

🥔 Prices. Have you been wondering about the price of basic food items in the supermarket? I spotted this comparison on Bluesky from David N Thomas a Brit who lives in Finland who had very helpfully taken pictures of the price of new potatoes from last year and this year:

🛵 Accidents. Almost 200 people were killed in motorcycle accidents on Finnish roads in the last decade, new statistics revealed this week. Around a third of people who died were over the legal alcohol limit.

👕🎻 Clothes x music. The Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra and local fashion brand Pispala Clothing are collaborating on a new collection of clothes that draws inspiration from music and visual arts. The project also highlights the orchestra’s 95th anniversary. The clothing can be bought from Pispala’s online store as well as it’s Tampere bricks-and-mortar store, and at Philharmonic performances.

Insider politics

🗳️ Family. Finns Party MP Kristian ‘Sheikki’ Laakso has defended his son, who is a Persut candidate in April’s municipal elections, after it was revealed this week Nico Laakso has a conviction for child abuse. “I will stand by my son no matter what” Laakso senior wrote on social media. It seems that his son did not tell the Finns Party about his conviction when he put his name forward to be a candidate.

🗳️ Candidates. Helsingin Sanomat has uncovered five instances where election candidates have been convicted of sexual abuse of children. In addition to Nico Laakso mentioned above, there are two other Finns Party candidates and a Freedom League candidate who have been convicted of child sexual abuse between 2019 and 2024; and a Social Democrat candidate convicted of aggravated sexual child sex abuse in December 2013.

🇪🇺 Brussels. Finnish MEP Maria Guzenina (SDP) was appointed to a new role this week as Vice-Chair of the European Parliament's Intergroup on the Rights of the Child. In her new position, Maria will focus in particular on the protection of children and young people on social media platforms.

🌲 Environment. The Greens have come up with a list of 101 ways to stop nature loss in municipalities.

“When the coalition government cuts nature conservation, breaks its promises to protect old-growth forests, and exposes nature conservation areas to mining, municipalities can take on a larger role. Municipalities can repair and patch up the damage caused by government policy” says Vihreät leader Sofia Virta.

Their suggestions include a commitment to stopping logging during bird nesting seasons; planting edible plants; banning mining activities in nature conservation areas, reindeer herding areas, and in the Sápmi traditional Sámi homeland area; and restoring local wetlands.

And finally…

🎵 Eurovision. The Swedish entry for the Eurovision Song Contest this year has already been breaking records in Finland. KAJ, a comedy trio from Ostrobothnia who sing in Finnish-Swedish, performed their ode to sauna culture at Forum Shopping Centre in Helsinki this week, breaking an audience record. And when you watch their Instagram clip you can see the place is packed to the rafters with fans!

Thank you, kiitos, tack!

🤗 Hearty congratulations if you made it all the way to the end of this week’s Finland Insider newsletter. I’m already waiting for this current news cycle to calm down a little bit and maybe that will happen after the elections? I’m keeping my fingers crossed!

In the meantime, if you have any questions, comments, story ideas and scoops - or if you just want to say hello - then drop me a line directly at david.macdougall@finlandinsider.fi or find us on Bluesky and Facebook too.

Catch you next Sunday!

David