Painted parliament, pricey pandas and a Swedish slur

Hello Insiders!

This was a big news week (when is it not?) where the main action was focused on two distinct places: at the parliament in Helsinki, and at the United Nations in New York - and both locations left me with plenty of questions - but also some optimism!

But we all know it wouldn’t be a ‘normal’ week in Finnish politics without some outrageous Finns Party nonsense and this week is no different - but a bright spot is that finally (at least on one issue) Kokoomus seems to be standing up to the Finns Party and demonstrating they’ve got a spine. Cause for celebration indeed.

Also this week: Expensive, sexless pandas are going back to China; an act of vandalism or an act of protest as Elokapina paints parliament red; and a politician who describes himself as looking like an “ass” with a “face like a racist” to try and win votes - is honesty the best policy?

Inside the headlines

Border. Finland is asking the European Commission for an extra €50 million in funding to strengthen security measures along the eastern border with Russia. Some of the money would be used for technical upgrades, while some would be earmarked for drones and patrol vehicles.

Paint. Activists from Elokapina - Extinction Rebellion - smeared red paint on the columns at the front of parliament this week, an escalation in their campaign of civil disobedience aimed at raising awareness of the climate crisis in the hopes that politicians will move faster to take more decisive action to combat it.

Elokapina joined with a Swedish group to protest Finnish state investments in Swedish peat production operations.

This is a step up from Elokapina’s usual passive resistance protests: sitting down in the road outside parliament, or kayaking near cruise ships and predictably there were reactions from politicians saying they’ve gone too far towards vandalism. One Kokoomus politician Otto Meri - for whom Elokapina is the Great White Whale to his Captain Ahab - called for the group to be considered in the same category as banned neo-Nazi outfit the Nordic Resistance Movement.

A Citizen’s Initiative petition to ban Elokapina has so far been signed by more than 35,000 people in just a few days. The threshold for the matter to be considered by MPs (although it might never make it to a full vote) is 50,000 signatures.

Oulu. A teenage boy who was the victim of a stabbing earlier in September has been released from hospital, Oulu Police said this week. The boy, who has an immigrant background, was attacked near his school.

There have been a string of stabbings targeting people with immigrant backgrounds in Oulu this year, and I wrote recently about how authorities are trying to ‘fight back.’

Tourism. The number of nights foreign tourists spent in Finland in August was up 11% on the previous year. According to Statistics Finland there were some 2.32 million overnight stays in Finland in August - most of them from people living in Finland - but a growing number of foreign tourists too, contributing to the economy.

Life. The latest quality of life survey from US News and World Report has been picked up by Finnish media. It shows Finland as the 6th best country to live in - but Norway, Denmark and Sweden all rank higher. Things could be worse though. Be grateful you’re not living in the UK or the USA, ranked a lowly 11th and 22nd respectively. Absolute hell holes by the sounds of things!

Panda scandal. Two pandas, on loan to Ähtäri Zoo, are to be shipped back to China in November, eight years ahead of schedule. The pair arrived in 2018 as part of a lucrative deal - lucrative for the regime in Bejing that is - but Lumi and Pyry were not the great tourist attraction it was hoped they might be: zoo entry costs were expensive, the COVID pandemic decimated visitor numbers, running costs for the specially-constructed enclosures were sky high, the costs of their specific diet and hosting Chinese zoo keepers were astronomical. And to add insult to injury, the pair displayed absolutely zero sexual chemistry and didn’t produce any offspring. The zoo itself - frankly, far off the beaten track for tourists - couldn’t afford their expensive Chinese lodgers, asked for a government bailout amid mounting debts (refused) and now finally the black & white furballs are being sent back to where they came from. All round: a disaster.

Insider politics

Government. Who runs the Finnish government? It’s a question a lot of us have been asking over the last year as the Finns Party’s voices and agenda grow increasingly louder, while more moderate elements of Kokoomus and the Swedish People’s Party have been diminished and PM Orpo often just seems somehow… absent (figuratively and literally). Now the Social Democrats have stood up in parliament and put the cat on the table (as Finns like to say) and flat-out accused the Finns Party of being the ones running the show, instead of being a junior coalition partner. It’s a good line of attack from Demarit towards Kokoomus and expect them to continue this through the autumn - especially if it helps them maintain 1st place in opinion polls…

Tax. Finance Minister (and Finns Party leader) Riikka Purra has said she doesn’t plan to propose any more tax increases to help the government cover its €12 billion budget deficit. Instead, Purra will look at where she can make more cuts including the sacred cow of means-testing child benefits: that would potentially mean that people with more money would not automatically qualify for child welfare payments.

Economy. Purra also announced this week that the government has abandoned its promise to stick to a 1% deficit in public finances by 2027, allowing opposition politicians to accuse the government of mishandling the economy (a bit rich considering the debt the previous government racked up in the first place…)

Swedish. A furore in the parliament chamber this week when SDP leader Antti Lindtman said a few words in Swedish - you know, one of the two national languages of Finland, which is constitutionally a bilingual country. The sound of the Swedish language being spoken prompted a heckle from Oulu MP Jenna Simula (Finns). “Can we get that in Arabic too?” she shouted at Lindtman, who asked that Finland’s other national language be respected.

Surgery. Justice Minister Leena Meri (Finns) had eye surgery this week and expects to be out of action “for a while.” Wishing her a speedy recovery.

Sámi. The Sámi Parliament in Inari has voted for Pirita Näkkäläjärvi as its new president (again) after elections were re-run in early summer.

LGBTQ+ As he arrived in New York, President Stubb took time to level some criticism at Finns Party minister Ville Tavio. You may recall the news last week that Finland refused to join a coalition of countries helping gender-equal reconstruction in Ukraine because some of the projects assisted LGBTQ+ people as well. Stubb reminded Tavio that for many years, Finland’s foreign policy has been focused on helping gender and sexual minorities. Stubb also said it was a mistake he hadn’t been informed of the decision not to join other countries in the reconstruction alliance, which he obviously feels falls squarely into his foreign policy remit.

Double down. A senior Finnish diplomat has doubled down on the President’s message this week as well. When the Dutch foreign minister posted online about a new initiative to hold Afghanistan responsible for violations of the rights of women and girls, Finland’s Ambassador for Gender Equality Katri Viinikka wrote that it was “a very important initiative.”

I asked Ambassador Viinikka whether this support would remain if it also meant supporting lesbian, bi, queer or trans women in Afghanistan - she told me “it should absolutely remain. This is the longstanding Finnish position.” She also wrote later that “LGBTIQ+ rights as a foreign policy priority for Finland” and the “global anti-rights movement” was discussed with lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex activists who were visiting the Foreign Ministry in Helsinki for talks this week.

The Chairman of Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee Kimmo Kiljunen (SDP) says that Tavio effectively ordered a change of policy by refusing to include Finland in the gender equality reconstruction group, and he should have told the committee about it first.

Honest politics? At least one Green candidate standing in Turku for next year’s municipal elections is a meat-eating man over 40, who looks like an ass. Not my words, but the words of the candidate himself Samuli ‘Sako’ Koivulahti. The small-business owner says the stereotype of Green candidates are young vegan women but he has a face the people think looks like a racist (again, his words, not mine!) Koivulahti says he aims to be “a different voice” within the Greens.

Finland international

All the big set-piece foreign policy events this week were happening at the UN General Assembly in New York.

Stubb. Stubb gave his maiden speech to world leaders at UNGA, and hit all the points he was expected to make including around security council enlargement / reform to include permanent members from Latin America and Africa, and another Asia representative, although he said Europe would have to figure out what to do with France and the UK, without offering any suggestions in this regard. He also advocated for more cooperation with the Global South in his bilateral meetings. And Stubb ended his speech with a quote from one of his predecessors, Martti Ahtisaari: “Peace is a question of will. All conflicts can be settled, and there are no excuses for allowing them to become eternal.”

Israel. Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen has come under (friendly?) fire from some of her government colleagues in the Finns Party and Christian Democrats because Finland voted last week in favour of a United Nations resolution which calls Israeli settlements in Occupied Palestinian Territory “illegal.” Valtonen’s response is that Finland’s position was debated internally with the relevant committees, and also in line with international law.

Thank you, kiitos, tack

That’s all for this week - a pretty hectic one for me as I started an MSc at university and getting to grips with studying again after a long time! Should be back to normal service next week (fingers crossed) and in the meantime if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions send me an email [email protected] 

Catch you next Friday!

David