Political barometer, museum cuts, woke VR and foreign meat on your pizza

Hello Insiders!

Hello, moi, hej! It’s the end of another busy week, so if you’re having a relaxing weekend I’ve got the ideal way to catch up on all the big stories from this week, plus some you might not have spotted. What more could you ask for?

Coming up in this week’s newsletter I’ve got an intriguing political barometer to dissect; new details about this spring’s deadly school shooting; some rare praise for immigrants, and an update on a familiar brand that’s still on the shelves.

All that still to come, but first this:

Inside the headlines

Finland. The majority (58%) of Finns think that things in our country are currently going in the wrong direction; while just a quarter see the development going in the right direction. That’s the headlines from a new EVA study out today. Perhaps not surprisingly the results split along political lines: supporters of the two biggest government parties Kokoomus and the Finns Party are more positive about the direction of the country under their stewardship, however a majority of Swedish People’s Party voters think the opposite.

Shooting. More details have emerged this week about a deadly school shooting which took place in Vantaa in April. One boy was killed, and two girls injured, when the 12-year-old suspect opened fire with a handgun in a 6th grade class. Now, police say the teacher in that classroom tried to de-escalate the situation by talking calmly to the shooter. Police have completed their preliminary investigation and say they found no evidence of bullying against the suspect, who had a ‘target list’ of 15 names on it.

Museums. Four Finnish museums have become the latest casualties of the government’s swingeing budget cuts. The Finnish Heritage Agency says it will shut the museums to save money, including the popular Seurasaari Open Air museum in Helsinki. The budget has seen funding slashed across culture, education, the arts, foreign aid, civil society and infrastructure projects (to name just a few - there’s hardly any sector of Finnish life untouched by budget cuts except the military).

Pizza. Finnish pizza chain Kotipizza [full disclosure: I’ve been a fan since my first slice back in 1995!] has caused something of a minor culinary uproar by announcing that it’s going back on a promise to have 100% Finnish meat on its pizzas. In November the chain will launch a new pizza with nduja sausage, which is sourced in Germany, Poland and Italy. And the company is tendering for new chicken, ham, pepperoni, bacon and salami suppliers - a process open to both Finnish and foreign companies. The reason for the change? Cost.

Economy. Credit rating agency S&P Global keeps Finland's AA+ credit rating unchanged. S&P predicts that the growth of the Finnish economy will continue to be slow during the current year. However, it estimates that the economic outlook will pick up next year. The credit agency cautions that economic growth can still be limited by both weak productivity and weak employment development. The company states that the Finnish economy is also critically dependent on the development of the German economy.

Woke VR. In the ongoing culture wars (sic) you might not have thought Finland’s national railway service VR would feature prominently. Until now, that is! Recently the company announced it was closing down its X / Twitter customer service channel. The reason? It’s not been possible to send direct messages to customers who need to pay for a subscription for that service on X, whereas you can freely send direct messages without paying on other channels. VR remains active for customer service on Instagram, Facebook, their own VR Matkalla app, by chat on their website and by phone.

That all seems reasonable enough to me. Companies should be active on the platforms where they can engage most of their customers most easily (and for free). After all, there’s a reason why VR doesn’t have a MySpace customer service channel.

But not if you’re on the right side of the political spectrum it seems, where quite many people hit out at the decision with a barage of complaints. It just goes to show how even something as innocuous as wanting to provide the best customer service experience possible, free on five different platforms, can be misconstrued in the current culture war climate *facepalm emoji*

Immigrants. It might reasonably seem like foreigners in Finland are under scrutiny and portrayed in a negative light recently - what with the government’s much-maligned plans to kick foreigners out the country if they are made unemployed and can’t find a new job within three months. But at the Economic Research Institute Etla, they reckon immigrants have a positive effect on the economy. Imagine that, eh? Etla’s Research Director Antti Kauhanen says that immigrant inventors play a decisive role in innovation, and produce a significant number of new patents. According to Kauhanen, immigrants bring with them skills that, combined with the know-how of the native population, lead to higher productivity in companies.

Meanwhile the Ammatiliitto Pro union says the government’s new three-month rule is “weakening Finland’s attractiveness” in the eyes of the very experts it needs to attract to work here. But of course…

Travel. New figures out this week showed more Finns travelled to other Nordic countries during the summer than to traditional warm-weather locations in southern Europe.

Rainbow. Supermarket giant S-Group had planned to phase out the popular and well-known Rainbow brand of foods, as it launches a new Coop brand across the Nordic region. But the distinctive Rainbow mark can still be seen in many supermarkets. So what’s the deal? It turns out we’ll be seeing Rainbow products well into the new year to use up produce and packaging, although many of the items that were previously sold under the Rainbow brand can already be found with the new Coop branding instead.

Inside politics

Barometer. Iltalehti got their hands on a political barometer commissioned by the six biggest parties in parliament, and it makes for interesting reading.

The research finds that while members of the public still view Kokoomus as an arrogant party, it doesn’t count against their electoral success. The strengths of the National Coalition Party are that voters see them as trying to reform society with reasonable and feasible proposals, and that the party promotes issues which are of interest to the entire country. However there is a note of caution: there is a growing feeling that party leader PM Petteri Orpo and other leaders are “incompetent.”

The Social Democrats are a party on the rise, according to the new political barometer (something we’ve seen in opinion polls too over the last few months). Voters feel that it is a people-oriented party, and that the leadership is becoming more skilled over time.

The Centre Party is also on the up, the new research finds, and looks likely to overtake the Finns Party and regain its place as one of Finland’s traditional big three parties.

It’s bad news for the Greens, with voters finding the party does not inspire trust. The Finns Party are now considered to be the most arrogant party in the country. And the Left Alliance is losing its shine now that Li Andersson is no longer the leader.

Finland international

Middle East. The Chairman of the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee Kimmo Kiljunen (SDP) says the cycle of violence in the Middle East “must be broken.” His comments come after Israel launched retaliatory strikes against targets near the Iranian capital Tehran. “Israel's bombings in Tehran show how a horrible cycle of revenge is spreading in the Middle East,” says Kiljunen. “Is the rest of the world completely powerless on the sidelines? We must condemn all acts of violence that disregard international law and the UN Charter.”

USA. With the US presidential election happening next week, a new poll for Rural Future newspaper - Maaseudun Tulevaisuus - has found more than two-out-of-three Finns are afraid of a Donald Trump victory, while a quarter said they were not afraid, and 9% didn’t know. More women than men are concerned about what happens next if Trump gets back into the White House.

Russia. The Finnish Border Guard has now closed two temporary border crossings into Russia, at Lieksa and Parikkala. “The head of the Finnish Border Guard Service and the head of the Russian Border Guard Service decide on the opening and closing of such temporary border crossing points. The above-mentioned chiefs made a decision in October to close the temporary border crossings,” the Border Guard said in a statement.

Turkey. Since joining NATO, Finland has continued to reject extradition requests from Turkey. According to public broadcaster Yle, authorities in Ankara have made six extradition requests, and the Finns have rejected four of them, with two still pending. A major roadblock on the way to NATO membership for Finland, was an accusation from Turkey that the Finns were harbouring Kurdish “terrorists”.

And finally…

I never manage to capture the colours of autumn very well on my mobile phone, so thank goodness for the folks over at MyHelsinki who published a lovely video compilation this week of the Finnish capital covered in a blanket of russet and gold autumn colours. Here’s the link:

myhelsinki

View more on Instagram

Thank you, kiitos, tack!

That’s all for this week, thank you for reading all the way to the end. As usual if you have a story idea, comment or suggestion feel free to get in touch directly. My email address is [email protected] 

Have a great week!

David