Political scandals, crocodile tears and an 80-year-old mystery solved

Hello Insiders!

Midsummer is upon us. That means time (for most of us) to close the computers, leave the rat race behind and find a quiet place to enjoy the holiday weekend (no matter what the weather might bring!)

But if you’re looking for something to read over the next few days this special Juhannus / Midsommar edition of the Finland Insider has got you covered.

Another racist stabbing in Oulu has (again) shocked the nation - but how genuine are some of the words of sympathy and sorry? Another vote of no-confidence in a far-right government minister has (again) disrupted parliament - so why does the politician still keep his job after those underage grooming allegations?

I’ll dive into all of those issues and all the other big stories of the week (plus some you might have missed), but first this:

Insider Originals

Keskusta. The Centre Party elected themselves a new leader this week, former defence minister Antti Kaikkonen who now faces the task of turning around the party’s fortunes. Once the dominant force in Finnish politics, Keskusta has endured its lowest-ever poll numbers in recent years and continues to limp along with between 12 and 15% support. So what will Kaikkonen do differently? That’s a question I put to him in his first English-language interview since taking on the role of party leader. Read the full article here:

Fruity. Strawberries are, quite literally, a bellwether crop for Finland. While other berries can be more hardy, strawberries are quite delicate: the weather can’t be too hot, too cold, too wet or too dry, conditions have to be just right.

So now that we’re into strawberry season, I talked with a farmer in Porvoo about this year’s crop and the problems of farming soft fruits as they’re impacted by climate change and biodiversity loss.

I love strawberry stories, especially at Juhannus time, and hope you’ll think it’s delicious too! 

Inside the headlines

Racist attack. On Tuesday evening there was another stabbing at the same Oulu shopping centre where just one week before a man with a long history of being involved with extreme far-right and neo-Nazi groups was arrested after allegedly stabbing a 12-year-old child, who had a foreign or immigrant background.

In this latest incident, Finnish media says a 15-year-old stabbed an adult Asian man in the back, outside the shopping mall. The man has an immigrant background and police say the stabbing had a racist motive and was a copy of last week’s attack.

Police say they’re investigating both stabbings as cases of attempted murder, and confirmed a 15-year-old boy had confessed to Tuesday’s stabbing and that it was likely the result of long-term radicalisation.

The boy’s lawyer is quoted as saying "the victim was selected based on skin colour"

Who said what? As you would expect there was an outcry about this new stabbing with President Stubb saying “there must be no place for racism or racist violence in Finland”; while Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said “violence is always to be condemned.”

Jenna Simula, a Finns Party MP from Oulu said the violence was “downright sickening" regardless of which extremist movement the suspect is from.

Childrens Ombudsman Elina Pekkarinen reminds us that the suspect is only 15-years-old and “he must be treated in a way that promotes his human dignity” and respects his legal rights.

Debate. Social Democrat MP Tytti Tuppurainen, who represents Oulu, tried to launch a discussion in parliament about racism and the stabbings. Her initiative was supported by all the other parties in parliament except the Finns Party. Tuppurainen said the Oulu cases show that hate speech leads to actions and that racist language doesn’t only happen in social media but also in parliament when MPs talk about the ‘great replacement’ conspiracy theory of population change (which several senior Finns Party MPs have done in the last year alone).

I’ll leave the final word on this (for now) to the Mayor of Oulu Ari Alatossava who said "People, no matter how high they are in social status, don't necessarily see or want to see that speeches and writings have an effect." I wonder who he could be talking about?

In other news

Trafficking. Police say three Chinese nationals working as stone masons in Ostrobothnia were the victims of human trafficking.

Plot. A court in Vaasa sentenced a 23-year-old woman convicted of planning to attack a school with guns, a knife and a Molotov cocktail. Police were alerted after she uploaded a video about the planned attack a day before it was supposed to take place. She’s been sentenced to three years and two months in jail.

Nuclear. Finland’s oldest nuclear reactor has been decommissioned. The Espoo reactor was commissioned in the early 1960s and used for research purposes. It went offline in 2015 but the decommissioning process is only now complete.

Plane wreck. The mystery of what happened to a plane shot down by the Russians more than 80 years ago might have now been solved. Divers reported this week that they’ve found the wreckage of the Junkers JU 52 plane operated by Finland’s ‘Aero’ airlines. It was attacked en route from Tallinn to Helsinki with several diplomats on board, as well as the Finnish crew.

Football. Former Finnish men’s national team captain - and all-round renaissance man, good guy, snappy dresser, and campaigner for equality in sport and against racism - Tim Sparv has a new job. He’s joining the coaching team of the men’s national team.

F1. Ex-Formula 1 race ace Heikki Kovalainen says he’s recovering well after recent open heart surgery. Kovalainen, who drove for Renault, McLaren and Lotus, and who won the 2008 Hungarian Grand Prix wrote: “Structurally the aorta and my chest bone have healed according to plan so I can start to resume normal activities little by little.”

“I'm so grateful for the good care I've received from my team of doctors and nurses, and I'm glad my body has reacted well for the treatment.”

Insider politics

Poll. The latest political poll published by Helsingin Sanomat this week spells more bad news for the Finns Party as they lose 1.3 percentage points compared to the previous month, and now sit on 14.9% support. The Social Democrats are still the most popular party in the country, albeit they’re down 1.5%; while the National Coalition Party Kokoomus remain in second place up very slightly to 20%.

Confidence. Another week, another scandal involving far-right Finns Party MP Wille Rydman. There is to be a vote of confidence in the ex-Kokoomus politician who defected to the Finns Party after he lost the support of PM Petteri Orpo in the light of a Helsingin Sanomat investigation into his relationships with underage girls.

Opposition parties have brought the vote against Rydman, saying that his actions to deny he did anything wrong and to gaslight the media saying they have lied about the facts make him not fit for office. Helsingin Sanomat has also published a strong editorial denouncing his behaviour to undermine the work of journalists.

Despite all that, it looks highly likely he will survive unscathed in office. The new SFP leader Anders Adlercreutz told me his party will support Rydman, saying that to go against him now would cause unnecessary political disruption. Liike Nyt boss Hjalis Harkimo is sitting on the fence and says he’ll abstain from the vote. So it looks like the opposition don’t have the numbers on the face of it, but if a vote actually takes place on Monday then it all depends who shows up to vote, from which parties, on the day.

SFP. The Swedish People’s Party has a new leader, MP Anders Adlercreutz replaces Anna-Maja Henriksson who goes to Brussels to be an MEP. You can read my exclusive English-language interview with Anders in next Friday’s edition of Finland Insider.

SFP shuffle. As Anna-Maja Henriksson goes to Brussels, new party leader Anders Adlercreutz becomes education minister to replace her, while Joakim Strand becomes the new Europe Minister to replace Adlercreutz.

Greens. Atte Harjanne is stepping down as the leader of the Vihreät parliamentary group so he can focus fully on his parental leave which starts in the autumn.

Kokoomus. Party Chairman Petteri Orpo was voted into the role for a fifth term at the National Coalition Party’s summer conference last week.

Sámi politics. Voting is underway in a re-run of the 2023 Sámi Parliament elections. The repeat vote is happening because a Finnish court ruled that several dozen people who are currently not on the Sámi voter roll must be allowed to vote for the 21 members of parliament (and four alternate representatives). This is at odds with international human rights agreements and UN instructions to the Finnish state which says that only Sámi people (and not the Finnish court) should be allowed to decide matters of self-determination.

Finland international

Ukraine. President Stubb spoke at last weekend’s conference in Switzerland which brought together a wide array of international speakers to show their support for Ukraine.

Foreign policy. A new report on the future direction of Finland’s foreign policy was submitted to parliament just before the Midsummer break. In short: Russia bad, the bilateral relationship is frozen, the Ukraine conflict could widen out to other parts of Europe so Finland needs to be prepared - but luckily is now in NATO so has security guarantees that were not fully in place before. Oh, and we have the European Union as a strong ally when it comes to values and for global political clout. And keep an eye out for China.

Border law. The Finnish government’s new border law got the green light this week from the Parliament’s Constitution Committee. Supporters of the law say that national security has to come first, and that means being awake to Russia’s ability to mount a hybrid operation to ‘weaponise’ illegal immigrants and push them towards the Finnish border in great numbers to test or even overwhelm Finnish border security. Opponents of the law say (and the government admits) that the new law is in violation both of international law and the Finnish constitution.

And finally…

Here’s a social media cleanser for you. A police officer in Tampere has rescued a sygnet - a baby swan - which was separated from its family as they crossed a busy road. Luckily the officer was able to track down the swan family and reunite them.

Thank you, kiitos, tack!

That’s all for this special Juhannus edition of Finland Insider, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed putting it together! And now it’s time for a proper weekend break to unwind, relax, and enjoy some (hopefully) decent weather!

Catch you next week,

David