A political smackdown, immigration conspiracies and Google's big Finland spend

Hello, moi, hej Insiders! 

Welcome to Week 21, which means we’re very much on the downhill slope towards Juhannus - and I don’t know about you but those Midsummer holidays can’t come soon enough!

Until then there’s a ton of news to get through in this latest newsletter (and in the weeks ahead I’m sure) including immigration conspiracy theories, ice hockey disappointment, a political smackdown, Russian sabre-rattling, and a cute picture of the president meeting a little kid at a Sámi school in Lapland.

All that is still to come, but first this:

Finland Insider originals

Gaza. Student activists at universities across Finland are campaigning to get their schools to take a tougher line on relations with Israeli universities, after tens of thousands of Palestinian deaths in Gaza and a “scholasticide” as Israel destroys universities and colleges. Read the full story here:

Europe: Former minister and Green party leader Maria Ohisalo is running in the European Parliament election next month, and she tells Finland Insider that MEPs can have more influence than Finnish government ministers in areas of climate policy and human rights work. Read the full story here:

Pesäpallo. It’s Finland’s favourite summer sport which has obvious baseball DNA, but evolved into a unique experience that’s suddenly attracted millions of new fans through viral videos. And nobody’s more surprised than the Superpesis players and staff! Read the full story here:

Inside the headlines

Cyber security. A data breach at the City of Helsinki means a hacker could have stolen the personal details of 150,000 school children and their guardians. The incident happened at the end of April but the city is now warning that more groups might have had their data taken, like children who are homeschooled, and students at vocational colleges.

Expansion. A new report finds that EU expansion could cost Finland hundreds of millions of euros per year, but would bring added security.

Losing my religion. A new ‘youth barometer’ survey finds that 60% of young people in Finland aged 15-29 consider themselves non-religious. A little more than 20% said they were religious and 10% said they consider themselves very religious.

Hockey. Finland’s Lions have been dumped out of the men’s ice hockey World Championships, losing 2-1 against arch-rivals Sweden. This is Finland’s worst placing at the annual tournament since the mid-1950s.

Google. The online giant is investing more money in expanding its Hamina data centre. Google announced this week it will invest an additional €1 billion and add 100 more jobs at the south coast site.

Race ace. Finnish wheelchair sprint superstar Leo-Pekka Tahti has just notched up the 12th world championship medal of his career with a gold in the T54 100m final in Japan. A Finland Insider friend Esa-Pekka Mattila finished just outside the medals in 5th place with a season best time. Wheelchair racer Henri Manni won two bronze medals in the T34 100m and 400m finals.

Inside politics

European Election. The Finns Party’s Sara Seppänen has become the latest MP to say she’ll only decide on whether to actually take her seat at the European Parliament if she gets elected in June. Social Democrat MP Kimmo Kiljunen recently also recently said the same thing. It’s raised the hackles of opponents who say candidates should only be running for office if they intend to take up their seat in the Brussels parliament.

Selling Suomi. The government has announced plans to sell off parts of its stakes in state-owned businesses: Gasum (gas supplier), Posti (postal services) Finnavia (airports) and VR (railways). Minister Anders Adlercreutz (SFP) says there are no plans to sell all of their stakes, meaning the government will still own large chunks of the businesses.

Border. A new law aimed at strengthening Finland’s borders (particularly the eastern border with Russia) was given to Parliament this week. Supporters say it’s vital to be able to take swift action to secure the borders in the event of Russia weaponising migrants and sending them surging across the border to try and overwhelm Finnish authorities. Opponents say it’s unconstitutional and contrary to international laws, and would stop genuine asylum seekers from coming to safety in Finland.

Immigrants. The far-right Finns Party has been at it again this week, increasing the rhetoric about the ‘evils of immigration’ (sic). At a party conference on Sunday, leader Riikka Purra criticised “mass immigration” in Europe saying that all the city centres would soon look the same (and she doesn’t mean in a good way!)

“The changes taking place in Finland or Europe due to mass immigration, the broad and deep, social, cultural and demographic effects are practically irreversible,” she said.

Also this week Purra and Interior Minister Mari Rantanen (who has previously been criticised for spreading conspiracy theories about immigration) posted a picture on social media promoting their appearance at ‘The Great Migration Debate’ with the headline “Problems with population growth.”

Editorial criticism. Finland’s main Swedish-language newspaper HBL has strongly criticised the leader of the Swedish People’s Party Anna-Maja Henriksson in a scathing editorial. The Helsinki-based paper accuses her of “double speak” for appearing liberal when it comes to her bid for a seat at the European Parliament, while at the same time cosying up in government with the illiberal far-right Finns Party and Petteri Orpo’s National Coalition Party.

Sample text: “Henriksson acts in the EU elections as if the party she leads is in opposition. At the same time, SFP provides the decisive support for the government. It is not credible.” Ouch.

Sápmi. President Stubb has been visiting Inari and Nuorgam in Lapland on Thursday and Friday. He has met with members of the Sámi community and also visited the Sámi Parliament. It’s believed to be his first official trip to the parliament in any capacity.

Finland international

Russia. Moscow has been sabre-rattling this week. Or maybe not. Reports in the Finnish media (which seemed to completely blindside Finnish authorities) said that Russia was planning to arbitrarily move its maritime borders in the Baltic Sea. After a flurry of activity, senior leadership seemed to agree that sowing disinformation and rumours that lead to confusion is a move straight from the Russian hybrid war playbook and cool calm heads should prevail. The original report of the proposed maritime boundary changes seems to have now disappeared from Russian websites.

Iran. There was a muted response from Finnish leaders to Monday’s deaths of the President and Foreign Minister of Iran (as you would expect for a country actively supplying weapons to Russia for use in Ukraine). President Alexander Stubb sent a letter of condolence, while Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen (NCP) released a short statement. Her predecessor Pekka Haavisto (Green) noted that he had met both men in the course of his work and discussed human rights and nuclear proliferation with them. “The dialogue on these important issues should continue,” Haavisto wrote.

Mali. The last four Finnish troops involved in the EU’s training mission in Mali have now returned home, although two civilian crisis management experts remain as part of a separate EU mission. In total, more than 100 Finnish soldiers served in the operation since 2013. The EU decided earlier this spring not to extend its mandate in Mali.

Asylum. Prime Minister Orpo said in a TV debate this week that his party does not support the so-called ‘Rwanda model’ of sending successful asylum seekers to another country instead of dealing with them in Finland. However, Interior Minister Mari Rantanen (Finns) said what the government does support is processing asylum seekers in 3rd countries, perhaps in Africa, instead of them coming to Finland in the first place. Which sounds an awful lot like ‘you say tomato, I say tomato’. (NB: Finns Party leader Riikka Purra says her party does support the Rwanda model, a concept which was pioneered - so far unsuccessfully - by the UK).

UK. FM Valtonen was in London this week where she signed a new ‘Strategic Partnership’ agreement with her British counterpart David Cameron.

And finally…

This content creator always makes me laugh with his pitch-perfect deadpan ‘Finnglish’ whether it’s in the middle of winter, or on a classic escape to the sunshine in Spain. Check out Miikka_Martikkainen’s Instagram videos if you haven’t already discovered him:

Thank you, kiitos, tack!

That’s the end of the Week 21 newsletter, hope you enjoyed the contents. I’d love to hear from you with any story tips or suggestions, or if there’s anything you liked or didn’t like about the newsletter, please drop me a line at: [email protected] 

Catch you next week!

David