- Finland Insider
- Posts
- Political violence, Eurovision's far-right implosion, and President Stubb is living in La-La-Land
Political violence, Eurovision's far-right implosion, and President Stubb is living in La-La-Land
Week 20
David Mac Dougall
May 17, 2024
Hello, Moi, Hej!
Welcome to the first (official) Finland Insider newsletter, and thank you to everyone who subscribed over the last ten days or so - it’s great to have you as part of the new community.
Don’t forget to follow on social media: Finland Insider is on X, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Bluesky.
This week I’ve got all the big stories covered from falling crime rates to accusations of campaign trail ‘violence’; a look at the far-right implosion over the Eurovision Song Contest, and how President Stubb admits he was ‘living in La-La-Land’ when it comes to Russia. There’s political analysis and hopefully some stories you might have missed as well.
All that is still ahead, but first this:
Insider Originals
Military. Finland likes to talk up its ‘whole society’ approach to national security, and prides itself on gender equality. So how come Sweden, Norway and Denmark are years ahead of Finland when it comes to military conscription for women? Click the link to read the full article:
Sámi. The EU’s only recognised indigenous people are still having to fight for their rights in Finland, but the new President of the Sámi Parliament says the current right-wing government is, ironically, easier to deal with on key legislation than Sanna Marin’s left-wing administration. Click the link to read the full article:
Europe: The European Parliament election takes place in Finland on 9 June. But do you have questions? Who can vote, what’s the process, what do MEPs actually do, and come to think of it what’s the difference between the Liberal Party and the Liberty Alliance, two of the smaller parties who want your votes? Don’t worry we’ve got a quick and easy guide. Click here to read the full article:
Inside the Headlines
Flying. Finnair will resume flights to the Estonian city of Tartu next month, after they were suspended due to GPS interference which was widely blamed on Russia.
Espoo. The Mayor of Espoo, Finland’s second-largest city, has announced his retirement. Jukka Mäkelä (NCP) has been in the role, which is a political appointment and not directly elected like in Helsinki, since 2011.
Entrepreneurship. The investor and start-up communities say that cuts to grants and other subsidies will make it even more difficult for start-ups to be successful. The government slashed €20 million from Business Finland during spring.
Arson. A school in Espoonlahti was set on fire this week, and police think it might be connected to a string of other arson attacks in the area over the last month.
Sweet. New research shows that Finns are still buying as much ice cream and sweets as ever before, despite the imposition of a so-called ‘sugar tax’ a decade ago. They have however started drinking more diet sodas, which were not impacted by the tax hike.
Work. Former First Lady Jenny Haukio has landed a new job. She’ll start a senior position as ‘head of social responsibility’ with Helsinki publisher WSOY after the summer.
Rainbow. A new rainbow map of Europe, published by the ILGA Europe organisation this week, shows that Finland is one of the European countries where LGBTQ+ people enjoy the most freedoms and protection.
Eurovision. The Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö last weekend saw Finland’s entry Windows95man end up in the lower reaches of the points table after the Grand Final.
But the contest sparked an absolute stormvind of controversy in Finland where Israel’s entry was championed by members of the far-right Finns Party and ultimately received 10 points from the Finnish public televote.
Finns Party politicians framed their support for Israel as an ‘anti-Islam’ vote and criticised ‘woke culture warriors’ on the left for politicising the Song Contest.
With so much support, the Israeli song ‘Hurricane’ must surely be racing to the top of the charts in Finland, right? Wrong. MTV News took a look at the figures and found ‘Hurricane’ was nowhere to be found in the Finland Spotify top 50
Finland Insider’s take. The Finnish far-right would usually hate Eurovision with its wildly pro-EU message, it's glorious multiculturalism, and its unabashed embrace of LGBTQ+ culture. This year the far-right were suddenly very very interested because they saw opportunities to push their own culture war agenda by creating a false equivalence between calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, and somehow hating Jewish people. What I would find more worrying, if I was the Israeli ambassador in Helsinki, is realising that the country’s most vocal political supporters come from a party where plenty of members have well-documented connections to neo-Nazi groups. That just seems plain wrong for any Jewish person, surely?
Insider Politics
Booze. Parliament’s Social and Health Committee looks set to reject a new alcohol law which would have allowed stronger beers and ciders to be sold in grocery stores. Christian Democrat MP Päivi Räsänen has been the figurehead for spoiling the initiative.
Environment. The Greens, Social Democrats and Left Alliance are bringing a motion of no confidence in parliament against the government’s handling of the environment. “Under the [National Coalition Party] prime minister, Finland has become a real brake on climate and nature action both at home and in Europe,” says Social Democrat MP Pinja Perholehto.
“The green transition has huge potential, but to exploit it requires will, which this government does not have. That's why we say now - enough is enough of slacking on climate action and sabotaging green growth,” she adds.
Book 1. Left Alliance MP Minja Koskela has contributed to a new book where she details an incident on a train where she was assaulted by a stranger as a teenager: an all-too-common problem for women and girls in Finland. “I am committed to building a world where no one has to be afraid in public, on the streets or at home,” she writes.
Book 2. Kokoomus MP Susanne Päivärintä (who is running for the European Parliament) also has a book out now. In it, the ex-Yle journalist slams her former employer as being over-burdened with bureaucracy and too many managers. She also has a harsh critique of former PM Sanna Marin, writing “during my career as a journalist, I have never seen any politician change as completely as Sanna Marin changed after becoming chairman of the Social Democrats.” Päivärintä claims Marin became arrogant and would ignore MPs and their assistants in the hallways of parliament, and refused to say hello to them.
Violence. Finns Party MP Sebastian Tynkkynen says he was the victim of political violence from a left-wing group at an outdoor event in Oulu this weeek. Video from the scene (which was edited and speeded up) appears to show a man rushing towards Tynkynen and shouting at him. Police initially detained the man although there were no charges brought against him and he was released.
Finland Insider’s take. Political violence is very clearly a bad bad thing and has no place in a modern democracy - especially in light of what happened this week to Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico. But was Tynkkynen really subject to ‘political violence’ or did someone just heckle him at a public event? Finnish politicians from all sides rushed to post support for Tynkkynen on social media, as they should, but in context the incident came after the Finns Party’s leader Riikka Purra taunted protesters at the same event to get a job. She contributed to the climate of hostility and simply couldn’t bring herself to rise above the occasion. Finnish politicians (from any party) are not used to dealing with hecklers in a crowd and aren’t quite sure how to react but maybe this is a new phenomenon they’re all going to have to get used to, vocal challenges from voters - as long as there is absolutely no violence, that’s a clear red line.
La-La-Land. President Alexander Stubb has admitted he was ‘living in La-La-Land’ when it came to his former positions on Russia. In a television grilling by a BBC journalist, Stubb was challenged on his time as PM.
“You were prime minister and you tried to convince me that Finland and Europe should learn to work in cooperation with Russia. You said Nordstream is a great idea, ‘we need access to cheap Russian energy,’ Stephen Sackur said.
“You said we need to learn to trust the Russians. You were completely wrong.”
Stubb has previously said that Europeans who were naive about the possibility of conflict after the end of the Cold War were living in La-La-Land. Sackur put it to the newly-elected president that he
had been living in La-La-Land.
“I believe that in many ways I have been,” Stubb admitted.
UN General Assembly votes on Palestinian resolution, 10 May 2024 / Credit: UN Photo
Finland International
The United Nations General Assembly held a vote on whether to give new rights and privileges to Palestine this week and the resolution was passed by a wide margin: 143 for and just nine against, with Finland being one of 25 countries which abstained.
The EU didn’t have a unified position but Finland’s regional neighbours Norway, Denmark, Iceland and Estonia all voted in favour, while Sweden abstained. Other EU countries which voted in favour included Spain, Poland, Ireland, Slovenia, Slovakia, Malta and Portugal.
So why not Finland? President Stubb wrote “Finland strives in every way to promote a two-state solution and the birth of an independent Palestinian state that can be accepted as a full member of the UN.
“When realized, UN membership must not only remain symbolic, but must be part of a jointly agreed plan that produces concrete improvements to the situation of the Palestinians and the security of the region. Unfortunately, this is not the case yet.
On the day of the UN vote Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen (NCP) again called on Israel “not to launch a large scale ground operation in Rafah”.
“Israel has every right to defend herself against Hamas but not at the cost of innocent civilian lives in Gaza,” she added.
Finland Insider’s view: There’s a clear direction of travel at the United Nations and within the international community to fully recognise a Palestinian State, and some EU countries might even do that in the coming days. However, don’t expect Finland to be at the front of the queue. That’s just the way it goes with Finnish foreign policy, which always strives to be somewhere in the middle of the pack, never really standing out from the crowd, rarely taking the lead on anything which might be considered controversial (unlike, say, Spain, Ireland or Malta in this case). It’s not a judgment against Finland, it’s just the reality of a traditionally very cautious, and not very bold, foreign policy line.
Gaza. The Finnish Red Cross has sent medical staff and equipment to Gaza to help establish a desperately-needed field hospital. The 60-bed field hospital has an operating theatre, a maternity ward and an emergency clinic. The Red Cross says "attacks on local hospitals and medical staff have significantly collapsed the health care system. Hospitals that are still operating are full of patients, and there is a shortage of supplies and resources to treat patients.”
Slovakia. Finland’s political leaders, and rank-and-file MPs, responded with shock to the assassination attempt of Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico on Wednesday.
Shocked by the news from Slovakia about the shooting of my colleague Robert Fico. I condemn any act of violence against our democracies. My thoughts are with him and his family.
— Petteri Orpo (@PetteriOrpo)
1:56 PM • May 15, 2024
Ukraine. Prospective MEPs (and former cabinet colleagues) Maria Ohisalo (Green) and Anna-Maja Henriksson (SFP) have clashed over the possibility of sending Finnish troops to Ukraine. On Yle’s A-Studio programme Thursday, Ohisalo said “I do not rule this out, because Ukraine must not lose the war,” and mentioned the option to send trainers or maintenance crews to Ukraine. Henriksson disagreed and said that sending Finnish or other foreign troops to Ukraine would spark a world war.
Plug. I’ve got an interview with Maria Ohisalo lined up and will be asking her about the war in Ukraine and the Green League’s European Parliament campaign. Look out for the full story in next week’s Finland Insider.
358 - Finland in Numbers
And Finally…
The news can be pretty heavy, I get it. There’s lots of dramatic headlines and a seemingly non-stop car crash of horrific events happening around the world at any given moment. And don’t even get me started on social media doom-scrolling!
But here’s something that made me laugh this week, a Finnish content creator who really throws himself into his work!
Kaapo Kosonen likes to hurl himself from great heights (please don’t try this at home!) with apparently no fear whatsoever. And his exploits are addictive to watch!
Thank you, kiitos, tack!
That’s the end of the Week 20 newsletter, hope you enjoyed the contents. I’d love to hear from you with any story tips or suggestions, anything you liked or didn’t like about the newsletter, just send an email to [email protected]
Catch you next week!
David