Visa troubles, terror trial, electric car tax and Eurovision songs

Hello Insiders!

Welcome to week 34 of the year as we continue the inevitable slide into autumn and soon enough winter. That sounds depressing but it’s not, I love the winter months so bring it on!

This week there’s a persistent problem for the government over its handling of visa reforms for foreigners that just won’t go away quietly. Could there be a policy flip-flop on the cards? Plus the Left Alliance’s leadership vacuum; medical procedures gone wrong in Turkey; the prime minister’s contentious holiday schedule; the latest political polls; a ban on Russians buying real estate; and a Nigerian woman in Finland with great taste in bread!

All that is still to come, but first this:

Insider Originals

Oulu. The northern city has had a rough summer - some would say it’s had a rough decade or more - but two stabbing incidents targeting people with immigrant backgrounds, which police say were motivated by racism, really shocked us all at the end of spring. There’s a lingering undercurrent of wariness or even hostility towards foreigners in Oulu which is not helped by the local and national political debates which pit left and against right.

So I took a deep dive into the issues plaguing Oulu at the moment and talked to some people fighting back against the intolerance.

Red flags. I’ve been enjoying a glorious summer of sport which peaked with the amazing spectacle of the Paris Olympics (I was just in France this week so feeling nostalgic for Olympic action I guess!) One new sport coming to the next Olympics in Los Angeles is flag football, the non-contact version of American football, and believe-it-or-not the Flag Football World Championships are taking place in Lahti and Pajulahti in a few day’s time.

Inside the headlines

Racism. One of Finland’s biggest trade unions, JHL, is pulling its participation in the government’s new anti-racism campaign. The union calls the new campaign “a dishonest attempt to cover up the government's historically discriminatory and immigrant-disciplining policy.”

Trial. The trial began this week of a group of far-right men who prosecutors say planned to stage terror attacks and provoke a race war in Finland. Police found large quantities of weapons and explosives at the men’s homes. Prosecutors say the men were radicalised and became neo-Nazis.

NATO. Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has appointed Tarja Jaakkola, Director-General of the Resource Policy Department of Finland's Ministry of Defence, to serve as Assistant Secretary General for Defence Investment.

In her role, Jaakkola will lead the Defence Investment Division responsible for facilitating the development of NATO and Allied material capabilities, including air and missile defence. She will also chair the Conference of National Armaments Directors

Electric. Government plans to increase the tax on electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids have drawn the wrath of experts who say it makes it much more difficult for Finland to meet its carbon neutral goals - and to meet EU emissions targets too.

Medical. MTV Uutiset reports on the increasing number of Finns who get dental or cosmetic surgery in Turkey but then need to get problems corrected by hospitals in Finland when complications arise, at tax payer’s expense.

Planes. The Finnish Air Force has been participating in a Joint Fires training exercise with US and Norwegian pilots this week.

Voyeur. Remember the story earlier this month of a man trying to take covert photographs and videos of people on the beach? Now Helsingin Sanomat has caught up with him and he says he doesn’t think he did anything wrong. His new hobby is taking pictures and videos of women enjoying Helsinki nightlife.

Sing. The road to the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest in Switzerland is officially underway, in Finland at least. UMK, the new music competition from public broadcaster Yle is accepting songs for consideration until 25 August so you’ve got a couple of days to pen a Eurovision smash hit single! Good luck with that.

Insider politics

Visas. Visas for immigrants is turning out to be this government’s Achilles heel. As I have reported before, there’s widespread opposition to the government’s plan to kick foreigners out the country if they lose their jobs, and can’t find a new one within three months.

And this week the scale of the opposition has become even more clear. Out of 118 comments received about the proposal from interested parties like unions, individual cities, regional authorities, groups representing immigrants, etc, 116 comments were negative and only two comments supported the government’s plan.

So to boil it down: The government asked for expert opinions on its plans, almost all those opinions said it’s a terrible idea, and then the government promptly ignored what was said.

But is there signs of a possible flip-flop? Well not from any of the parties or politicians that really matter in this case, like the PM or someone senior in Kokoomus, nor from the anti-immigrant Finns Party. But Swedish People’s Party leader Anders Adlercreutz signalled this week that he thinks the government’s approach to immigration could be revised, with a new annual cap on 40,000 migrants allowed in. Maybe this is the opening gambit from SFP/RKP about immigration? But don’t hold your breath because so far SFP/RKP have failed to stand up to the bigger parties in government on anything meaningful so it would be a surprise if they started now.

Leave. Interior Minister Mari Rantanen (Finns) is stepping aside for a few months to care for her disabled daughter. She said “I love this job, but I love my child more.” Her daughter is 29, confined to a wheelchair, and is understood to have suffered a sudden illness. Rantanen's duties will be taken over by Transport and Communications Minister Lulu Ranne (Finns) for the next several months until she returns.

Polls. The latest Helsingin Sanomat opinion poll came out this week, showing a drop in support for the governing National Coalition Party and their far-right partners the Finns Party. They each dropped 0.6 percentage points since last month’s survey.

New Centre Party leader Antti Kaikkonen has boosted his party’s popularity by more than 1 percentage point, bringing Keskusta their biggest poll numbers in two years.

The Social Democrats sit on top of the new polls with 20.9%. Kokoomus is second with 20.2%, followed by the Finns Party at 15% and Keskusta on 12.9%

Of the smaller parties, the Left Alliance is polling 10.1%, the Greens are down at 8%, SFP/RKP on 4.3% and Christian Democrats on 4.2%. Liike Nyt has 2.2% support.

Holidays. There’s a small drama brewing over when the PM applied for holidays, which days he is off, and what leave was approved. His office is refusing to release the correspondence which would show all this and STT Finnish News Agency reminds us that when similar questions were raised about former PM Sanna Marin’s holidays, her correspondence was published in full.

Leadership. The Left Alliance leadership contest is hotting up, or cooling down depending on how you see things. Outgoing leader Li Andersson has already moved to Brussels in her new role as an MEP and there’s not been exactly a mad rush to replace her. Her deputy, Jussi Saramo, has also gone to Brussels as an MEP. So far, MPs Veronika Honkasalo and Timo Furuholm have both said they’re not interested in the party leader job, for various reasons. Two other Left Alliance MPs Hanna Sarkkinen and Mai Kivelä have also said they’re not planning to run, while Hanna Sarkkinen said she’s pregnant and no longer considering a bid for the job, and Aino-Kaisa Pekonen is bidding to be the party’s Parliamentary Group leader. The leading candidate, by default almost - but not to take anything away from her accomplishments or abilities - is Minja Koskela. The new leader will be elected at the Left Alliance autumn conference in October.

Voting. A new report out this week from the Kalevi Sorsa Foundation in Helsinki finds that women are increasingly voting for candidates from the left, while men are increasingly more likely to vote for candidates on the right. The biggest gap in political ideologies between men and women can be found in younger people especially, the report finds.

Finland international

Israel. Finland has joined other Nordic countries to criticise Israel for unilaterally closing down the Norwegian representative office to the Palestinian Authority, by revoking the status of Norwegian diplomats assigned there.

Russia. Defence Minister Antti Häkkänen (NCP) says he’s planning legislation to ban all Russian nationals from purchasing property in Finland.

Turkey. A Finnish-Kurdish woman has been arrested by Turkish authorities, who claim she’s one of the leaders of the banned PKK group in Finland. The woman’s daughter says she went to Istanbul on holiday, and has only taken part in peaceful pro-Kurdish protests in Finland in the past.

China. The Asia Times asks whether China is carrying out ‘gray zone’ warfare on behalf of Russia - including the ‘accidental’ damage to a crucial undersea connection between Finland and Estonia which China said last week was just an accident, oops!

Guinea-Bissau. This week the president of Guinea-Bissau, Umaro Sissoco Embaló, visited Helsinki. In case you’re reaching for Google Maps let me save you the time: Guinea-Bissau is a small Portuguese-speaking country in West Africa and it seems like President Sissoco had a busy schedule while in Finland.

And finally…

We’ve had a couple of weeks where I shared videos of Finns doing unspeakable things to perfectly good food, so I thought it was time for a chance of direction and an appreciation post for content creator Esther Ezekiel-Savolainen otherwise known as @naijagirlinfinland who clearly loves rye bread as much as I do - nice and warm out the oven, it’s the perfect serve!

Thank you, kiitos, tack!

And that’s a wrap on week 34 of the Finland Insider newsletter, thank you for making it all the way to the end! Coming up next week I’ve got a look ahead at the most important items on the political agenda as parliament starts its new session - plus all the usual headlines big and small you might have missed, and some sharp political analysis too.

In the meantime, if you have questions or comments about Finland Insider, or a story tip or idea you’d like to share, send me an email directly at: [email protected]

Bye for now,

David