Finnish politics thread

[Solmyr]

I don't think we have one, so I'm creating one. In Finland, we elected our Trump already last year.

Finnish PM Sipila caught up in press freedom row
30 November 2016

Finland's Prime Minister Juha Sipila has denied allegations that he tried to suppress coverage of allegations against him and his family.

Mr Sipila has already rejected claims of a conflict of interest over a contract awarded by a state-run mine to a steel company owned by his relatives.

But the case has now also placed him at the heart of a censorship row.

It has emerged that Mr Sipila sent a series of emails to public broadcaster YLE to complain about its coverage.

Finland has been rated highest in the World Press Freedom index for the past five years.

The prime minister told reporters on Wednesday that he had not tried to limit press freedom or influence the broadcaster, but said he had not been given a fair opportunity to comment on the allegations against him.

According to YLE, Mr Sipila also felt that its coverage had given an impression that he or his relatives had acted fraudulently.

A conflict of interest?

• Finnish government injected €100m (£85m; $106m) into struggling, taxpayer-funded mining company Terrafame in eastern Finland
  Terrafame awarded €500,000 contract to Katera Steel, owned by relatives of Juha Sipila
  Mr Sipila denies wrongdoing: "I know I have not been improper or biased in this case"
  Finland's chancellor of justice and parliamentary ombudsman have been asked to investigate allegations of conflict of interest
  

The Suomen Kuvalehti website reported on Wednesday that the prime minister had sent a string of critical messages late on 25 November to a YLE reporter covering the story.

A news story written by the public broadcaster on Friday night assessing allegations of a conflict of interest involving Mr Sipila was dropped, the website said. A further story written on Monday morning about the prime minister's emails was also shelved, it added, citing three sources at YLE.

Finnish talk show host Ruben Stiller complained on Twitter on Friday that he had been barred from raising the issue on his weekly programme.

YLE's news and current affairs editor Atte Jaaskelainen responded to the allegations with a lengthy piece denying that the broadcaster had been silenced. The story had led all YLE's platforms for four days, he argued, insisting that the prime minister's emails had played no part in its coverage.

However, he said the broadcaster had decided not to publish stories questioning whether Mr Sipila should have not taken part in decisions on contracts awarded to his relatives' steel company.

That was because YLE had decided to wait until investigations had been carried out into whether there had been a conflict of interest. Mr Stiller returned to Twitter on Wednesday to say the ban on him covering the story had been lifted.

Basically, our PM is a millionaire businessman who is leading the Center Party (which has big support in rural areas and outside of major cities). He has been PM since the parliament elections in summer 2015. His government also includes the National Coalition Party (center-right) and True Finns Party (nationalist/populist/racist). The government has generally pursued a policy of major cuts to various benefits while lowering taxes on the rich. An unusual number of the government's law proposals were also contrary to the constitution and had to be revoked. Finland does not have a constitutional court, but instead has a constitutional panel consisting of MPs. And today, there were also news that the Chancellor of Justice's advice on constitutional legality was sidelined by the government.

So yeah, Finland is kinda following in the footsteps of Hungary and Poland at the moment.

[Solmyr]

*necro*

Our left-leaning government resigned on the weekend due to some mess with the national post office work agreements and pressure from the right-wing opposition. Well, it was technically the Prime Minister Antti Rinne (Social Democrat) resigning. However, the same parties are forming a new government with a new PM Sanna Marin, who is even more left-leaning. She is also expected to replace Rinne as chairperson of the Social Democratic party next summer. Now the government parties will all be led by women, with four out of five of them under 35 years old.  The right-wing old farts all over social media are in a state of rage.



The new PM is also the youngest in the world, and this has been noted internationally. She was also raised in a family with two mothers.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/09/world/europe/finland-prime-minister-sanna-marin.html

[Habbaku]

What's it like not living in a gerontocracy?

[Valmy]

32 might be a little young, but what the hell she probably has far more experience than reality TV personality.

[Solmyr]

Li Andersson has been in politics since 2011 and Katri Kulmuni since 2015 (or 2010 if you count working as an assistant). So they have plenty of political experience. This government will certainly face a lot of attacks from conservative right-wingers, but I'm optimistic since all these women are quite skillful. Last spring, Sanna Marin was actually leading the parliament election debates for the Social Democrats in place of Antti Rinne (who was on sick leave at the time) and did very well, gaining a lot of support nationally.

[Josquius]

I wish I lived in a democracy 😔

[Tamas]

That is NOTHING.

In Hungary they just appointed a female vice-state secretary aged a mere 22 years. They have even changed the law so she wouldn't have to have a college degree for it.




She is the one on the right, on the left the minister she will be working for.

[Grey Fox]

Good for Finland! This is pretty awesome.

[Valmy]

Did her parents need to sign a permission slip or something?

[Syt]

Wait a second, Sebastian Kurz was 30 when he took office as chancellor of Austria in 2017. (He'll be 33 once the coalition talks with the Green party are finalized and he's chancellor again.)

That said, he also didn't finish university before going into politics full time.

[Solmyr]

So back in July, a local politician of the Finns Party (the racist anti-immigration guys) was assaulted and nearly murdered in his home by two men. He said at the time that they were "Arab-looking", and immediately all major politicians of the party started tweeting out their outrage. Yesterday, the police arrested the two guys suspected of the assault. They look like this:



Both are active in far-right Neo-Nazi circles. Reaction from the Finns Party politicians: *silence*

[Josquius]

What happened with the politician?

Surely giving police incorrect information isn't exactly legal?
Wonder what brought the attack about.

[Solmyr]

The assaulted politician is on of the few still remaining old guard who opposed the rising influence of the far right in the party. Apparently he was responsible for removing one of these guys from the party's list of cabdidates for MP elections, so they may have wanted revenge. Investigation is still ongoing.

And he actually corrected himself some time after giving that information, but by then the major party figures were already running with it.

[merithyn]

How are the young women doing running things?

[Solmyr]

How are the young women doing running things?

Pretty well actually. Finland is one of the countries that has weathered the corona pandemic pretty well. And the government enjoys an unprecedented support among the populace. Of course, the right-wing opposition is constantly trying to crap on everything the government does, but so far without much effect on the polls. One of the women, Katri Kulmuni from the Centre Party, had to resign recently because of some improprieties (she directly hired a consulting firm for some communications training instead of putting the offer out for bids as is normally done), and also because she has not managed to increase the popular support for her party. Her replacement is Annika Saarikko, 36 years old.