Finnish News Recap, December (first half): Independence Day 2023 edition

I’ve been a bit busy the last weeks, and in any case, after the dramas of the earlier parts of the year are past, it’s probably the best to change the schedule of these updates a bit. I will now try to stick to a bimonthly schedule.

Anyway, it’s now about halfway through December, and here’s what’s been going on for the first half of the month, apart from the border closure (where the government very briefly opened the border again just to shut it almost immediately afterwards since the refugees kept coming in):

-        The government’s austerity agenda proceeds, with the Finance Ministry threatening extra cuts for Chrismas. Some of the latest implemented ones are cuts to housing benefits and the lowest ground-floor subsidy for those still lacking money for essentials even after the other benefits have come in. Literal cuts to the poorest, in other words. Also notable was the committee fight of the to stop welfare cuts by the Social and Health Care committee chair Krista Kiuru (Social Democrats), the last government’s families minister who became notorious for being a Covid hardliner, but who – even before this – had a reputatation for being being a hard negotiator with an iron arse. While Kiuru appears to have delayed the decisions a bit, she eventually relented and the cuts could proceed, but she has certainly demonstrated her potential to hinder the government’s processes in other cases.

-        Apace with the austerity agenda there is the government’s struggle with the unions, with the unions organizing another semi-general strike on Thursday, this time stopping the trains, most buses, things like school catering and so on. What the unions want the most, at this phase, would be a place at the negotiation table – something that Finnish governments have traditionally given them when it comes to labor market reform. However, Labor Minister Arto Satonen has stated this would be like negotiating with the agricultural producer’s organization on farm matters or the chief natural protection org on green matters. These, of course, would be something that farmers and environmentalists would also respectively desperately desire...  

-        Some time ago the Finnish border guard caught Yan Petrovsky (now going by name Voislav Torden), a militant of the Russian volunteer battalion Rusich and a known Nazi, accused of war crimes in the Ukrainian War. The Ukrainians have been demanding his extradition, but now the Finnish authorities have decided that he cannot be extradited due to the conditions of the Ukrainian prisons and that they want to investigate him for the war crime charges themselves. Of course the Ukrainians are unhappy with this, and so are many Finns, as Torden would assuredly receive a harsher punishment in Ukraine (an unmarked grave, possibly) than whatever the Finnish authorities would implement.

-        The president’s independence day ball happened on the Finnish independence day, December 6. In addition to the traditional focus on the guest’s suits and dresses, a lot of particular attention was paid to what the ex-PM Sanna Marin would be wearing – this tasteful dress with a clear Ukrainian flag influence, that would be – and what the Eurovision almost-winner Käärijä would have on (this gothy creation.) However, what the presses ended up writing the most was that one of the guests ended up shaking hands with the presidential pair *two* times and it was initially unclear who he even was (he turned out to be some minor Salvation Army type). The media focus on the “double handshaker” in the midst of drama in Ukraine and Gaza and who knows where was taken as evidence of deep unseriousness of the Finnish media.

-        As is also the tradition, the independence day was marked by far-right marches – more moderate and presentable 612 march and the openly radical Finland Awaken! with several Nazi speakers – and, as is tradition, these were counter-protested by a medley of anarchists, communists and other antifascists. This year, the police treated the antifascists quite strictly and the far-right marches seem to have processed with minor disruption, and the antifascist march was marred by a scuffle between anarchists and a small looney tunes Maoist sect. There was also a pro-Palestine protest at the traditional Independence Day Helsinki Cathedral church service.

-        Alan Wake 2 from the top Finnish gaming studio Remedy won awards, files on Lee Harvey Oswald’s stay in Finland were declassified, a minor feminist celebrity was busted for plagiarism and had to leave her post as the editor of the journalists’s union newspaper.

Image: a more typical (non-far-right) student’s independence day parade, from 2015. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Finnish_Independence_day_2015_02.JPG