GRISLY MURDER: The small town of Valkeakoski (fairly near to me, I even actually went to work there for a short while for an internship over 10 years ago) was shocked by a grisly rape/murder of a teenage girl. The girl had been going home before midnight after an evening out with her friends when she was assaulted and killed. Instantly, a heavy rumor mill around the Finnish imageboards and other forums started revolving around claims – some asserted with certainty, “I’m from Valkeakoski and everyone here knows…” – that the murderer had been an asylum seeker on some other immigrant.
Such rumors were quelled pretty fast when more information was received on the main suspect, an 18-year-old native Finnish man. Indeed, in an ironic turn, it turned out that the assumed murderer had been posting his rape/murder fantasies on the imageboard in question. The admins had removed the thread and alerted the police. However, several users had agreed with the OP and egged him on, probably sarcastically, perhaps not.
This has, then, led to a fair amount of debate on the amount of woman-hatred on imageboards, and Finnish culture in general – the “woman or bear” meme, previously not a particularly popular one in Finland, has gained a new lease on life, as the whole case did, indeed, show that in some cases it is dangerous for a woman to meet a man in the woods. A young man was also found dead in nearby Nokia, receiving less attention, though that might also be because the police quickly ruled out homicide as a probable cause.
EURO ELECTIONS: The advance voting for the European elections is going on. European elections tend to have low voting rates, and while this one has seen a slight uptick in voting rates, it still does not qualify not a particular exception. The European Parliament continues to be a far-off institution to the Finns, and no wonder, considering how much of the European politics is still basically decided between the countries – particularly the large ones.
In Finland, as in the other countries, the main narrative has been the rise of the (far) right, with the various far-right groupings predicted to become a major player in European politics and a potential partner for the center-right EPP group, which has thus far governed the European Union mostly in cooperation with the liberals and the social democrats. A particular worry in Finland has been what this would do for EU support to Ukraine – while many nationalist parties in the EU, including the local Finns Party, generally support Ukraine, many others have a history of taking a more pro-Russian tone.
At the current moment, it doesn’t seem like the Finns Party is advancing locally – the polls suggest it will elect 2 MPs – so the main topics include whether the Swedish People’s Party, somewhat less-than-willingly associated in the government with the Finns Party, will lose its sole seat due to usual voters protesting against the perceived loss of liberal values. Even if the party is elected, it may not retain its position in the liberal ALDE group, as some other parties have raised complaints about whether parties in government with far-right parties can still be considered liberal.
MARITIME BORDERS: According to news in Russian media, Russia has drawn up plans to unilaterally adjust its maritime borders in the Baltic, i.e. its maritime borders with Russia and Estonia. While this caused a bit of a shock in the countries – with some even wondering if this is a sufficient reason for NATO Article 4 or Article 5 consultations – the Russians themselves later stated that these were only draft plans. Even if they did implement them, it would not be obvious whether the actual changes in maritime borders would affect Finland’s maritime borders or only the international ones.
At the same time, Russia may be ramping up the level of anti-Finnish disturbances as the war in Ukraine seems to be heating up and Western nations are considering their level of involvement. For instance, a show of Finnish “Russophobia” was put up near the Finnish embassy in Moscow, with complaints ranging from actual ones – like the Finnish participation in Operation Barbarossa – to odd ones, like Finnish vodka tourism in the Soviet Union in the 60s and the 70s.
In a recent poll, a majority of Finns indicated that they believe that the EU should send troops to Ukraine if Ukraine was losing, a rather surprising result as the Finnish political class continues to be skeptical about the idea. An even bigger surprise is that such views are the most common among Greens and Left Alliance supporters – well, not Greens, who have been trending towards Atlanticism even before 2022, but before that date, Left Alliance was firmly anti-NATO and pacifistic.
IN OTHER NEWS, a lawsuit on whether the Covid passport of 2021 was constitutional was thrown out with heavy fees to the plaintiff and the attorney, the law on selling strong alcohol in stores advances, and a berry picking firm’s CEO was convicted of human trafficking due to using maltreated Thai labor.
Image: Valkeakoski. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Valkeakoski#/media/File:Valkeakosken_kanava.jpg
Interesting write up as always.
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Thanks for the letter again. About the alcohol law: the governmet intends to allow sales of beverages with max 8% C2H6O content, and only when produced with the fermentation method. So it's a bit misleading to talk about "strong alcohol" being introduced to grocery stores.