Finnish News Recap, Week 15: 24 Questions Edition

GOVERNMENT FORMATION PROCESS: The elections are over and horse trading for government begins. As is tradition in Finland since, well, 2011, the person designated to form the government – in this case Petteri Orpo, the leader of the victorious National Coalition party, has sent 24 questions to other parties to find out potential government partners. In practice, the questions are probably not as important as the dealmaking in the background. Still, the questions might tell something about the choices the potential PM and their party will make…

…though questions, being very general, told mostly nothing. Unsurprisingly the focus was on economic questions, particularly National Coalition’s goal of “fiscal balancing” (austerity). Since this is the topic where National Coalition and Social Democrats have the most disagreements, and since questions about the environment, migration, and EU (the areas where NC has most disagreements with the right-wing populist Finns party, another major coalition party) were more brief and rather vague, some guessed that these meant that NC is aiming to form a right-wing government.

Other things, like the actual answers to questions, have since then indicated that a “blue red” government between National Coalition and Social Democrats is gaining in possibility. Finnish media keeps switching between predicting a right-wing government and a blue-red government daily. All of this is very vague and probably not even explaining in depth, it can be guessed that the government formation process is still at an early stage and will remain so until May Day, at least.

ÅLAND QUESTION: After Finland joined NATO, I, and many others, hoped that discussions about the foreign and security policy would move on from this perennial topic. They have now - to the Åland demilitarization question, one of the dumber topics available.

The island of Åland is an autonomous community that is mostly rather detached from the Finnish mainland and conducts its own affairs. This autonomy was guaranteed to Åland as a part of the solution of the ‘Åland dispute’ between Finland and Sweden over 100 years ago, one of the only things the League of Nations managed to solve during its short existence.

Even before this, Åland had already been demilitarized after the Crimean War. Since Russia, back then including Finland, lost the war, partly also fought around the Åland isles, the victorious powers demanded that Russia would refrain from fortifying the island, which they obeyed until WW1. After the war, and the Russian Revolution, independence of Finland and the Åland dispute, the demilitarization was confirmed again, as it was also after the Russo-Finnish WW2 peace treaty of Paris in 1947.

The demilitarization of Åland has always been a sore topic to certain security experts and others, and of course after February 22, 2022, there have been calls to end it, particularly strongly the last week. However, pretty much no-one has been able to conclusively argue *what* exactly is gained by this, apart from some inchoate military advantage (see this for a counterargument why occupying and keeping Åland would not be easy for Russia in any case, even in case of a surprise “special operation”).

However, it would annoy the islanders, and might even strengthen the (tiny) movement for independence. Personally, I support the sovereignty of Åland up to the right to become independent if they wish, and many Finns are fond of saying that Åland can go to hell if they want, but I also surmise that if this became an actual issue, this might change a fair bit and a lot of people would suddenly find *many* reasons why the secession couldn’t take place. Perhaps it’s best to not even get that far.

In other news, following Marin’s resignation from party leadership last week, Green leader Maria Ohisalo also resigned, allowing the next party convention to pick her successor. One of the most talked about candidates, Atte Harjanne, the chief of the party’s right-wing, announced he’s not running. Other candidates are, but that’s probably something to be explained in detail when the convention happens. Harjanne is known, among other things, for being an early advocate of nuclear power - with the much-delayed Olkiluoto 3 reactor finally also starting production.

Also, Finns took the piss out of the weird masculinity influencer Andrew Tate for going to a 50 °C warm sauna and sitting on the kiddy seat while trying to look all masculine and firm. I guess this is how Italians feel when seeing the various monstrosity combinations Nordic people have invented for pizza. Furthermore, three QAnon-level conspiracy theorists were arrested after snooping on military installations, trying to find evidence of a vast network of tunnels where the deep state is keeping its child sex slaves, or at least that’s their claim of their actions.

The image is the Åland pancake, a traditional Åland food, topped with the region’s flag. It’s from here.