The above photograph is special and historic for several reasons:
- It is the first time in Europe’s recent history where 5 women are heading all of the political parties in any government. This is a follow-up on Finland being the first country in the world to allow women to be elected as members of parliament in 1907.
- Finland has appointed the youngest serving prime minister – Social Democrat Sanna Marin, 34 years of age.
- Men are not too happy about this but women are! It is strange to hear men complaining about having these 5 ladies running the government – men have never complained about all male dominated party leaders.
This government’s make-up is a fairly normal one for Finland where five political parties have together formed a coalition to govern.
This is a super-conservative country where people are generally well educated, well informed and do not like flouting themselves – they are modest and self depreciating – Trump and Johnson are regarded with horror, while Macron raises eyebrows… The rest you can work out for yourselves but pragmatic Protestants is a good description of the average Finn, including active party members, the numbers of which are falling rapidly…
The 5 parties in government have very different histories but these are not so relevant these days. These pragmatic Finns can work together across party lines when necessary – real compromise is a necessity for small countries in these huge global markets. Only big countries have the luxury of bloody warfare across the battlefield… and that may not be much of a luxury! It is probably better to describe it as a loser’s game because it is taxpayers who pay the costs of such actions.
Click on the photo to enlarge it…
Photo: Twitter – Tuomas Niskakangas
