The Editor in chief apologies for the lack of news about Finnish politics but the truth is that there is nothing to say. Newspapers here have been covering the same Virus with different angles in attempt to fill the pages because, according to them, nothing else is happening…
But this week saw some small glimmers of light and it’s difficult to know whether one should laugh or cry at this latest news on Finnish politics.
The first piece of news that causes me to laugh and cry simultaneously was the news from the mouth of the leader of the opposition Conservative Party here who made a demand that all Finns should start using facemasks as soon as they leave their place of residence. It appears that the leader of the opposition has become an all-knowing eminent scientists in the fashion of Donald Trump…
The second piece of news that causes me to laugh and cry simultaneously was the news that the state owned national railways, VR, have started delivering food from their restaurant wagons to anyone standing nearby the railway lines. Many trains have been cancelled, stations are empty and railway staff have been laid off. In order to overcome the severe drop in revenue the great leaders of the National Railway network have discovered an innovative way to usefully employ their locomotives and staff. According to the news it appears that they are delivering food to residents in Helsinki, many of whom are living near the railway lines. One can imagine that they have taken their steam engines in all their glory and hitched them up to the restaurant wagons so that the hundred thousand railway employees can now start to work delivering food parcels instead of driving trains, punching tickets and manning railway stations. That’s a great innovation…
The third piece of news that causes me to laugh and cry simultaneously was an interview of Mr. Timo Soini in the Financial Times this weekend by Richard Milne. My first reaction was one of horror that this person can be regarded to be some kind of business leader or important Finnish political personage with influence over European or global affairs. This politician led his tiny populist party to a glorious march (“Onward Christian Soldiers” goes the English hymn) from a small opposition party to important ministerial posts in the government when he, with a some two dozen others, resigned from the party to join the government. It was quite an achievement to go from the opposition to join the government as a minister with nice black Mercedes and an opportunity to sit with Trump at the religious breakfast party in Washington. Most thinking people felt uncomfortable with the fact that he was so anxious to sit with the very secular Mr Trump given that Mr Soini is a deeply religious catholic parishioner. Anyway his position at the top table didn’t last very long and in the following general election they lost all their seats but one. The Financial Times could have made a better choice if they really felt the necessity to interview any Finish politician.
