Saturday, February 8, 2025

Polaris of Enlightenment

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Stubb and Haavisto advance in Finnish presidential election

Published 30 January 2024
– By Editorial Staff
Pekka Haavisto and Alexander Stubb will meet again in the second round of the Finnish presidential election.

As expected, there will be a second round in the Finnish presidential election. The liberal-conservative Coalition Party’s Alexander Stubb is running against the independent ‘Green’ candidate Pekka Haavisto.

We made it to the finals! But you know what, the battle has only just begun, Alexander Stubb told an enthusiastic audience at the National Coalition Party’s election night party.

Stubb, who has served as Finland’s prime minister and finance minister, received 27.2 percent of the vote. Haavisto, who describes himself as politically independent but is supported and promoted by the Greens and has a history as environment minister and leader of both the Greens and the European Green Party, came a close second with 25.8%.

– I ask you for three things, number one, we will work insanely hard over the next 13 days. Number 2: We will be humble. Number 3: We will respect our opponent and run an honest race. Then we will see where the blue bar is, said Stubb, who has a long history of EU involvement and is also Vice President of the European Investment Bank.

Haavisto was also pleased, pointing out that they had won in major cities such as Helsinki and Tampere, as well as in Åland.

True Finns’ candidate Jussi Halla-Aho came third with about 19% of the vote in an election in which 74.9% of Finns voted – a turnout described as “high”.

Record number of early votes

– It is high. There is a lot of talk about Finns not being interested in politics, but that is not true, political scientist Åsa von Schoultz told Yle.

There are also big regional differences. In Helsinki, 78.5 percent of the population voted, compared to 64.7 percent in Åland. In addition, 44.6 percent of the electorate voted in advance, which is also a historic number.

Since none of the candidates is close to getting half of the votes, a second round will be held on February 11, when Stubb will face Haavisto. It should also be noted that the figures are preliminary and the verification count is expected to be completed only on Tuesday evening.

On March 1, incumbent president Sauli Niinistö will leave office and the newly elected president will take office.

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More Finns are refraining from major purchases

Published 4 February 2025
– By Editorial Staff

A growing proportion of Finns are hesitating to make major purchases, such as home renovations, according to a survey by the Federation of Finnish Financial Services. Half have either abandoned planned purchases or postponed them due to low confidence in the economy.

The FA citizen survey has been conducted in Finland every year since 2022, asking Finns how the global political situation affects their own or their family’s plans for major purchases, such as renovations or buying a holiday home.

In December 2024, 26% of respondents said that they had postponed major purchases due to the unstable world situation. Another 23% had completely abandoned their plans.

– According to the survey, Finns’ confidence in their own economy seems to remain very low, says Arno Ahosniemi, Managing Director of the Finnish FA, in a press release.

In the previous survey, conducted in February 2024, only 11% of Finns said they had completely abandoned their plans and showed more signs of optimism about their finances. Now, however, Finns’ economic uncertainty has returned to the same level as when it was at its lowest in 2023.

At the beginning of 2024, Finns still had a clear perception that the worst was over and that more stable and better economic times were on the way, says Ahosniemi. The pressing question is how to make Finns believe in a better and safer future.

Confidence in the future varied between age groups. Among Finns aged 18-49, 60% had postponed or abandoned their planned purchases, while the corresponding figure for 70-79 year olds was 30%.

Finland also saw an increase in the number of unemployed in December, with the unemployment rate reaching 8.9%, and a large number of highly educated people in the country are also out of work, reports the Finnish state broadcaster Yle. In December, 52,000 highly educated Finns were unemployed, which is the highest figure since 2015.

320,000 unemployed in Finland

Published 26 January 2025
– By Editorial Staff
The number of unemployed young people has increased by 12%.

The number of unemployed in Finland increased in December, compared to the same month in 2023. The open unemployment rate now stands at 8.9%.

In December 2024, the number of unemployed in Finland was 321,700, which is an increase of 24,000 compared to December 2023. Between November and December, the number of unemployed increased by 29,000, according to the Ministry of Labor and Health.

At the same time, the number of long-term unemployed rose to 109,600, representing an increase of 20%, while unemployment among young people under 25 increased by 12%. The number of job vacancies in Finland has also fallen sharply, from over 81,000 to 43,300 in one year.

In December, the unemployment rate reached 8.9%, an increase of 1.2 percentage points.

Finnish security service: Severed sea cables likely accidental

The new cold war

Published 23 January 2025
– By Editorial Staff
The seized tanker Eagle S.

Finnish authorities are expected to conclude shortly the preliminary investigation against the tanker Eagle S, accused of causing damage to the Estlink 2 power cable between Finland and Estonia, as well as to several telecommunication cables in the Baltic Sea.

Suspicions were initially directed at the Eagle S, which was alleged to have deliberately dragged its anchor along the seabed, thereby damaging the cables.

Finnish authorities boarded the vessel and started questioning the crew. However, Customs announced that no criminal investigation will be opened against the crew, as they are not deemed to have willfully violated any sanctions.

So far, no other evidence has been presented to suggest that the crew intentionally caused the damage. The National Bureau of Investigation has stated that the active preliminary phase of the investigation will soon be completed, reports Helsingin Sanomat via TT.

Despite this, suspicions of gross sabotage against the Eagle S remain. The ship is still seized, and a Finnish court has rejected the owner’s request to release it.

Lack of evidence

Russia has consistently dismissed Western claims that Russian ships deliberately sabotaged the submarine cables as “baseless”. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova argues that the US-led NATO military pact is creating myths to justify an increased presence in the Baltic Sea and to limit Russian oil exports.

It should be noted that no concrete evidence linking Russia to the incident has been presented to date, according to Helsingin Sanomat, citing five sources familiar with the investigation. The information was also confirmed to Hufvudstadsbladet by a source in the Finnish state administration with insight into the case.

In the meantime, Finland and Estonia continue to work on repairs to the damaged cables. Fingrid, Finland’s national grid operator, has requested a court to seize the Eagle S to secure claims for damages related to Estlink 2.

Meanwhile, NATO has increased its presence in the Baltic Sea region in what it describes as “a precautionary measure against potential threats to critical infrastructure”. The other day, Operation Baltic Sentry was launched to patrol and protect important underwater structures such as gas pipelines and internet cables.

The Finnish authorities stress that the investigation into Eagle S is expected to be completed shortly.

Labradors most popular in Finland

Published 12 January 2025
– By Editorial Staff
In Finland, the Labrador is almost twice as popular as the Golden Retriever.

The Labrador is still the most popular dog breed among Finnish dog owners.

In 2024, 40,364 dogs were registered with the Finnish Kennel Club, down from 43,813 the previous year. Despite the decline, the number of registered dogs in Finland remains high from an international perspective.

The Labrador Retriever continues to be the most popular dog breed in the country, according to the Finnish Kennel Club. The breed has topped the list since 2009, and last year 2,330 individuals were registered in Finland.

The Golden Retriever comes second with 1,224 dogs registered last year, followed by the Finnish Lapphund as the third most popular dog breed.

Last year, a total of 317 different dog breeds and breed crosses were registered in Finland.