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Finland election: Three-way race as Sanna Marin fights for survival

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Finns are voting in an election that is seen as a close battle between the center-left of Prime Minister Sanna Marin and right-wing populists, conservatives, and others.

Even though Finland has the longest border with Russia and is just a few days away from joining NATO, the conflict in the Ukraine has had minimal effect on the country’s political landscape. Instead, the economy has been the key issue in the election.

And Finns are making a significant decision for the future of their nation. The results of over 1.7 million advance ballots will be announced at 20:00 (17:00 GMT), when polls shut. Polls began at 09:00 (06:00 GMT). Right-wing opposition to Sanna Marin’s Social Democrats is the biggest threat.

Petteri Orpo’s conservative National Coalition Party is eager to build a coalition after four years of opposition, but the populist Finns Party may have its best chance to become prime minister ever.

Ms. Marin, now 37, made her debut four years ago as the youngest prime minister in history, leading a coalition of five parties that were all led by women. She continues to have strong poll numbers, but she is viewed as divisive and came under fire last summer when a video showed her singing, dancing, and intoxicating herself at a party surfaced.

“She has a substantial following outside her party,” says Vesa Vares, professor of contemporary history at the University of Turku.

The public debt of Finland and how the nation’s cherished welfare state may be financed in the future have been the main campaign issues.

Even though Sanna Marin claims the government had to spend heavily in reaction to Covid and neighbouring Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the right has attacked her for raising the national debt.

According to Matti Koivisto, political correspondent for Finland’s public broadcaster YLE, worrying about the public finances is a quality unique to the Finns. But, the country is dealing with a structural issue due to an ageing population and a lack of workers to support it.

The southern region of Uusimaa, where 30% of the population resides, is where the labour shortage is most severe, and it is particularly serious in three of the biggest cities, Helsinki, Espoo and Vantaa.

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Finland’s Sanna Marin says Europe would be in trouble without US

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According to Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin, Europe “is not strong enough” to resist Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on its own and has been forced to rely on US assistance. The head of the potential Nato member stated that Europe’s defences needed to be bolstered while on a visit to Australia.

She added, “I have to be brutally honest with you, Europe isn’t strong enough at the moment. Without the United States, “we would be in serious difficulty.” The majority of Ukraine’s military support comes from the US. According to a research briefing released by the UK’s House of Commons last month, it has invested $18.6 billion (€17.7 billion; £15.2 billion) in support since the conflict began in February.

According to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, the European Union is the second-largest donor, followed by the United Kingdom. However, the US’s contributions much outweigh theirs. Additionally, Ms. Marin argued that more needs to be done to strengthen European defences as military supplies from European nations to Ukraine are running low.

Ms. Marin stated: “The United States has contributed a lot of weaponry, a lot of money, a lot of humanitarian aid to Ukraine and Europe isn’t strong enough yet” on Friday at the Lowy Institute think tank in Sydney.

She continued by saying that Europe needed to “develop those capacities in terms of European defence, European defence industry, and making sure that we could handle in different sorts of situations.”

Donald Trump, the president of the United States, frequently criticised NATO members who do not spend enough on defence while in office. According to estimates, the US spent slightly over 3.7% of its GDP on defence in 2020, compared to an average of 1.77% for NATO members in Europe and Canada.

Prime Minister Marin continued by criticising recent initiatives by some European nations to improve their relations with Russia.

The UK said in June that its defence spending would reach 2.5% of GDP by the end of the decade under then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

According to NATO, all members must pledge 2% in order to “guarantee the alliance’s military readiness.” Additionally, new proposals have been made for NATO countries to raise their defence spending to 3% of GDP.

Finland, which has a significant border with Russia, submitted an official application to join NATO in May. Accession protocols were signed in July, but all other members have not yet ratified them.

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Russia has cut off gas deliveries to Finland

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Russia has stopped supplying natural gas to Finland, according to Gasum, the Finnish state-owned energy company.

Finland has refused to pay in roubles for its supplies. However, it comes after Finland’s announcement that it will apply to join NATO. Gasum said the move was “regrettable,” but that customers would not be inconvenienced.

Despite the conflict in Ukraine, Russia continues to provide gas to a number of European countries. Following Western sanctions over the war, Russia announced that “unfriendly” countries must pay for gas in Russian currency, a move the EU regards as blackmail.

Many consumers are experiencing a cost-of-living crisis as a result of their reliance on Russian energy. The majority of Finland’s gas is imported from Russia, but gas accounts for less than a tenth of the country’s total energy consumption.

“It is extremely unfortunate that natural gas supplies under our supply contract will now be halted,” Gasum CEO Mika Wiljanen said. “However, we have been meticulously preparing for this situation, and we will be able to supply all of our customers with gas in the coming months assuming there are no disruptions in the gas transmission network,” he added. “It is obvious that nobody is going to deliver anything for free,” a Kremlin spokesman said when asked about the situation.

Russia also cut Finland’s electricity supply on Sunday. If Finland applied to join Nato, it had threatened retaliation.

Separately, Russia’s state-owned oil company Rosneft announced on Friday that former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder had informed them that he would no longer serve on its board of directors.

Mr. Schröder’s lucrative role has sparked growing public outrage. He has refused to criticise Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, whom he considers a personal friend, over the conflict.

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Finland will apply for NATO membership “as soon as possible”

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Finland’s president and prime minister have urged the country to join NATO “as soon as possible.”

In a joint statement, Sauli Niinisto and Sanna Marin said they expected a decision within the next few days. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, public support for Nato membership has risen dramatically.

Finland and Russia share a 1,300-kilometer (810-mile) border. To avoid antagonising its eastern neighbour, it has stayed out of Nato until now.

After consideration by parliament and other senior political figures, Finland will formally announce its decision on Sunday.

Sweden has stated that it will make a similar announcement on the same day.

If the two governments abandon their long-standing policy of military non-alignment, Russia has threatened unspecified measures.

However, Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has stated that he expects Sweden and Finland to join Nato “quite quickly.”

In their statement, President Niinisto and Prime Minister Marin stated that they wanted to give the Finnish public time to discuss the issue, but that the time for a decision was approaching.

It stated that joining NATO would strengthen Finland’s security. “Finland’s membership in Nato would strengthen the entire defence alliance. Finland should apply for NATO membership as soon as possible.”

Later, in an interview with journalists, Mr Niinisto addressed Russian concerns and blamed the move on Moscow’s invasion.

“Anyone would not be against joining NATO. This was your fault. Examine yourself in the mirror “he said.

Last week, a poll found that 76 percent of Finns support joining NATO, with only 12 percent opposed, marking a significant shift toward membership since the invasion.

During World War II, Finland and the Soviet Union were on opposing sides, with the Finns famously repelling a Soviet invasion in 1939-40.

However, Finland lost 10% of its land in the final peace agreement and remained a non-aligned country throughout the Cold War.

Russia’s borders with Nato would be more than doubled if it joined the alliance. Sweden shares no borders with Russia.

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Finland uses sniffer dogs to detect Covid-19 patients at airports

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Sniffer dogs are a friend of security forces. Normally, they are used to detect bombs. They are a common sight in airports.

Do you know they can be used for many other tasks too. In Finland, these dogs are even used to detect Covid-19 patients.

As part of a trial, these dogs have already been deployed in an airport in Finland, named Helsinki-Vantaa airport.

As per a study, these dogs can detect the presence of the virus in human at least five days before the appearance of any symptom.

The trial is being conducted under the guidance of the University of Helsinki. It is being monitored by a term of experts from the university.

The trial is a part of the research program launched by the university.

If the result turns positive, many other airports in the region may adopt this method.

Compared to other methods for detecting Covid-19 patients, this one is far less complicated, through the credibility of the method is still largely doubtful.

Anyway, it is important to carry out more researches in this area. Actually, it may not be easy for many to digest this matter in this stage.

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Media Training Row: Finish FM resigns

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Katri Kulmuni, the Finance Minister of Finland, has filed her resignation following revelations that she spent more than €50,000 of public money on media training.

Ms Kulmuni, who is the leader of the ruling Centre Party since September 2019, earlier promised that she would pay back the entire money to the country.

She is not the first person who has resigned from the coalition government which rules the European country of Finland. Actually, she is the second senior member of the coalition government to resign in the recent times.

Last year, she, who was just 32-year-old, was presented by Finish medias as the young rise from the Finnish political platform.  

While speaking to media personals about the resignation, the young politician has said that she was not aware about the gravity of the issue.

Anyway, speaking about the resignation, Finish Prime Minister Sanna Marin has called the decision of his colleague as bold. V

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Finland’s Sanna Marin to become world’s youngest PM

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Sanna Marin, the Prime Minister of Finland, is set to become the youngest Prime Minister of the world, after Ukraine’s Oleksiy Honcharuk, 35, and New Zealand’s Jacinda Arden, 39.

At present, the Finnish ‘PM to be’ is only 34 year old. Currently, she is the transport minister of the country.

The road towards her induction has been paved after Antti Rinne resigned from the post of the PM of Finland recently as one of the coalition partners of the centre-left coalition lost confidence in him for his inability to address a recent strike effectively.

The new alternative has been selected by the Social Democratic party itself. Interestingly, the nomination of a woman to the post of the PM of Finland makes the country a true women-led government. At present, all the five parties, which make the coalition, are led by women.


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