Helsingin Sanomat reports that  Finland only has about between 10 and 20 toy stores left  after the  sudden bankruptcy and closure of the BR and Toys 'R' Us chains  at the end of 2018.
 The toy industry association Leluyhdistys tells the paper that the wholesale trade in toys grew by 11.7 percent in 2017, but that most of the toys sold in Finland today aren't sold in dedicated toy stores, but in large supermarkets and the like. The owner of the Prisma chain of big box stores, S-Group, says its toy sales have fallen by a few percentage points every year.
 S-Group's  Emilia Lehtonen  tells HS that the reason for flagging sales is the "changing nature of play. Children are switching to mobile and computer games at younger and younger ages."
 Kesko representative  Hannele Åberg  tells the paper that sales of toys have grown in the last few years in K-Citymarket locations.
 "At first, when the electronic games and digitalization hit, it hit toy sales very hard. But toys have made a good comeback in the last few years, in our experience. Children will always need to play," she says.
 Conflicting reports on alcohol sales
 Ilta-Sanomat features a story on the  effects of the reformed Alcohol Act  that came into force in early 2018. One year later, the Brewer's Federation and the national health watchdog have "completely different evaluations" of the repercussions of the new statues, the tabloid says.
 Among other things , the new law allowed for stronger alcoholic drinks to be sold in shops and kiosks. Alko's business manager  Kari Pennanen  tells IS that overall sales at his state-owned chain of liquor stores had fallen by over 8 percent in 2018 on the previous year. He says the sale of "lighter products" such as non-alcoholic drinks, rosé and white wine, and champagne have grown since 2017, while the sale of long drinks, beer and cider have fallen".
 Kari Luoto  of the Finnish Grocery Trade Association says the sales of long drinks in particular have gone up by over 60 percent in food shops, and sales of beer and cider have dropped off slightly in the last year.
 Research professor  Pia Mäkelä  of the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) says the reformed alcohol law has brought an end to a steady decline in alcohol consumption in Finland "or it has even started to go up, which would not be a good thing in terms of the health hazards," she says.
 Finland's Federation of the Brewing and Soft Drinks Industry will have its final statistics on 2018 sales in February, but CEO  Riikka Pakarinen  tells IS that preliminary data shows that more strong beers and ciders were sold in 2018, but that total sales by litre were down. Mid-strength beer continues to dominate the market, accounting for 90 percent of beer sales.
 "Non-alcoholic drinks are selling better, and at this stage, it looks as if the fears surrounding the Alcohol Act reforms have not come true, because there has not been a surge in alcohol sales. Higher taxes on alcohol have reduced sales," she tells IS, adding that taxation on alcoholic drinks in Finland must be lowered so that it is "closer to European levels".
 Sauli has the last word
 And to finish, Verkkouutiset features a  comment from Finnish President Sauli Niinistö  in response to  criticism of his choice of words in his annual New Year's Day address  to the nation.
 Green MP Ozan Yanar joined  several others  in criticizing Niinistö's phrase asking migrant communities to "bear responsibility by guiding their own".
 Yanar took to  social media  on Thursday to comment on why he felt the President's choice of words was inappropriate, urging his readers to imagine that a Finn was accused of an extremely offensive crime in a foreign country, after which the president of that country encouraged the immigrant groups there to "guide their own".
 The Turkish-born MP said it was an "absurd" suggestion from the point of view of an individual who had nothing to do with it.
 Niinistö responded to Niinistö's tweet on Twitter by explaining that "I spoke of 'those here', i.e. all individuals in Finland, regardless of their background. Both in my speech and in my interview with Helsingin Sanomat, I did not use collective expressions like immigrant community or group, because I was taking about individuals."


Speaker of Parliament  Paula Risikko  told Yle's Ykkösaamu programme on Saturday that Finland should update laws to make it easier to deport permanent resident holders convicted of crimes.
 Risikko said that while Finland will continue to offer protection to those in need, ”the country’s system can also be abused," according to Risikko,  echoing a similar message delivered by president Sauli Niinistö  in his New Year’s address earlier this week.
 ”We must have the possibility to nullify residence permits, including permanent ones,” she explained.
 Laws governing residence permits should include consideration for ’national threats,’ Risikko told the breakfast programme.
 ”If a person is deemed a national threat, it should be possible to cancel their residence permit.”
 Once granted, it is very difficult for the state to rescind residence permits.
 ”I know this is a very sensitive subject, but the cases in Oulu are extremely shocking,” she said, referring to recent  sex abuse cases involving minors and asylum seekers .
 ”[Sex crimes] are punishable offences and perpetrators will, if necessary, be sent back to their countries of origin. In Finland we play by our laws,” she stated.


The nationalist Finns Party scored the biggest gains in the latest Yle/ Taloustutkimus party poll. The party's support has risen by more than two percentage points to 10.2 percent since the last survey, still within the poll's 2.1-percentage-point margin of error.
 This is the first time the populist party’s support has passed 10 percent since last June – but still far below its peak of 19.1 percent in the  2011 election .
 According to pollster Taloustutkimus research director  Tuomo Turja , Finns Party support clearly rose immediately after recent news of crimes attributed to immigrants  in Oulu  and  Helsinki .
 SDP and NCP neck-and-neck
 Meanwhile the rivalry between the two most popular parties, the Social Democrats (SDP) and the conservative National Coalition Party (NCP), is heating up. The SDP again emerged in the top spot, but its backing dipped to 21.2 percent – as the NCP was breathing down its neck, rising to 19.6 percent.
 Prime Minister  Juha Sipilä ’s Centre Party saw voter approval slide to 16.1 percent, its lowest level in nearly a year and a half. Turja notes that the biggest losses in Centre support were among men and residents of the Oulu region – Sipilä’s home district.
 Greens' rise levels off
 Two months ago, the opposition Greens chose former chair, government minister and presidential contender  Pekka Haavisto  as their new leader after the previous chair stepped down for health reasons.
 That sparked a  sharp rise in party support  in November, which has now dropped off. Party support edged down slightly to 13.6 percent, still enough to keep them within shouting distance of the traditional ‘big three’ parties.
 Turja points out that if the Greens’ electoral result is between 13.5 and 14 percent, that would be a major gain since the last parliamentary and municipal elections.
 The Left Alliance’s popularity was up by one percentage point to 9.5 percent. Turja says the opposition party is gaining popularity among women as well as white-collar workers.
 The other parties – including junior government partners the Blue Reform – all garnered well below five percent support.
 Red-Greens could gain 26 seats in Parliament
 With less than three months to go before advance voting begins on April 3, Taloustutkimus has made preliminary projections as to how the parties might fare in terms of seats in Parliament, based on the last six monthly polls.
 Parties now in opposition stand to gain the most seats, says the pollster.
 The SDP could pick up 13 more seats to give them a bloc of 47 MPs in the 200-seat legislature, raising them from the third-largest to the biggest party in the chamber.
 The Greens would gain 10 seats for a total of 25, while the Left Alliance might add three for a 15-member delegation.
 Of the three current government parties, the NCP is poised to add six seats for a total of 43 MPs. The premier’s Centre, meanwhile, looks likely to drop seven seats, falling behind the NCP with one seat less at 42.
 The number-crunchers compared the latest data with figures from the spring 2015 parliamentary election.
 They predict that based on current polling, the Finns Party are on track to lose two seats from their current 17, giving them a 15-seat bloc, on par with the Left. That would be a precipitous drop of 23 seats from the 2015 election – as the party split in mid-2017.
 A splinter group left to establish the Blue Reform party, which despite ministerial posts has failed to excite voters’ interest so far – sttracting support of just one percent in this poll.
 Taloustutkimus interviewed 2,443 people between 10 December and 8 January. It puts the margin of error at +/- 2.1 percentage points for the larger parties.


Finland's Feminist Party, Pirate Party, Animal Justice Party and Liberal Party have decided to come together to create a joint electoral union in Helsinki ahead of the parliamentary elections on 14 April.
 "With this configuration, we only need a few thousand more votes to give our electoral union a seat in parliament," says  Katju Aro , Feminist Party chair.
 "Our minimum objective is one place; it is a realistic goal. It looks as if we will be able to achieve this with our union,"  Petrus Pennanen , chair of the Pirate Party, agrees.
 A total of 13,528 votes was enough to gain the final parliamentary seat representing Helsinki in 2015, which went to a Finns Party candidate.
 About 3,000 votes short
 In the  2017 municipal elections , the four political parties in question earned 10,395 votes when counted together in the capital city, meaning that the new electoral union would only need a slightly over 3,000-vote improvement on this turnout to earn a MP post.
 The Pirate Party is the largest of the four future electoral union's parties on the national level, but the Feminist Party gained the largest share of votes from Helsinki in the municipal elections two years ago.
 "During the municipal elections we surprised everyone and gained a spot, even though our party had only been registered two months earlier. We will try to do the same thing now," Aro says.
 Story continues after the photo
 Pirate Party chair Petrus Pennanen Yle
 Nine extra-parliamentary parties are vying for parliamentary seats in mid-April. In addition to the four parties of the newly-formed electoral union, there's the Communist Party, the Communist Worker's Party, the Citizen's Party, the Independence Party and Finnish People First.
 Borg: Outlier parties rarely see election success
 Ten extra-parliamentary parties ran for seats in the Finnish Parliament in 2003 and 2007, but only 7 or 8 ran in 2011 and 2015. Tampere University researcher and election expert  Sami Borg  says outlier political parties rarely receive enough votes to secure a MP position.
 "There have been exceptions, of course, such as with the Greens and Young Finns," he says.
 Borg says the reason for this is clear.
 "Parliamentary parties have completely different financial resources to use in their election campaigns and gain visibility during the parliamentary term," he says.
 Unlike in other countries, Finnish residents are spoiled for choice when it comes to election candidates, as two new parliamentary parties ( Blue Reform  and  Seven Star Movement ) have been established over the last parliamentary term alone, in addition to one new political movement ( Movement Now ).
 This is in addition to the eight political parties that were voted into the Finnish Parliament in 2015: The Centre Party, National Coalition Party, Social Democratic Party, Finns Party, the Greens, Left Alliance, Swedish People's Party, and Christian Democrats.
 A total of 19 registered political parties and one political movement are therefore vying for a position in the upcoming general elections. Local electoral organizations can add even more candidates to the roster in some areas.
 Tough competition for Helsinki representation
 Analysts predict that there will be  tough competition for parliamentary seats  in the electoral districts of Helsinki and the Uusimaa region to which it belongs this spring. Smaller parties like the Blue Reform, Movement Now and Seven Star Movement are expected to target capital city voters.
 "We're still holding out for that Helsinki seat. If we can push a candidate through in Uusimaa, then maybe it will give rise to another opportunity," says the Feminist Party's Aro.
 "Our strongest support areas are university cities. We've currently got a municipal representative in both Helsinki and Jyväskylä," Pirate Party's Pennanen says.
 The reason so many of the more marginal political parties are concentrating their efforts in Helsinki is because of the low threshold of votes required to gain a parliamentary seat there. In the last general elections, winning just 3.7 percent of the vote was enough to become an MP in Helsinki, while 2.5 percent was sufficient in Uusimaa.
 Several Uusimaa MPs have also said that they would be relinquishing their parliamentary seat in the next election, freeing up close to 63,000 votes. In Helsinki this number is close to 30,000. Both leave room for new faces.


Finland has established a new food market ombudsman's role. The position, an initiative of Agriculture Minister  Jari Leppä , formally came into being on 1 January. The ministry will begin advertising the new post this month with the hope of filling the position in February.
 The central role of the food market ombudsman will be to oversee the functioning of the domestic produce market and to ensure that players comply with good business practices.
 The ombudsman’s office will be supported with two staff members and will operate as part of the ministry’s Food Agency with an annual budget of 500,000 euros.
 Leppä noted that there is a serious imbalance in the local food chain, specifically pointing to the role of large groceries.
 "Stores are extremely strong players. This imbalance has resulted in unwholesome practices and we want to curb them," the minister added.
 A study published in December last year indicated that  retailers’ share of food prices has shrunk , while prices in the food processing industry have increased.
 However Leppä said that the research does not tell the whole truth about long-term developments in the sector.
 "The report was relatively narrow and does not reveal operations in the entire sector. The general trend has been for cash flows to go everywhere else but to farmers," he commented.
 Large chains have upper hand, minister says
 The minister said that he had been contacted on many occasions about unhealthy retailer practices. Citing a recent case that came to his attention, he claimed that producers were being held to ransom by large chains wanting to white-label products to be sold under their proprietary Pirkka (Kesko Group) and Rainbow (S-Group) brands.
 "When a store wants some version of a branded product made under its own label and if the producers don’t provide them as such, then no branded product will appear on the shelves," the minster stated.
 Leppä added that while this is not always the case, "there are many examples." The lobby group representing food retailers said that it is not familiar with the situation the minister described.
 "We have not encountered such a phenomenon. It doesn’t sound familiar," said Finnish Grocery Trade Association (PTY) CEO  Kari Luoto .
 Unnecessary, if not disruptive
 PTY said that the introduction of a food ombudsman will not change the industry since there is nothing wrong with current grocery practices. Rather, the group said that a new layer of oversight would be detrimental to the market.
 A new food market law introduced to regulate the work of the ombudsman calls for producers to have written agreements with all food processors and retailers.
 Luoto noted that producers do not want written agreements because of the red tape involved. He added that making them compulsory might jeopardise the status of small producers, although the goal is to strengthen their position.
 "Recent years have seen an increase in products from very small local food producers on store shelves. We now fear that bureaucracy will further complicate this relationship," he commented.
 The PTY said that the best way to resolve problems relating to grocers’ practices would be for a self-regulating industry body or board to rule on disputes. The new legislation requires the ombudsman to cooperate with the board and to request statements from it before making a decision on a case.
 The ombudsman can resolve disputes by way of negotiation and may also offer recommendations if needed as well as reprimands and public warnings. Ultimately, he or she may also send cases to the Market Court for resolution.
 A new provision also calls for the ombudsman to review agreements among food producers, processors and retailers, including prices and other terms and conditions agreed.
 "We know producer and consumer prices, but we don’t know what happens in the chain. That’s why the discussion has been a 'he-said, she-said debate'" Leppä noted.


Finland's Minister of Employment  Jari Lindström  has announced that he is running for a seat in the European Parliament.
 Lindström is also planning to run in this spring's domestic parliamentary election, which will be the first election for the relatively new Blue Reform party.
 The Blue Reform has profiled itself as being sceptical on issues surrounding immigration. The party has said that it wants to work towards increasing resources for police and how such funding would be best distributed.
 The party has also raised the issue of personal consumer debt and has proposed making it possible to erase people's first payment default notices after the debt is fully paid.
 The Blue Reform's party chair, Minister for European Affairs, Culture and Sports  Sampo Terho , said he is hopeful about the future.
 "I am certain that we will create a parliamentary group. It is realistic to think that we will be as big as the Swedish People's Party or the Christian Democrats," Terho said. Those parties have had support of around 3-5 percent each in recent months.
 The Blue Reform, part of PM  Juha Sipilä 's tripartite centre-right government, was established by around 20 former Finns Party members who  broke off in 2017 , keeping their positions in government.
 However, the party has not received much support from the public.
 According to Yle's most recent political party support survey, the Blue Reform had the support of  1.5 percent of voters .
 Before he was elected MP on the Finns Party ticket in 2011, the now 53-year-old Lindström has previously worked at a papermill and is also a trained lab technician.


The nationalist Finns Party scored the biggest gains in the latest Yle/Taloustutkimus party poll. The party's support has risen by more than two percentage points to 10.2 percent since the last survey.
 This is the first time the populist party’s support has passed 10 percent since last June – but still far below its peak of 19.1 percent in the  2011 election . And they would still apparently lose seats in Parliament if the election were held now, due to a  party split  since the last election.
 According to pollster Taloustutkimus research director  Tuomo Turja , Finns Party support clearly rose immediately after recent news of crimes attributed to immigrants  in Oulu  and  Helsinki .
 SDP and NCP neck-and-neck
 Meanwhile the rivalry between the two most popular parties, the Social Democrats (SDP) and the conservative National Coalition Party (NCP), is heating up. The SDP again emerged in the top spot, but its backing dipped to 21.2 percent – as the NCP was breathing down its neck, rising to 19.6 percent.
 Prime Minister  Juha Sipilä ’s Centre Party saw voter approval slide to 16.1 percent, its lowest level in nearly a year and a half. Turja notes that the biggest losses in Centre support were among men and residents of the Oulu region – Sipilä’s home district.
 Greens' rise levels off
 Two months ago, the opposition Greens chose former chair, government minister and presidential contender  Pekka Haavisto  as their new leader after the previous chair stepped down for health reasons.
 That sparked a  sharp rise in party support  in November, which has now dropped off. Party support edged down slightly to 13.6 percent, still enough to keep them within shouting distance of the traditional ‘big three’ parties.
 Turja points out that if the Greens’ electoral result is between 13.5 and 14 percent, that would be a major gain since the last parliamentary and municipal elections.
 The Left Alliance’s popularity was up by one percentage point to 9.5 percent. Turja says the opposition party is gaining popularity among women as well as white-collar workers.
 The other parties – including junior government partners the Blue Reform – all garnered well below five percent support.
 Red-Greens could gain 26 seats in Parliament
 With less than three months to go before advance voting begins on April 3, Taloustutkimus has made preliminary projections as to how the parties might fare in terms of seats in Parliament, based on the last six monthly polls.
 Parties now in opposition stand to gain the most seats, says the pollster.
 The SDP could pick up 13 more seats to give them a bloc of 47 MPs in the 200-seat legislature, raising them from the third-largest to the biggest party in the chamber.
 The Greens would gain 10 seats for a total of 25, while the Left Alliance might add three for a 15-member delegation.
 Of the three current government parties, the NCP is poised to add six seats for a total of 43 MPs. The premier’s Centre, meanwhile, looks likely to drop seven seats, falling behind the NCP with one seat less at 42.
 The number-crunchers compared the latest data with figures from the spring 2015 parliamentary election.
 They predict that based on current polling, the Finns Party are on track to gain lose seats from their current 17, giving them a 15-seat bloc, on par with the Left. That would be a precipitous drop of 23 seats from the 2015 election – as the party split in mid-2017.
 A splinter group left to establish the Blue Reform party, which despite ministerial posts has failed to excite voters’ interest so far – attracting support of just one percent in this poll.
 Taloustutkimus interviewed 2,443 people between 10 December and 8 January. It puts the margin of error at +/- 2.1 percentage points for the larger parties.
 Correction, 2:51 pm: despite higher support, the Finns Party are on track to lose two seats, headline corrected accordingly.


Finland's news media all carry distressing statistics this Tuesday, following police reports of aggravated sexual offenses allegedly committed by asylum seekers and recent migrants against minors in Oulu.
 Amid the growing concern,  daily Helsingin Sanomat  publishes detailed figures from the National Police Board and Statistics Finland that show an increase in sexual attacks against minors since the year 2000. The number of cases reported that year was some 500, compared to nearly 1,700 in the worst year of 2011, many years before the steep rise in immigration.
 HS writes that the number of sexual offenses against minors grew last year, from some 1,200 to 1,400 reported cases. The severity of the charges has also risen; in 2000 some 15 percent of all sexual assault cases against minors were considered aggravated, whereas last year about a third of cases were prosecuted as aggravated.
 Risk factors
 The majority of the perpetrators in all cases of sexual assault and rape that took place in Finland were Finnish natives, according to the paper.
 However, last year one-fifth of suspected perpetrators in cases against minors were foreign citizens and about one-third of suspects in all cases of rape were non-Finnish, according to HS.
 Police figures show that foreign suspects in cases of child abuse in Finland hailed mainly from Iraq, Afghanistan, Estonia and Iran.
 A large proportion of asylum seekers from Iraq and Afghanistan are young men, and 20-34-year-old people from Iraq were found to be some 10 times more likely in 2017 to commit sexual offenses of some kind than Finnish citizens of the same age. Accurate comparisons were not possible on Monday due to a lack of fresh information on the age of asylum seekers.
 HS cites a Norwegian report that shows the reason for migration plays a crucial part in the likelihood that an immigrant might commit crimes in the foreign country they are in. Immigrants who arrive because of work, studies or family are equally or even less likely than Finnish-born people to commit illegal acts, the study found.
 Researcher  Martti Lehti  from the University of Helsinki says in HS that asylum seekers are the most challenging group of people to help integrate into Finnish society. People seeking asylum are generally fleeing some form of violence or persecution.
 "Asylum seekers tend to have less schooling than other groups, leading to a smaller chance of employment," Lehti says. "Slow employment, again, feeds crime."
 Human rights discussed
 Meanwhile,  tabloid Ilta-Sanomat  writes that president  Sauli Niinistö  used his time with Chinese president  Xi Jinping  on Monday to cover numerous issues face to face with China's leader. Among the issues discussed were China's human rights track record and ongoing controversial policy moves.
 Amid inspections of China's military and reminiscences about the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, Niinistö told IS he got in questions about the dozen or so Canadian nationals being held in custody by Beijing as well as the fate of hundreds of thousands of Muslim Uighurs, who are being actively oppressed and monitored by the Chinese government in the western Xinjiang region according to human rights advocacy groups.
 Niinistö was tight-lipped about the nature of his conversations with president Xi.
 "We talked through all of it. We spoke for about an hour and the subject matter did not upset the host at all," Niinistö said.
 Niinistö also said in IS that he spoke with Xi about the relationship between the three major world powers – the US, China and Russia – and about Korean tensions. As for the inflamed trade dispute between America and China, Niinistö's take was brief and nonchalant.
 "There's some sense of hope in the air, I suppose – at least nothing dark on the economic horizon. But let's not affect the stock market, now," Niinistö told the tabloid.


Finnish lawmakers tore into plans by government to raise customer health care costs during a parliamentary debate on Wednesday. MPs have begun discussing a new law proposal which government said would make patient health care costs fairer to everyone across the country.
 However, several opposition lawmakers said that the plans would make visits to health care clinics more expensive for society's most vulnerable populations.
 The subsidised fees people in Finland pay to go to public health care clinics vary quite a bit across the country's hundreds of municipalities. Now, in new draft legislation, government aims to unify those costs across the board.
 The pending bill states that a visit to a health care centre should not cost more than €20.60 and that the cost for a visit to a specialist physician should be a maximum of €41.20.
 Minister: Harmonised fees throughout
 Centre Party vice chair and Minister of Family Affairs and Social Services  Annika Saarikko  said the reform would make the health care system more equal for everyone in different parts of Finland.
 "For example, it would become much clearer for older people who [often find themselves] in a jungle of fees. Especially when you look at locations, we'll get clear rules on what it will cost and what criteria are used to determine the prices," Saarikko said.
 One of the specific aims of government's proposal stipulates that customers' health clinic fees should not rise due to government's long-pending reforms on the social and health care system, colloquially known as ' Sote '.
 That reform aims to remove responsibility for healthcare from municipalities, passing it to new regional authorities, and expanding private provision of healthcare services.
 "Customer fees will be written into law so that individual regions can't introduce unreasonable fees as a way to solve their financial emergencies," Saarikko said.
 Government has also proposed that virtually all health care services for children should be free-of-charge. The bill states that people under the age of 18 would only be charged for health care services in exceptional cases, for example if a patient misses a booked appointment.
 Opposition: More expensive health care overall
 Opposition MPs roundly criticised the proposal, saying it would make health care services more expensive, particularly for those who require a lot of care.
 Left Alliance MP  Li Andersson  said a change to the current system would most affect people on limited incomes who require a lot of health care services.
 "The big problem is covering improvement costs by raising fees for basic health care services. That means people would pay more for each visit, for example when they see a doctor at a health care centre,"Andersson said.
 The reason there's a risk that the proposed law change could effectively raise consumer health care costs is due to the fact that individual patients currently only pay for a maximum of three visits per year, which amounts to an annual maximum of 61.80 euros. Alternatively, municipalities can also charge a yearly fee of 41.20 euros.
 Government's proposal includes a provision that patients would end up paying a maximum of 683 euros per year for health care, including dental services.
 Opposition MP from the Swedish People's Party (SPP)  Veronica Rehn-Kivi  echoed Andersson's sentiments, saying the proposed law would hit those who are at most risk in society.
 "In other words if you go to the doctor once a month the sum would be €247.20 per year. That's a huge price increase," Rehn-Kivi said in a press release.
 "At the same time government is raising yearly health care fee [ceilings] there are more than 300,000 [unpaid personal] health care bills that go to collection agencies. It is people who are most vulnerable in our society who will have an even more difficult time," Rehn-Kivi said.
 Minister: Fees will not rise
 However, Minister Saarikko defended the criticism by saying that on the whole, fees would not go up.
 "The overall fees that municipalities and the state receive from customers are roughly the same. This is an [overall] total in which individual fees can go up for individual customers, but other fees for others can go down," Saarikko said.
 She said the proposed law would give less well-off customers a right to lower health clinic fees.
 "It will become clearer for those on low incomes that they have the right to lower health care fees. The [health care] regions will have to inform [low income customers] about their right to discounts," Saarikko said.
 Saarikko also defended on Wednesday the controversial proposal to permit smaller private hospitals to carry out the same kind of surgeries which were revoked from smaller public hospitals about a year ago. That decision was strongly criticised by the SPP and politicians from the west-coast city of Vaasa, which was left without an accident and emergency department and provision of certain services.
 Saarikko also stood by government's proposal to expand the capability of public hospitals to  outsource non-urgent surgeries  to private health care providers.
 She said the reasoning behind the proposal is to set up common ground rules for private and public health care providers and to secure peoples' access to those services.
 "We need the laws so that the national health care guarantee also works when facilities are busy and public hospitals are unable to carry out all of the needed operations," Saarikko said.
 When asked why surgeries could not be carried out by the public hospitals which have previously done them, Saarikko said it was a matter of resources.
 "Yes, it's a matter of nothaving enough expertise personnel, patient security and the need to cut the costs of health care," Saarikko said.


Minister of the Interior  Kai Mykkänen  went on Yle's morning programme on Saturday to decry four new cases of suspected sexual assault against minors in Oulu.
 "If someone violates one of our basic values, the physical integrity of another individual, I consider that a national threat," Mykkänen said on television. He was booked last-minute for the appearance after vice-president of the European Commission  Jyrki Katainen  was delayed in Vienna.
 The minister also repeated his stance that dual citizens who are found guilty of aggravated sexual assault should be summarily stripped of their Finnish citizenship. Mykkänen previously suggested the measure in December.
 "It's unacceptable for someone to come to Finland in search of safety only to create more insecurity themselves. These crimes have no place in this country, and we cannot let the matter rest."
 Police in Oulu said Friday that they have launched a preliminary investigation into four new cases of suspected sexual abuse of girls under the age of 15. The announcement follows a previous round of investigations last November in which eight immigrant-background men were detained  on suspicion of committing five similar offences  against underage girls.
 In a release issued on Friday, police said that the alleged offences took place during summer 2018. Law enforcement have held three foreign-background individuals in connection with the crimes. Police suspect four people of the alleged offences, two of whom are about 20 and two are minors.
 According to Mykkänen, the suspects in the newest assault cases have come to Finland from Northern Africa and the Middle East. Some of the suspected men are Finnish citizens and some are awaiting asylum decisions, he said.
 PM: "I cannot understand"
 On Friday Prime Minister  Juha Sipilä  also expressed his grief and "disgust" at the new series of sexual crimes, saying he understands the worry and anxiety that many people are feeling.
 Sipilä said that everyone who comes to Finland should respect Finland's laws and the principle of personal integrity. He said that Finland's asylum system cannot protect criminals.
 "Our thoughts are with the victims and their families following these completely inhumane and reprehensible acts. I cannot understand this kind of violence and indifference."
 Blue Reform promotes hard line
 Following Friday's announcement the conservative political party Blue Reform is demanding that government hold an emergency meeting over the suspicions of sexual assault. Chair  Sampo Terho  said in a statement that more information is needed.
 "The government must receive the necessary facts and hear what courses of action experts are suggesting. The government must act fast to provide all possible support to the authorities and the victims of these crimes."
 In the same release the party also demands that asylum seekers who commit sexual crimes should be deported. Terho said his party promotes "harsher punishments, more controlled immigration, speedy forced deportations and proper resources for police".
 Edit: Added Prime Minister Juha Sipilä's comments.


A majority of leaders of parties in Parliament said they support boosting the number of police in Finland by around 650 in the near future, according to an Yle security policy survey.
 Yle asked political party chairs whether or not police resources should rise to 7,850 as the National Police Board has recommended to match  the strength of the force  at the beginning of 2010. Finland currently has roughly 7,200 police in the force.
 Centre Party chair Prime Minister  Juha Sipilä  said in the survey that the force should be boosted to 7,850 by 2023. He noted that in many municipalities, police take too long to respond to emergencies.
 Social Democratic Party deputy chair  Sanna Marin  said that a key plank of the incoming administration (after elections in April) should be to consistently increase the number of officers in police ranks. She added that the public should be able to trust that they can get help when they need it.
 Finance Minister and National Coalition Party chair  Petteri Orpo  remained on the fence on the issue of beefing up the force. Orpo said that his party is committed to at least preserving the current number of police officers and ensuring that they can serve the entire country. The Interior Ministry under NCP MP  Kai Mykkänen  is currently evaluating the number of personnel required to best discharge police duties.
 Police union: One in ten calls neglected
 Chair of the police union SPJL  Jonne Rinne  said that in addition to their opinions on staffing, he wants to see concrete action from political decision-makers. Supplementing police numbers to 7,850 is a good start, he noted.
 "The police force has been depleted during the last decade. In that sense this is certainly a positive message. But I hope that in addition to opinions this would lead to concrete measures," he commented.
 Rinne said that he believed that recent reporting on  suspected sexual offences against children  may have prompted leaders to see the need to increase police resources.
 "Police alone won’t solve every problem, but society must find the means to address these matters and resolves them. Police need to have sufficient resources to safeguard the public’s right to legal protection in such unfortunate circumstances," Rinne noted.
 The union leader said that it is unacceptable that police do not have adequate resources to respond to calls, something that shows in the field as well as in investigative work.
 "In practice, one in ten calls is neglected. I consider this a rather large number. When people are in need they turn to the police. Police must then inform them that unfortunately we cannot respond to this emergency call," he continued.
 Police will see an easing of the personnel crunch this year, since 150 more trainees than the previous year will graduate from the Police College Academy. Officials had previously increased the number of study places to prevent a further shrinking of the force.


Monday's meeting is the third rendezvous between President  Sauli Niinistö  and Chinese President  Xi Jinping . Niinistö opened a climate seminar and will meet with Prime Minister  Li Keqiang  and speaker of China's national congress  Li Zhanshu .
 Niinistö was accompanied by Foreign Trade and Development Minister  Anne-Mari Virolainen , European Affairs, Culture and Sports Minister  Sampo Terho  and a business delegation of 100.
 Their last meeting in Helsinki in April 2017 was characterised by  panda diplomacy . China gifted Finland a pair of giant pandas to celebrate its 100th birthday. At the time Finland re-affirmed its commitment to the 'one China' policy, meaning that Finland officially recognises the People's Republic of China—not Taiwan.
 Story continues after photo.
 Lumi Tarmo Niemi / Yle
 Giant pandas Lumi and Pyry (officially Jin Baobao and Hua Bao) arrived at Ähtäri Zoo in early 2018.
 'Average' relationship
 Finland has not had a particularly good relationship with China,  Jyrki Kallio , a senior researcher at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA), told Yle, saying that Finland’s ties with the world's most populous country are not unique in any way.
 At the end of last year, Finland was party to a letter by 15 Western ambassadors demanding that China explain its persecution against the country’s Uighur minority. Meanwhile the timing of this week's trip makes Niinistö one of the first European leaders to meet Xi after news broke of ’re-education’ internment camps for Uighur Muslims, something China has previously denied. In this light, Kallio said he believed the world’s eyes will be on the topics broached by Niinistö.
 Finland’s Foreign Ministry has  highlighted the plight  of China’s Uighur minority, and Kallio expects Niinistö may bring up the issue.
 Following China's lead
 On Xi's last visit to Finland, Niinistö faced criticism for playing to China’s tune. The Finnish president did not host a press conference following his powwow with Xi, which would have given the press an opportunity to unpack the contents of the meeting.
 China is easily offended, according to Kallio. He said China cooled on Sweden after the  Dalai Lama 's visit there, and Norway fell out of favour after its Nobel committee in 2010 awarded the peace prize to Chinese dissident  Liu Xiaobo .
 Hockey diplomacy?
 China is an economic powerhouse with many countries vying for a piece of the action. That said, Finland faces balancing its own financial interests with its image as a human rights champion.
 In China, Niinistö and his wife,  Jenni Haukio , will attend the opening of the China-Finland Winter Sports Year, an idea born out of Xi’s and Niinistö’s 2017 meeting to "dedicate a theme year to winter sports between the two countries".


The opposition Finns Party parliamentary group is calling again for an interpellation on Finland’s internal security. The populist party’s delegation has invited the other opposition groups in the legislature to negotiations on an interpellation next Tuesday.
 Finns Party MPs tried to push for a  similar interpellation in December . The attempt failed as the rest of opposition declined to join them in challenging the government.
 Launching an interpellation requires the support of at least 20 lawmakers in the 200-seat chamber. Following the defection of many key members – including party founder Timo Soini – to form the new Blue Reform party in the summer of 2017, the Finns Party now has just 17 seats.
 Political analysts say the nationalist party hopes to expand that share in this spring’s elections by focusing on recent criminal cases involving suspects of immigrant background.
 The party wants to call the government on the carpet over domestic safety, accusing it of failing on asylum policy, maintaining societal peace and particularly child protection.
 The parliamentary group’s chair,  Leena Meri , a first-term MP from Hyvinkää, accuses the cabinet of flagrantly failing to ensure internal security.


In a Saturday morning television appearance, Defence Minister  Jussi Niinistö  criticized results of a fresh pre-election Yle survey of parliamentary party leaders in which the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Left Alliance, Greens and Finns Party leaders said they would be willing to entertain the idea of cutting fighter plane numbers.
 "Pretty surprising information, especially when you consider that the Finns Party has joined with the red-green opposition. This is about whether we are interested in defending our country or not. If we cut the number of fighter planes at our disposal, then we need to start haggling over which areas are most in need of defence. This is irresponsible politics, in my opinion," he said on Yle's Ykkösaamu programme.
 Finland's fleet of Hornet fighter planes will soon come to the end of its service life, and replacing all 64 of them in the next decade is expected to cost the Finnish state upwards of 10 billion euros, when lifetime service and maintenance costs are included. The  Defence Forces has already started the bidding process , with the aim to replace the entire fleet.
 Largest opposition party: Nothing written in stone
 Party leaders responded to an Yle survey question asking "Can Finland procure fewer fighter jets than the tender request amount of 64?" Representatives of the Greens, SDP, Left Alliance and Finns Party answered 'Yes', while party chairs from the Centre Party, the National Coalition Party (NCP), Blue Reform, Swedish People's Party (SPP) and the Christian Democrats said 'No'.
 "It's not about a specific number of planes, but the overall solution. The number of fighter jets to be acquired is not written in stone, as the amount will only be determined once responses to the call for tenders have been properly processed and the different options have been mapped out," said MP  Sanna Marin , who stood in for SDP party chair  Antti Rinne  – who is recovering from pneumonia – in the survey.
 Left Alliance Chair  Li Andersson  called for a critical discussion of the fleet investment, while the Greens' head  Pekka Haavisto  said that all options should remain on the table due to swift technological advancement.
 Finns Party chair  Jussi Halla-aho  accompanied his 'Yes' vote with the following comment:
 "Finland is a small country and our defence allocations are very limited. It is very important that we focus on our strengths and avoid any misjudgement."
 Defence Minister Jussi Niinistö said in his Saturday morning interview that a fleet of 100 fighter jets would not be far-fetched in Finland, as this would be enough to ensure the continued defence of the entire country. He conceded that the additional planes would bring a considerably higher price tag, but argued that an even larger fleet would also be able to better cover possible faults and repairs.
 "We are already showing restraint in our handling of the matter," he said.
 Social exclusion as largest internal threat
 In early January, Yle asked representatives of Finland's nine parliamentary political parties their opinions on a series of foreign and security policy questions.
 Along with the fighter jet question, the party leaders were asked about their stance on NATO membership, with only the NCP's  Petteri Orpo  and the SPP's  Anna-Maja Henriksson  supporting Finland joining the military alliance. None of the nine chairs were in support of cancelling Finland's participation in sanctions against Russia.
 When the party leaders were asked to name what they feel is the largest internal security threat at present in Finland, eight out of nine wrote social exclusion and inequality
 Only the nationalist Finns Party chair Halla-aho penned a different reply: "The quickly growing, poorly integrated immigrant population".


Social Democratic Party leader  Antti Rinne 's sick leave is set to last until late February – just over a month before voting begins in the parliamentary election. The SDP, the largest opposition group in Parliament, has  consistently led in public opinion polls  over the past six months.
 The party had expected him to return to politics in late January. On Monday Rinne announced on Facebook that his leave now will probably last until late February.
 Rinne is being treated for pneumonia at a hospital in Helsinki, where he was also found to have a hospital superbug caught in Spain.
 The SDP chief and his wife were hospitalised with respiratory illnesses around New Year's while on holiday in Spain.
 According to the tabloid Iltalehti, Rinne's treatment there "did not progress as planned". The paper says his "situation became very serious" and he was medevacked back to Helsinki on 11 January.
 Marin standing in at campaign events
 In his Facebook post, Rinne said that "besides serious pneumonia, another health problem cropped up at the same time, coronary artery disease... And along with everything else, I found out that I had also acquired hospital infection in Spain."
 He added that doctors estimate that his sick leave will last until the end of February – less than five weeks before advance voting begins on April 3.
 So far during Rinne's sick leave, he has been replaced at election debates  and other events  by deputy chair  Sanna Marin .
 Rinne, 56, a former finance minister, union boss and labour lawyer, has led the SDP for nearly five years.


Blue Reform MP  Maria Lohela  announced on Monday that she is leaving the Finns Party spin-off to join an activist group, Movement Now (Liike Nyt), founded by hockey team owner and former National Coalition Party MP  Hjallis Harkimo.
 "My interest was immediately piqued when Hjallis founded the movement last year," Lohela told reporters at a news conference.
 She said that with the move, she would also be relinquishing her MP seat, as she had decided not to run for re-election in the upcoming general elections in April. This leaves the three-party government coalition with one less seat in Parliament, endangering several pending legal reforms that must be voted on before the current parliamentary terms end.
 Lohela's move further imperils the government's planned  overhaul of social and health care services , colloquially known as "sote", on which MPs have yet to cast a final vote. The ex-Speaker said she would vote against the reform. She roundly condemned the government's flagship programme, which has the support of her former colleagues in the Blue Reform, saying that the needs of ordinary people have been eclipsed by the interests of market forces and regional reforms, at the behest of the National Coalition Party and the Centre Party respectively.
 "I asked myself what my duty is in this matter as a member of parliament and I cannot in good conscience support these things," she commented.
 Lohela's defection further narrows the government's already razor-thin majority on the issue to just one vote: a total of 99 lawmakers now oppose the raft of measures compared to 100 who would vote to see it through. As it stands, the loss of a single vote would scupper the long-in-the-making reform package.
 Other MPs who have publicly opposed the social and health care reform proposal include the NCP 's  Elina Lepomäki  and  Susanna Koski  as well as veteran lawmaker  Paavo Väyrynen ,  who quit the Centre Party  last spring.
 Already defected once before
 Lohela was elected as an MP from the Southwest Finland region in 2011, as a member of the nationalist Finns Party. After she maintained her seat in the 2015 election, she was named Speaker of Parliament, where she served from 2015 to 2018.
 In the wake of the election of immigration hardliner  Jussi Halla-aho   as leader of the Finns Party  in July 2017, Lohela joined 19 other high-profile Finns Party ministers and MPs and left the party to  set up a new group  eventually named the Blue Reform.
 Lohela became Speaker on the back of the Finns Party's voter mandate in the 2015 general election, which made them the second-largest group in Parliament. After the spilt from the Finns Party in 2017, Lohela  vacated her Speaker position in February  2018 and returned to her MP role.
 Polling for the Blue Reform since the split in 2017 has been very low. The latest Yle assessment of voter allegiances found that the just one percent of respondents planned to cast their ballot for a Blue Reform candidate, in a poll with a 2.1 percentage point margin of error.
 Movement Now changes mind about elections
 When  Harkimo and his colleagues founded Movement Now  in 2018, he said the new group was not a political party and its members would not be running for office.
 However, Harkimo announced in late November of last year that  candidates from the independent association will run in the April 2019 parliamentary elections, after all .
 He said the movement's 12,000 registered supporters all backed the group's run for Parliament. The group's website already profiles 20 candidates. Co-founder of the movement, former Social Democratic Party MP  Mikael Jungner , a communications agency boss and former director of broadcaster Yle, said that he does not plan to run in the election.
 The five other co-founders of the group include outspoken media personality  Tuomas Enbuske , entrepreneur  Alex Nieminen , founder of the Slush business event  Helene Auramo , PhD researcher  Karoliina Kähönen  and communications manager  Sarian Antila .


The largest opposition group, the Social Democratic Party, says that first deputy chair  Sanna Marin  will replace party leader  Antti Rinne  during his sick leave, which is expected to last until late February. Rinne  announced on Monday  that he is in hospital recovering from coronary disease, pneumonia, and a hospital infection.
 After a meeting of party leaders in Helsinki on Tuesday, Party Secretary  Antton Rönnholm  said that Marin will try to take part in all events that Rinne was scheduled to attend. That includes a planned campaign tour of the provinces in February. The party – which has consistently  led public opinion polls  since last summer – will launch its parliamentary election campaign on Saturday in Helsinki.
 Marin said that Rinne's illness during the campaign has been difficult for the party, but insists that he will re-take the reins as soon as his health allows.
 She said she has not even thought about whether he should be replaced as leader.
 "We all now hope that Antti has a quick recovery, that he receives good care and returns to work with good strength and new energy," Marin said.
 Rinne remains PM candidate
 Also potentially standing in for Rinne will be the other deputy chairs, MPs  Maarit Feldt-Ranta  and  Ville Skinnari , and the party delegation chair,  Sirpa Paatero .
 Rönnholm says that he expects Rinne to return to work in late February and that he remains the party's prime ministerial candidate.
 According to Marin, the main message of the campaign is clear: people's everyday lives. She says that many have suffered due to the current centre-right government's decisions, including students, pensioners, jobseekers and those in ill health.
 Marin, 33, is a first-term MP and student from Tampere, where she was city council chair from 2013 to 2017.


Former Greens chair and environment minister  Ville Niinistö  has thrown his hat into the ring for a possible seat on the European Commission.
 Niinistö said on Tuesday that if he is elected to the European Parliament in this spring's election, he would then be available as the Finnish candidate for the Commission if the government so wishes.
 "Competence and experience also matter"
 Speaking at a press conference in Helsinki, Niinistö and current Greens chair  Pekka Haavisto  called for the next cabinet to name its European Commission candidate at the same time as its ministers. They both urged more transparency in the process of selecting Finland's next possible Commissioner.
 Traditionally the Finnish commissioner has been chosen by the largest party in Parliament.
 "We would like to challenge this previous custom and raise the issue that competence and experience also matter," Haavisto said.
 Niinistö said that he is prepared to take part in the Greens' parliamentary election campaign and in government negotiations if asked to do so. He will not be a candidate in the domestic parliamentary election.
 The European elections are in late May, about one month after Finnish parliamentary elections.
 The 42-year-old Ville Niinistö – a nephew of President  Sauli Niinistö  but no immediate relation to Defence Minister  Jussi Niinistö  – led the Greens from 2011 to 2017 as it gained popularity to become one of the four or five largest parties.
 Haavisto, a two-time cabinet minister who was also party chair in the 1990s,  returned to that post last autumn  after Niinistö's successor,  Touko Aalto , stepped down for health reasons.


Social Democratic Party MP  Maarit Feldt-Ranta  announced on Thursday that she is on sick leave because her stomach cancer has returned and that she does not plan to run in the upcoming parliamentary election.
 "This is not a farewell, but a message that I am moving towards a new, more private and calmer stage of life," Feldt-Ranta wrote on her Facebook page.
 "Someday I will die, but all of the other days I'm alive and that's really what I've done, and intend to do in the future, as well," she wrote.
 Feldt-Ranta, who's a member of Finland's Swedish-speaking minority, lives in the southern municipality of Raseborg. She was first elected to parliament in 2007 and served in many roles within the party and for the SDP's Swedish branch.
 Second health issue for SDP this week
 She was nearly selected - coming in second place - by fellow party members to represent the SDP in last year's presidential election and also served as the party's secretary in 2005-2008.
 Her announcement that she doesn't plan to run for a parliamentary seat came only two days after the SDP's party chair  Antti Rinne  announced that  he's on sick leave  until late February due to coronary disease, pneumonia, and a hospital infection.
 Since last summer, the SDP has consistently  led public opinion polls  and will launch its parliamentary election campaign in Helsinki on Saturday. The parliamentary election will be held on April 14.


Left Alliance Chair  Li Andersson  told Yle's Ykkösaamu  programme on Saturday that wealth inequality, widening income gaps, and the provision of health and elder care services are at the top of people's minds.
 "Finns are increasingly concerned about the growing disparity in society," Andersson said, adding that one in eight residents worry about inequality.
 Nearly 654,000 Finnish residents are at risk of poverty, according to the most recent figures  from Statistics Finland, which were released in December 2018.  Meanwhile, a recent  Poverty Watch Report  by the European Anti-Poverty Network found that the number of households with no income at all in Finland has doubled since 2013 to nearly 50,000.
 Andersson also told Yle that she doesn't believe a major social and healthcare overhaul known as " Sote " will happen during the few remaining months of the current government's term. The reform aims to transfer responsibility for health and social services from the country's 295 municipalities to 18 elected regional bodies.
 The Left Alliance chair claimed the contested healthcare reform package could mean more costs than savings.
 "The government can't back up its three-billion-euro cost saving claims," she told Yle.


Finland's opposition parties will force the cabinet to face a vote of no confidence over the issue of senior care. With just over two months to go before elections, there has been a furore over  reported neglect  at some privately-run old-age care facilities.
 On Wednesday,  Antti Lindtman , leader of the main opposition Social Democratic Party's parliamentary group, invited the other opposition groups in the legislature to negotiate on the interpellation. They met with representatives of trade unions in the social and health care sector, who presented their views on the status of elder care in Finland.
 Opposition criticism focuses on the centre-right government's budget cuts, caregiver ratio guidelines and proposed overhaul of the social and healthcare system, known as _ sote _.
 "We've heard the message from experts in the field. State subsidies for municipalities have dropped during this government's term, which is also reflected in a weakening of services for the elderly," SDP deputy chair  Sanna Marin  said after the meeting.  She is standing in  for party chair  Antti Rinne , who is expected to be  on sick leave until late February .
 Confidence vote within 2 weeks from Friday
 All the opposition parties agree that a minimum ratio of carers to residents at senior facilities should be written into law. They have not yet agreed on what the required level should be.
 During the previous legislative term, the SDP pushed for a 0.7 ratio, in other words at least seven caregivers on staff per 10 seniors. At the moment, there is merely a recommended minimum ratio of 0.5.
 Opposition MPs share concerns that the government's controversial  sote  reform would further undermine the elder care situation due to its tough cost-saving targets. Those targets will be debated during question time on Thursday.
 The opposition groups plan to finalise the wording of the interpellation on Thursday and submit it to the three government parties on Friday. They will then have two weeks to respond.
 Razor-thin majority
 After a debate, the cabinet will face a confidence vote. Following last week's  defection of a Blue Reform MP , the government parties have a razor-thin majority in the 200-seat legislature.
 Besides the 35-seat SDP, the other main opposition parties, in order of size, are the Finns Party, the Greens and the Left Alliance. Smaller groups include the Swedish Parliamentary Group (including one representative from the Åland Islands), the Christian Democratic Party, the Liike Nyt-Movement and the Citizens' Party.
 The four-year legislative term ends on 15 March, with advance voting in the election beginning on 3 April.


A fresh poll of more than one thousand Finnish adults suggests that half of the country's residents would support slashing the number of representatives to the Finnish Parliament from 200 to 100.
 The Municipal Development Foundation survey also found that over four-fifths (83 percent) of the people surveyed were opposed to raising the number of Finnish MPs past the current 200.
 More than one third (36 percent) of the poll's respondents would not want to reduce MP seat numbers.
 When grouped according to party allegiance, the poll respondents supporting the nationalist Finns Party were most in favour of cutting MP numbers (69 percent), followed by supporters of the Social Democratic Party (58 percent) and the centre-right National Coalition Party (55 percent). Poll respondents who indicated that they were supporters of the Centre Party and the Left Alliance were more reluctant than the average to slash parliamentary representation.
 The survey also found that slightly more than half of the respondents would be prepared to limit MP service to two consecutive terms, or eight years. Two-thirds of the survey respondents (38 percent) would not limit the MPs' term of service.
 The pollster Kantar TNS interviewed over one thousand Finnish residents over the age of 18 for the survey, resulting in a margin of error of under three percentage points in either direction.


This year's Common Responsibility or  Yhteisvastuu  charity campaign will collect money to help less fortunate school children in Finland and abroad, explained Finnish President  Sauli Niinistö  on Sunday.
 As patron of the annual event, the President emphasized the importance of education as a promoter of equality in his television address opening the fundraiser.
 "Every tenth child in Finland is growing up in a family whose income falls below the poverty line. In cases like this, every euro needed for studies is one less that can be spent on something necessary. There's simply no extra money for school supplies," he said.
 It is currently estimated that 110,000 children live in low-income households in Finland, a number that is expected to grow.
 "Everyone should be afforded a real and true opportunity to receive an education and become a part of society. We have to ensure that this happens," the president said.
 The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland's Deaconess Fund will be responsible for distributing the money collected to schools with needy children.
 Education as the great leveller
 Another reason that school materials were chosen as the theme this year were figures from last year that show that only three percent of the world's humanitarian aid was directed towards books and other necessary school equipment.
 Niinistö reminded his television audience that education is the road to development, and by extension, the eradication of poverty. He also added that inclusive education is one of the United Nation's  Sustainable Development Goals  for the period 2015 to 2030.
 "Free, equitable and quality basic education should be available to everyone by the year 2030. There are still over 60 million children in the world who can't even attend primary school," he said.
 The charity drive is a yearly event organized by Finland's Evangelical Lutheran Church that extends helps to those in need irrespective of their origin, faith or political convictions.
 The development group Finn Church Aid traditionally uses 60 percent of the proceeds in its international aid projects, while 40 percent of the funds raised are spent helping needy people in Finland.


The Finnish government is considering a state funeral for ski jumping legend  Matti Nykänen , according to Yle Sports.
 Minister for European Affairs, Culture and Sports  Sampo Terho  said he is looking into the possibility of a state funeral for Nykänen and would consult government officials and the ministry.
 Nykänen died on  in the early hours of Monday morning  at the age of 55.
 Story continues after photo.
 Makeshift memorial for Matti Nykänen next to ski jump in Jyväskylä. Simo Pitkänen / Yle
 The quirky Finn first gained fame as a ski jumper in the beginning of the 1980s when he quickly climbed his way to the top of the sport. From 1981 until 1991 he won one silver and four gold Olympic medals, nine World Championship medals and a total of 22 Finnish Championship medals, 14 of which were gold.
 By the time he claimed three gold medals at the 1988 Olympic games in Calgary, Nykänen had become a household name in Finland.
 "I understand that many people think a [state funeral] would be appropriate for such a prominent athlete," Terho said.
 Story continues after photo.
 File photo of Matti Nykänen's Olympic and other medals. Jenni Uosukainen / Yle
 State funerals rare these days
 The last time Finland saw a state funeral for a top athlete was for skier  Tapani Niku , who died in 1989.
 Before the 1990s, state funerals for cultural and sports figures were much more common. However, a directive adopted in 1989 primarily reserved the honour for deceased presidents.
 However, state funerals are permitted for long-serving prime ministers, parliamentary spokespersons or particularly notable citizens such as Nobel laureates.
 Only eight people have been granted state funeral services in Finland since 1990. The most recent state funeral  honoured President  Mauno Koivisto  in 2017.


As parliamentary elections draw closer, a fresh Yle poll shines light on a political landscape in upheaval. The biggest loser in the survey conducted between 14 January and 5 February has been the conservative National Coalition Party (NCP), which saw voter approval slip to 17.3 percent, down 2.3 percentage points from the last poll.
 The last time voter backing for the NCP reached this level was back in 2016, when  Petteri Orpo  had just taken over the reins from ex-premier  Alexander Stubb  as party leader. Pollster Taloustutkimus speculated that the party has suffered as a result of heated debate over the quality of care at senior care homes, with the party  unable to articulate a clear position  on minimum nurse quotients per patient.
 Taloustutkimus research director  Tuomo Turja  said that declining approval for the party among women and the elderly in particular confirm the suspicion.
 Party leader's absence hurting SDP
 The NCP's adverse showing signals good news for the largest opposition group, the Social Democratic Party (SDP), which will likely compete with the NCP to field a prime minister following April's general election, the pollster noted.
 The SDP did see a slight erosion in support of 1.1 percentage points to 20.1 percent, but still retained the top spot in the survey. At the same time, the NCP has not been able to continue narrowing the gap between the top two parties, as it had been doing late last year.
 Turja said that  the elder care debate and the discussion about nursing quotas  have been a boon for the SDP, with the party using its union roots to dominate the staffing debate in recent weeks. However with chair  Antti Rinne  on extended sick leave, the party currently has no de facto prime ministerial candidate. First deputy chair  Sanna Marin  has been filling in for Rinne in the interim.
 Faithful return to Finns Party fold, Greens attract others' voters
 The immigration-sceptic Finns Party posted the biggest gains in this poll, continuing a trend of gathering increased support from voters. With 12 percent voter approval, the party is closing in on its best performance among voters, which occurred back in 2015 when it grabbed 15 percent of the ballot in the general election.
 However as a government party, it saw voters abandon it as the number of asylum seekers arriving in Finland increased, the administration introduced austerity policies and workers' rights weakened. The party splintered in June 2017 when current chair  Jussi Halla-aho  ousted  Timo Soini  as party leader.
 Turja noted that the Finns Party was not leaching support from other parties, and speculated that the voters who had abandoned it and remained uncommitted to any party were now returning to the fold. Its performance may have also received a boost from  sustained reporting on suspicions  of child sexual abuse in Oulu, he added.
 The opposition Greens also saw voter support inch up by one percentage point to 14.6 in the latest survey, reinforcing their fourth-place status. The party's fortunes have improved since last autumn, when political veteran  Pekka Haavisto  took over from  Touko Aalto  as party chair.
 "With the Greens, we can clearly see that they are getting support from other parties, especially the SDP and the NCP," Turja commented.
 Centre backing lowest in years
 The Greens are nipping at the heels of Prime Minister  Juha Sipilä 's Centre Party in third place with 15.6 percent voter approval. The last time backing for the Centre was this low was during summer 2012, when Sipilä assumed the mantle of party chair.
 Its current level of support is also lower than its haul in the 2011 parliamentary elections, when just 15.8 percent of voters cast ballots for the Centre.
 The Left Alliance also slipped nearly a full percentage point to 8.6 percent voter backing. Turja said its supporters were likely also heading over to the Green camp.
 Among the small parties, the Swedish Peoples' Party posted four percent voter approval, while the Christian Democrats and government party the Blue Reform (which split off from the Finns Party) attracted 3.6 and 1.4 percent of voter support respectively.


The Finnish government, in its final months in office, has received a vote of confidence in Parliament by a margin of 99-88. The vote was along party lines, with 12 MPs absent. The vote followed an interpellation accusing the cabinet of failing to ensure sufficient staffing at old age homes amid  widespread reports of neglect .
 In a rare move, all the opposition parties and groups joined in the formal challenge spearheaded by the Social Democratic Party (SDP), which has been leading public opinion polls ahead of elections in April.
 The interpellation also questioned whether the government's planned overhaul of the social and health care system, known as sote, would guarantee residents equal access to services.
 The vote was the strongest challenge to Prime Minister  Juha Sipilä 's centre-right cabinet since took office in May 2015.
 The three government parties have just 102 MPs in the 200-seat chamber, not counting Speaker of Parliament – and former social services minister –  Paula Risikko  of the conservative National Coalition Party (NCP), who only votes in case of a tie.
 The dozen absent representatives included two SDP leaders who are on sick leave, chair  Antti Rinne  and deputy chair  Maarit Feldt-Ranta , as well as three MPs from government parties. No MPs broke party ranks.
 Government parties change their tune
 Earlier in the week, SDP delegation leader  Antti Lindtman  noted triumphantly that just after the  interpellation was announced , two of the coalition partners, the Centre and Blue Reform parties, changed their position on whether a minimum caregiver ratio at elder facilities should be mandated by law. On Tuesday the NCP also said it was ready to consider whether such a requirement should be written into law.
 The same day, Minister of Family Affairs and Social Services  Annika Saarikko  from Sipilä's Centre Party said that the government would begin preparations to do so. However it remains unclear whether Parliament will have time to pass the legislation before its term ends on 15 March. Advance voting for the next Parliament begins on 3 April.
 The opposition demanded that senior facilities be required to have at least seven caregivers per 10 residents. At present there is merely a recommendation that there be at least five per 10 residents. There is also some debate over whether only nurses or also other staff members should be included in this calculation.
 The issue was thrust back into the national political debate when the health and welfare watchdog Valvira suspended the operations of a company in the west-coast town of Kristiinankaupunki due to serious neglect of elders in its care. That was followed by reports from Yle and other outlets uncovering widespread problems in the sector throughout the country.


Helsingin Sanomat  leads  with an expose of an unusual proposal to the Finnish government to expedite deportations to Iraq. HS reports that the Finnish presenter of The Apprentice, MP  Harry Harkimo , arranged meetings for  Peter Fryckman , a businessman with fraud convictions, and  Saad al-Obaidi , an Iraqi who served as a general under  Saddam Hussein , in an effort to move the proposal forward.
 In a nutshell, the proposed deal was that Finland would purchase expensive defence products for Iraq, which would then sign an accord guaranteeing it would accept deported Iraqis. At present it  only accepts  those with identity papers, voluntary returnees and those convicted of crimes.
 Since 2015 several thousand Iraqis have had asylum claims rejected by Finland and are believed to be undocumented migrants in the country. The Interior Ministry believes there are around 5,000 such Iraqis in Finland, and that their undocumented status makes them a security risk.
 Fryckman proposed in 2016 that the procurements be made via the little-known Swedish Defence Equipment company, which has a small turnover and little track record in major projects like this. The chair of the company’s board  Sven Olof Kviman  told HS that the units (apparently shipping containers converted to screen people for weapons) would be constructed in Iraq.
 HS reckoned that the price quoted—100 million euros or a million euros per container—was around ten times more than similar products would cost if purchased elsewhere.
 Needless to say, al-Obaidi and Fryckman declined to comment on the story. Foreign Minister  Timo Soini , who set up a meeting after he was contacted by Harkimo, also kept schtum.
 Several officials had poor memory of meetings they attended, while Defence Minister  Jussi Niinistö’s  special advisor went to meet the pair with the Interior Ministry’s head of immigration  Jorma Vuorio .
 It was a no-frills encounter, a short meeting that got straight to the point and where ‘not even water was offered’, according to Vuorio. HS noted that, given its shaky foundations, the entire proposal was at least open to accusations of corruption.
 Care home scandal rumbles on
 Several papers carry the STT  report  on the town of Varkaus preparing to make a criminal complaint about the care home operator Attendo. The local authority believes the firm is operating a facility with staff levels so low they are breaching their license.
 Municipal employees are currently visiting the home in question every day and sometimes at night to keep tabs on what's happening, and STT reports that they believe the Jalava home is not operating with the required staffing levels, management procedures or professionally-trained personnel.
 Meanwhile Savon Sanomat  interviews  the sacked manager of the unit.  Virpi Montonen  said that she believes she's a scapegoat, and that individual managers have little power to make the required changes.
 "All decisions went via the regional management," Montonen tells the paper. "Independent decisions can't be made, only recommendations."
 Montonen had transferred to the Varkaus facility from an assisted living location in Kuopio, and said the contrast was stark. She said that the Jalava license stated a minimum of 0.5 staff members per resident was required. She kept the ratio at 0.6 and, she claims, was consistently reprimanded by Attendo managers.
 Recent weeks have seen a string of reports on harrowing conditions in old-age care homes in Finland, with the private contractors Esperi Care and Attendo accused of running sub-standard services, with the CEO of Esperi Care  quitting  over the scandal.
 Helsinki hotel capacity expands
 Kauppalehti has  good news  for anyone planning a trip to Helsinki: between now and 2021 some 3,000 extra hotel rooms will be added in the capital city region, easing a shortage that had pushed up prices.
 The story, which is based on a real estate consultancy's assessment, suggests that the capital will see around a quarter more hotel rooms enter the market. that is likely to increase competition but also potentially increase tourism in the city.
 There are currently some 9,400 hotel rooms in Helsinki, which according to Statistics Finland were in December running at around 70 percent capacity.


Finnish media has in recent days been aflame with escalating rhetoric about the finer points of constitutional law, thanks to Defence Minister Jussi Niinisto of the Blue Reform Party.
 Helsingin Sanomat  reports  on the spat which started on Tuesday when Niinisto described professor Martin Scheinin’s background in the Communist Party, which the Defence Minister apparently regards as disqualifying.
 “Tweets from admirers of the totalitarian Soviet system cannot in future have significance in Finland’s representative democracy,” wrote Niinisto.
 The issue at hand is ostensibly the decision by parliament to return a much-trailed intelligence law to the committee stage after criticism by constitutional law experts. Scheinin and his fellow professor Juha Lavapuro had previously tweeted criticism of the way lawmakers had ignored criticism from parliament’s constitutional law committee.
 In his blog post Niinisto slammed ‘extra-parliamentary forces’ who want to get their way.
 “Constitutional law Talibs hide their own ideological goals behind a fake cloak of expertise and apply pressure via social media to the democratically elected parliament,” said Niinisto, , whose party is currently polling within the margin of error two months from parliamentary elections due on 14 April.
 On Wednesday Prime Minister Juha Sipila  said  that the tone of the discussion about the intelligence law was ‘approaching the limits’, signalling he may prefer a more constructive approach to parliament’s experts.
 “The government’s job isn’t to direct parliament or the experts called by parliament,” Sipila told journalists.
 Polling pressure
 HS publishes a poll by TNS Kantar today which suggests the Finns Party's support is on the rise. The party fractured in 2017 when hardliner Jussi Halla-aho took over as leader, leading to a dip in support, but the HS poll suggests their support stands at 11.4 percentage points.
 The bigger parties' numbers are down, especially Prime Minister Juha Sipilä's Centre Party, so HS  goes  to his home town of Oulu to see a party meeting to try and find out why. The answer is unambiguous: people like their anti-immigration line, especially in the wake of a spate of sex crimes in which asylum seekers are the suspects.
 Sipilä, remember, famously offered his own home to accommodate refugees in 2015 and the Finns Party faithful believe that has played a role in their current boost in support.
 The group that splintered from the Finns Party, Defence Minister Jussi Niinistö's Blue Reform Party, registered one percentage point in the same poll.
 Bolivian ski star
 Iltalehti  has  a story on Bolivia's distinctly Finnish-sounding cross-country skiing star Timo Grönlund, who is competing in the World Championships in Seefeld this week. Grönlund grew up in Kitee, eastern Finland, before moving to La Paz in 2014 with his Bolivian wife.
 He started gathering points under the Federation International du Ski (FIS) qualification system and, once he passed the threshold to compete in the world championships, the Bolivian ski federation ("yes, there is one!" says Timo paid for his trip to Austria.
 It wasn't the most direct route, and it took 36 hours, but it did get him there and he came 29th in the heats, more than four minutes behind the leaders. That's not too bad, concidering how irregularly he gets to ski: he managed a couple of runs in Chile in December, but not much else recently.
 La Paz-based Grönlund does have one trump card, however, in his location. At 3,860 metres above sea level the Bolivian capital is twice as high as many of the camps used for 'altitude training' by endurance skiers.


Finns Party chair Jussi Halla-aho says his party is ready to cooperate as a member of a new coalition government after the upcoming general elections in April. In an appearance on TV1's Ykkösaamu programme on Saturday, the leader of the anti-immigrant and Eurosceptic party said that he felt the Finns Party's inclusion in the new government was "very important" as a goal.
 Halla-aho dismissed previous indications that the Social Democratic Party (SDP) would join the National Coalition Party (NCP) and the Centre Party in rejecting the Finns Party as a coalition partner if voted into power.
 "I would think that these statements are directed to their own vacillating supporters who might be considering a vote for the Finns Party. Their message is 'don't vote for the Finns Party because there will be no government cooperation with them'," he said.
 "I wouldn't give too much value to talk like that. At the end of the day, eligibility for government will be determined by the election results and party programmes."
 Thrown out of last government after Halla-aho's election
 Halla-aho has set a target that his party's support should increase in the next election from the appropriately 9.6 percent support polls showed the party enjoyed when he  began his stint as party chair in June 2017 .
 "I've set myself a personal measuring stick that our support has to grow and the number of MPs we have in Parliament must also improve. Otherwise, I don't feel as if I have succeeded in my job," he says.
 Centre Party leader and Prime Minister Juha Sipilä and NCP chair and Finance Minister Petteri Orpo promptly  kicked the Finns Party out  of government after hardliner Halla-aho was elected in 2017, a move that was followed by  20-odd Finns Party MPs leaving to form a new party now known as the Blue Reform  that replaced the Finns Party in government.
 "Moral rot" in his party is gone
 Halla-aho says that his political party is in better shape now than it was during his predecessor Timo Soini's long reign.
 "I'm not worried about the future of the party at all anymore. I believe that most Finns Party members would agree that any moral rot or corruption left the party in 2017. Pushiness and ideas of personal gain also went away," he said.
 During his television interview, Halla-aho also commented on recent statements from Foreign Minister Timo Soini, who said that acquiring more trained health professionals from the Philippines might be one solution to  understaffing problems  in Finland's care homes.
 "Filipino nurses can't manage any better in Finland on lower wages than Finnish nurses can. Cheap labour keeps salaries low in these lines of work, and that is the purpose of cheap labour," Halla-aho said.


Helsingin Sanomat starts out the day with news of a Eurostat comparison that suggests that  Swedes live about 15 years longer than Finns . Among the EU member states (plus Norway, Iceland and Switzerland), Sweden led "the number of years a person is expected to live in a healthy condition at birth" list in 2016 with an age of 73.3 for women and 70.0 for men. Finland's male age of 57 was ranged third from last on the list, ahead of Slovakia and Latvia, and eighth from last for females, at the age of 59.1.
 The EU's statistical body calculated that the EU average was estimated at 64.2 years for women and 63.5 years for men. To reach these numbers, it used information relating to "healthy life years" at birth, age 50, and age 65, using mortality statistics and data on self-perceived long-standing activity limitations.
 The self-appraisal asked respondents to answer the question: "For at least the past six months, to what extent have you been limited because of a health problem in activities people usually do?" In Finland, one in three reported some kind of problem.
 Sweden's results indicate that men and women there live 15 more "healthy life years" than Finland's residents. HS advises its readers, "If you want to stay well and keep functional, it would be a good idea to move to Sweden – or at least that's what the EU member state comparison leads us to believe."
 Keeping loan companies in check
 The Turku-based newspaper Turun Sanomat reports on  ministerial plans to crack down on payday loans  in Finland. Justice Minister  Antti Häkkinen  is concerned that peddlers of easy credit are growing more aggressive in their advertising, using images of dream vacations to sell loans that often have high interest rates.
 New companies are also entering the Finnish market at a brisk pace. TS points out one new firm, Aurora Laina that set up shop in January of this year. Its advertisement specifically targets people with a bad credit history, offering those that own their own flat a fast loan of between 1,000 and 6,000 euros with a payback time of 1 to 5 years.
 Häkkinen's ministry has put forward a bill to legislate a mandatory cap on interest rates (30 percent) and services fees on loans that would likely come into effect in September, if the Parliament approves it.
 The Bank of Finland calculates that Finnish residents owed 660 million euros to payday loan firms in late 2017, up 52 percent from the previous year, TS reports
 Transport minister opts to leave Parliament
 The Oulu newspaper Kaleva carries an analysis piece this Wednesday on Transport and Communications  Minister  Anne Berner 's announcement that she will not be seeing re-election  at the end of the parliamentary term.
 The paper reports that the Swedish newspaper  Dagens Industri  has indicated that Berner may be moving to the board of the SEB Bank in Sweden. Main owner of the Vallila Interior design company, Berner first gained a seat on Arcadia Hill in 2015, winning close to 10,000 votes in the capital city Uusimaa region. Her appointment to a minister's position already during her first term as MP was seen as highly unorthodox.
 Kaleva says that Finland wasn't ready for a businesswoman with high-flying ideas as minister. Her ambitious project to reform the country's transport infrastructure and introduce private ownership caused friction, while another proposal to eliminate vehicle taxes and set up a road usage fee never even got off the ground.
 Berner has said that both she and her family have had to face intimidation, name-calling and even death threats since she took office. "I've seen a part of Finland or Finns that I never would have wanted to see or confront," she is quoted as saying in her book on leadership that was published last autumn.
 Kaleva says that Berner's Centre Party is probably not too happy about yet another MP voluntarily leaving the ranks before the election. Berner has said in the past that some of the worst opposition to her ministerial efforts came from within her own party.


Parliament met on Tuesday to discuss  a citizens’ initiative aimed at undoing the  Juha Sipilä  government’s activation model , which aims to get unemployed people into jobs.
 Left Alliance MP  Ann Kontula  wasted no time in slamming the empty seats of government MPs who failed to show up for the debate.
 "From the composition of the hall you can see that everyone knows what’s going on. Everyone knows how embarrassing the activation model is. All the threats that have been embedded in it have come to pass," she charged.
 She was not the only lawmaker to comment on the sparse representation of the government side, as shouts of "Where is the government!" echoed through the chamber. Government MPs did indeed appear to be missing in action – initially, the only parliamentarians to represent it were Labour Minister  Jari Lindström  and Social Affairs and Health Minister  Pirkko Mattila .
 Many other opposition MPs took turns in condemning the government for its empty benches and speculated that the administration was experiencing pangs of conscience. However as the discussion progressed, National Coalition party MP  Juhana Vartiainen  arrived, followed by the Blue Reform’s  Simo Elo  and  Antti Kaikkonen  of the Centre Party.
 The citizens’ initiative being debated calls on the government to  dismantle the unpopular programme , which requires jobseekers to meet certain conditions or have their unemployment benefits cut.
 Minister admits injustices in model
 The Social Affairs and Health Minister referred to a memo from the Social Affairs and health Committee, which concluded that the activation model has already changed, given that compared to the original proposal, jobseekers  now have additional means of proving  that they are pursuing training or that they are attempting to land a job.
 However Mattila’s comments failed to placate the opposition. "Humiliating, disrespectful and evil are some of the words used about the activation model," said Finns Party MP  Arja Juvonen .
 Pia Viittanen , of the largest opposition party the Social Democrats continued in the same vein.
 "When this activation model came, I asked ministers why they needed to do this. I remember Minister Lindström, that you said something along the lines of this is just a bitter pill that needed to be swallowed. But surely common sense would prompt you to ask what’s the point of baking a stone in your bun? Everyone will tell you to take the stone out and it will taste better," she commented.
 During his speaking turn, Lindström admitted that the scheme contained certain injustices that government had attempted to address.
 “The philosophical question is, ‘what should we replace it with?’ I am confused that on the one hand people are saying that we have to get rid of these cuts. Ok that’s one thing. But then people are saying let’s get rid of the entire model. To replace it with what? Was the philosopher right when he said that you will be punished if you don’t do what needs to be done and you’ll be rewarded if you do? It’s quite clear to me that’s the way it should be,” he said.
 The labour minister repeatedly said that the state-owned research hub VTT was currently assessing the impact of the model and that everyone would be wiser when it completed its work. He added that the government’s aim was not to lay blame on the unemployed.
 Vartiainen stirs up opposition
 The discussion heated up when former state think tank head  Juhana Vartiainen  spoke. He declared that the activation model had proven its functionality since some people had been able to satisfy the conditions for maintaining their benefits  while others hadn’t .
 “If it were the case that all of the unemployed had succeeded in meeting the activation criteria then there would hardly have been any unemployment reduction impact and satisfying the conditions would have been as easy as flipping off the lights,” he remarked.
 He added that the system should not be watered down to allow jobseekers to sign up for any kind of easily- attainable training programme to meet the activation requirements.
 The SDP’s  Antti Lindtman  described Vartiainen’s comments as uncharitable.
 "But the core of this is that the activation model does not work and it is unjust. It is not right that even the unemployed who are doing the best that can be reasonably be expected and are still not finding work are losing their benefits," he observed.
 Silvia Modig  of the Left Alliance said that she was shocked by the government’s view of people. "The majority of people want to be active, they want a good life for themselves," she pointed out.
 "I can assure representative Modig that my view of people can stand up to scrutiny. I do not think of unemployed people as superfluous or that they can be kicked [around]," minister Lindström countered.
 The committee report includes dissenting statements from four opposition parties indicating that the government should accept the citizens’ initiative, which proposes terminating the programme.
 MPs will vote on the initiative in the weeks ahead.


Finnish media has in recent days been aflame with escalating rhetoric about the finer points of constitutional law, thanks to Defence Minister Jussi Niinistö of the Blue Reform Party.
 Helsingin Sanomat  reports  on the spat which started on Tuesday when Niinistö described professor Martin Scheinin’s background in the Communist Party, which the Defence Minister apparently regards as disqualifying.
 “Tweets from admirers of the totalitarian Soviet system cannot in future have significance in Finland’s representative democracy,” wrote Niinistö.
 The issue at hand is ostensibly the decision by parliament to return a much-trailed intelligence law to the committee stage after criticism by constitutional law experts. Scheinin and his fellow professor Juha Lavapuro had previously tweeted criticism of the way lawmakers had ignored criticism from parliament’s constitutional law committee.
 In his blog post Niinistö slammed ‘extra-parliamentary forces’ who want to get their way.
 “Constitutional law Talibs hide their own ideological goals behind a fake cloak of expertise and apply pressure via social media to the democratically elected parliament,” said Niinistö, whose party is currently polling within the margin of error two months from parliamentary elections due on 14 April.
 On Wednesday Prime Minister Juha Sipilä  said  that the tone of the discussion about the intelligence law was ‘approaching the limits’, signalling he may prefer a more constructive approach to parliament’s experts.
 “The government’s job isn’t to direct parliament or the experts called by parliament,” Sipilä told journalists.
 Polling pressure
 HS publishes a poll by TNS Kantar today which suggests the Finns Party's support is on the rise. The party fractured in 2017 when hardliner Jussi Halla-aho took over as leader, leading to a dip in support, but the HS poll suggests their support stands at 11.4 percentage points.
 The bigger parties' numbers are down, especially Prime Minister Juha Sipilä's Centre Party, so HS  goes  to his home town of Oulu to see a party meeting to try and find out why. The answer is unambiguous: people like their anti-immigration line, especially in the wake of a spate of alleged sex crimes in which asylum seekers are the suspects.
 Sipilä, remember, famously offered his own home to accommodate refugees in 2015 and the Finns Party faithful believe that has played a role in their current boost in support.
 The group that splintered from the Finns Party, Defence Minister Jussi Niinistö's Blue Reform Party, registered one percentage point in the same poll.
 Bolivian ski star
 Iltalehti  has  a story on Bolivia's distinctly Finnish-sounding cross-country skiing star Timo Grönlund, who is competing in the World Championships in Seefeld, Austria this week. Grönlund grew up in Kitee, eastern Finland, before moving to La Paz in 2014 with his Bolivian wife.
 He started gathering points under the Federation International du Ski (FIS) qualification system and, once he passed the threshold to compete in the world championships, the Bolivian ski federation ("yes, there is one!" says Timo) paid for his trip to Austria.
 It wasn't the most direct route, and it took 36 hours, but it did get him there and he came 29th in the heats, more than four minutes behind the leaders. That's not too bad, considering how irregularly he gets to ski: he managed a couple of runs in Chile in December, but not much else recently.
 La Paz-based Grönlund does have one trump card, however, in his location. At 3,860 metres above sea level the Bolivian capital is twice as high as many of the camps used for 'altitude training' by endurance skiers.