Finland's current national debate linking immigration and asylum seekers to crime is simply racist and something that should be stopped, says political commentator  Sini Korpinen . Korpinen joined All Points North to look at the fortunes of the Finns Party offshoot the Blue Reform and their prospects for Finland's upcoming general election.
 Hardliner anti-immigrant MEP  Jussi Halla-aho 's  election to the chair of the nationalist Finns Party in June 2017  rocked the foundation of the government coalition that included the National Coalition Party and the Centre Party. In a bid to maintain their positions in prime minister  Juha Sipilä 's cabinet, several Finns Party MPs and ministers exited the Finns Party to create the Blue Reform. The Blues and the Finns Party each have the 17 seats in Parliament at present, but  their voter support figures couldn't be more different , with the Finns Party polling at around 10 percent to the Blue Reform's one percent.
 Korpinen noted that in spite of its best efforts the Blue Reform may not win more than one or two seats in the April election, and that those MPs are likely to be installed in districts in southern Finland's Uusimaa region. The pundit remarked that the Blues have so far not been able to distinguish themselves from the parent Finns Party, which is clearly anti-immigrant and racist.
 She added that support for the party is likely to come from voters who remain loyal to figures such as Foreign Minister  Timo Soini  and party chair  Sampo Terho . Meanwhile the election may flush out members who want to survive in the cluttered political field by moving to greener pastures such as the NCP, she commented.
 Commenting on the  government's recent move to introduce a civics test for citizenship  as well as similar proposals from the Blues, Helsinki University researcher  Niko Pyrhönen  said that citizenship tests are usually ineffective and that even the native population may not be able to pass them, as has been the case in countries such as the US. Moreover, they are likely to have little effect on curbing crime or immigrant crime, he added.
 Tuition fees, measles and cancer treatment lead the news
 Each week in our podcast we look at the top three news stories that animated our social media audience. This week readers were most drawn to  Monday's press review  which highlighted an article about foreigners and university tuition fees. The former marketing chief behind Angry Birds  Peter Vesterbacka  told the paper that foreign students can help boost Finland's economy, and that Finland could easily attract 150,000 foreign students willing to pay for English-language degree programmes.
 The second most popular story was a recent measles scare that turned out to be a false alarm. In the southern city of Espoo, an  unvaccinated child suspected of carrying the disease had forced a partial shutdown of the Iso Omena shopping centre on Tuesday evening . However, officials later said that the child did not have measles.
 And the third most popular story this week was about a cancer therapy for children suffering from leukemia being piloted in Finland. The treatment - called  CAR-T cell therapy  - involves giving patients genetically modified immune cells which stimulate the immune system.
 If you have any questions, or would like to share something on your mind, just contact us via WhatsApp on +358 44 421 0909, on our Facebook or Twitter account, or at yle.news@yle.fi.
 The All Points North podcast is a weekly look at what's going on in Finland. Subscribe via  iTunes  (and leave a review!), listen  on Spotify  and  Yle Areena  or find it on your favourite podcatching app or via our  RSS feed .
 This week's podcast episode was presented by  Denise Wall  and  Mark Odom , with additional reporting by Denise. Our producer was  Pamela Kaskinen ,assisted by  Anna   Ercanbrack , and the sound engineer was  Juha Sarkkinen.


The parliamentary constitutional law committee finished its long-awaited report on the latest version of the government's proposed  social, health care and regional government reform  on Friday, calling for many corrections. This means the bill will move to the committee on social affairs and health, which will have little time to execute the required changes before Parliament starts its pre-election recess on 15 March and the government term comes to an end.
 The constitutional law committee is charged with examining the constitutionality of law proposals and their bearing on international human rights. It's unanimous decision on the latest version of the proposed overhaul of Finland's social and health care system and regional government included 20 different requests for "constitutional law fine-tuning".
 "Yes, there's some work that has to be done, but that's why we are here," said vice-chair of the constitutional law committee  Tapani Tölli , in a press conference arranged after the report was submitted.
 The report's list requires, for example, a better explanation of customer plans, a re-examination of the timing of regional elections, clearer service requirements for  private facilities , requirements for social and health care quality monitoring, the resolution of some data protection issues, and further clarification of regional  funding  and compensation paid to municipalities.
 Skirting compliance with EU law
 The constitutional law committee also called once again on the  social affairs and health committee  to reconsider so-called EU notification. If member states of the European Union wish to use EU aid, they are required to notify the EU commission. The Finnish government has avoided having to do this, but the committee says that EU commission approval would ensure that the "freedom of choice" element of the proposed reform would be compatible with EU competition law.
 The constitutional law committee has struggled with this issue since the first drafts of the proposal were submitted. The report released on Friday contains wording that says that if the social affairs and health committee cannot guarantee the reform's legality in terms of EU law, then the application of the "freedom of choice" component of the bill should be postponed.
 The report also calls for the entire regional government component of the bill to also be changed, if it turns out that there is no time to resolve various related issues first. The plan to create larger regions to oversee the administration of the new social and health care system would require that regional funding and municipal taxation are redefined, with a guarantee that regional financing models would ensure that adequate funding is always available to meet social and health service needs.
 Time is running out
 The parliamentary term will end on 15 March already, due to the lead-up to the next general elections on 14 April. This leaves the social affairs and health committee of parliament with just a few weeks to implement the changes in Friday's report. The committee has already called an extraordinary meeting on Monday to go through the report.
 "We'll do what we can. We need guidance from the government about what our next course of action should be: which details should be changed and how they want to proceed," said  Krista Kiuru , chair of the committee.
 Minister of Family Affairs and Social Services  Annika Saarikko  says her ministry will start in on the work required immediately.
 "We've got some sweaty weeks ahead, but I am hopeful that we can work together with the civil service to come up with solutions to all of the points that the social affairs and health committee requests," she said.
 Opposition: The game is over
 Opposition leaders commented on the report and its ramifications on social media on Friday.
 "Not only does the constitutional law committee require that the social affairs and health committee ensure EU law compliance, but it also calls for the 'adoption of the freedom of choice law to be postponed'. In practice, the social affairs and health committee cannot guarantee this without significantly altering the bill," Left Alliance Chair  Li Andersson  posted on Twitter.
 "My personal conclusion: this is the end of the line. It's high time the government blew the whistle – time is out and the game is over. The problems of the model are just too great and there's no way we can confirm its relationship to EU law with this little time left. We should spend our time thinking about what to do moving forward instead." she tweeted later.
 Green chair  Pekka Haavisto  called for a meeting of all the parliamentary parties to discuss the bill's current status.
 "The changes required by the constitutional law committee are significant. It looks quite likely that implementation of the sote reform will transfer to the next term," he tweeted.
 The Swedish People's Party chair  Anna-Maja Henriksson  appeared in an Yle interview Saturday morning to say that the reform will not be finished in time for a vote this term, as there are too many outstanding problems.


Finland's President  Sauli Niinistö  will have a hip operation on Wednesday, according to the president's office.
 Despite the surgery, Niinistö is expected to be able to perform his duties as usual during his recuperation, according to his office.
 However, the president will not be able to travel by air for at least a month.
 The president's office announced last May that Niinistö suffers from osteoarthritis, a degenerative condition which - in this case - can wear away cartilage in the hip joint.
 According to information from the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, cartilage affected by osteoarthritis becomes frayed and rough, sometimes causing damaged bones to form bone spurs. The condition - and resulting pain - develops slowly.
 Niinistö's office said last spring the president was closely monitoring the progress of his osteoarthritis. However, his medical condition did not prevent him from  participating in an informal ice hockey game  in Helsinki earlier this month.
 Story continues after photo.
 The hockey match that Niinistö took part in earlier this month was a light-hearted tournament with a serious aim: raising funds for local climate projects. Pekka Sipola / AOP
 Vanhanen out of hospital
 Former Prime Minister, and current MP,  Matti Vanhanen  was sent to a hospital emergency room after feeling dizzy and faint during a campaign event in Espoo on Sunday afternoon.
 On Monday it was reported that Vanhanen had left hospital and was planning to take part in parliament's plenary vote this week. However, he remained on sick leave on Tuesday, according to news outlet STT.
 Vanhanen attributed his dizzy symptoms to a prolonged bout of the flu, and said he plans to continue campaigning in the city of Hyvinkää on Thursday.


The founder of the anti-immigrant website MV-lehti,  Ilja Janitskin , has announced he is running for both the Finnish and EU parliaments on the ticket of  Paavo Väyrynen 's relatively new political party the Seven Star Movement.
 On Tuesday,  Väyrynen  sat alongside Janitskin at a press conference in Helsinki and said that Janitskin is a "star candidate" of the Seven Star Movement.
 Väyrynen said that Janitskin is a man who's better than his reputation and that he was unfairly treated. He added that he was not concerned about having a convicted man represent the party.
 "If it were a question of a murderer or a thief the situation would be completely different. The court case is quite unusual. I don't see that it would be an obstacle to [his] candidacy," he observed.
 Last October, the Helsinki District Court sentenced the immigrant agitator Janitskin to 22 months in jail after finding him guilty of  16 criminal charges  related to his websites.
 The charges included aggravated defamation, aggravated incitement against an ethnic group and copyright infringement, among others.
 The court also ordered Janitskin to pay the lion's share of a reported 200,000 euros in damages to harassment victims after he,  Johan Bäckman  and another individual were found guilty of harassing and defaming Yle journalist  Jessikka Aro  and inciting others to defame her.
 Bäckman is a Finnish academic known  known for publicly championing Russian child custody rights abroad.
 Politician with communist past also running
 Another addition to the Seven Star Movement's roster, veteran politician  Pirjo Turpeinen-Saari , made her first formal appearance during Tuesday's press conference since announcing last week that she's also running for the Finnish and EU parliaments on the party ticket.
 Turpeinen-Saari, a child psychologist, lives in southern Finland's region of Raseborg but will aiming for a lawmaker's seat as a Helsinki candidate.
 Turpeinen-Saari served as MP in 1983-1986 as a member of the political group the Finnish People's Democratic League (SDKL), an organisation regarded by many at the time as a communist front.
 The group was one of the largest  leftist  parties in western  Europe . In its heyday, the Finnish Communist Party was the SDKL's main member party, and one of the biggest communist parties west of the Iron Curtain.
 Then, in 1986-1987 Turpeinen-Saari served as MP for the communist breakaway group the Democratic Alternative and was married to the former chair of Finland's Communist Party  Jouko Kajanoja  from 1985-1996.
 Turpeinen-Saari has also written several books, including one in 1986 about the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
 In a more recent book published in 2016, she accused Finland's military leader  Carl Gustaf Emil  Mannerheim **  of having inflamed the conflict between Finland and the Soviet Union into war in 1939.


Finland elects a new Parliament once every four years, and on 14 April 2019, voters will once again choose 200 Members of Parliament to govern the country.
 The party that gains the most votes in the election gets to name the Prime Minister, who then picks a cabinet of ministers from the crowd of newly-elected MPs. This coalition runs the country on a day-to-day basis for as long as they enjoy the confidence of the majority of parliament, or until the next election.
 The current three-party government coalition is led by Prime Minister  Juha Sipilä 's Centre Party, with the National Coalition Party (NCP) and the Blue Reformparty also holding ministerial posts in the cabinet. Those parties currently control 104 of the 200 seats in the Finnish parliament.
 This is a thin majority for a country used to relatively broad-based coalitions; the previous government elected in 2011 included six of the then-eight parties in parliament.
 The government would need at least a simple majority to be able to implement its legislative programme.  Lasse Isokangas / Yle Uutisgrafiikka
 The current three-party coalition has been more ideologically coherent, with market-based reforms and austerity dominating the agenda. The Sipilä government took office in 2015 pledging four billion euros in  annual spending cuts , including reducing outlays on education and social security. The government also pushed through a measure to make most people in the country work an extra 22.5 hours a year, while adding restrictions on unemployment benefits.
 The April election could see a big shift in policy if Sipilä and his Centre Party do not do well enough for him to continue as premier.
 What are the issues?
 The government’s  controversial and unfinished reform of health and social care (‘sote’)  is one of the biggest issues facing the country, but few voters fully understand the complex proposal.
 This reform aims to bring in private providers and move responsibility for care from municipalities to new regional authorities, but it remains unclear if there is majority support in parliament for the plan, as the opposition parties and even  some government party MPs  have indicated that they are unwilling to vote for it. Constitutional and EU compliance issues have also bogged down the bill in committees, repeatedly delaying a parliamentary vote.
 A spate of recent scandals about  standards at care homes  has pushed that issue to the top of the political agenda, ensuring that parties are now discussing tightening the rules for operators of facilities for the elderly.
 After recent alarming news about climate change, the Green Party is framing this year's vote as the last chance to save the world,  hoping for a ‘climate election’ , while the nationalist Finns Party is pushing to make immigration a central theme of the election campaign, especially after a  series of sexual abuse cases in Oulu  in which the suspects were asylum seekers or immigrants.
 Who’s likely to win?
 The largest opposition party in the last term, the Social Democratic Party (SDP), has been  leading public opinion polls  and hopes to emerge from the election as the party with the most votes. Party chair  Antti Rinne  has returned to the campaign trail after a recent  illness .
 If they succeed in this endeavour, the SDP is likely to look to the Green Party as a potential coalition partner, as well as the Left Alliance. These three parties have been consistent critics of the current government’s austerity budgets and labour market reforms.
 Polling numbers have been steadily rising for the Greens in Finland, and they hope to achieve the same kind of status as the 'big three' parties of Finnish politics (the SDP, NCP and Centre). After a recent dip in support, they changed leaders, electing  former presidential candidate   Pekka Haavisto  as their new party chair.
 Those three parties are unlikely to make up the required 101 MP seats on their own, however, and so the NCP or Centre Party may also be asked to join the new administration, along with a smaller party like the Swedish People's Partyorthe Christian Democratic Party.Even the conservative Blue Reform party, a new political party that split from the Finns Party in 2017, might be a contender.
 The winning parties are likely to face  tough choices  in creating a working coalition, however, as the electoral arithmetic might not throw up an obvious, ideologically-coherent combination.
 President Sauli Niinistö is not up for re-election. Florian Wieser / EPA
 What about President Niinistö?
 Finland’s  popular president   Sauli Niinistö , who  brought together Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin last year , is not up for re-election, having won a second term in 2018. His role is in foreign policy and diplomacy, and he is constitutionally prohibited from interfering in domestic politics.
 It is unlikely any coalition government would have big disagreements with Niinistö, who has been president  since 2012  and was formerly a member of the National Coalition party.
 What happens next?
 Coalition negotiations can drag on. In 2011 it took  more than two months  from election to confirmation of  Jyri Katainen  as Prime Minister.
 Horsetrading and political wrangling aside, it's a big year for elections in Finland. New MEPs are due to be elected on 26 May, and new regional assemblies may (or may not) be elected as part of the troubled ‘sote’ reform.
 A recent economic upswing might well run out of steam in the coming years, leaving the incoming administration less room to manoeuvre than they might like.
 Lasse Isokangas / Yle Uutisgrafiikka
 A really simple guide to the main parties
 The  Centre Party  is a centrist party that enjoys strong voter support in the countryside. It has liberal and traditionalist wings. The centre-right  National Coalition  is an economically liberal party that is popular in cities and among higher-income groups. The  Blue Reform  split from the Finns Party after a hardliner took over as party chair in June 2017. The coalition partners objected and kicked the Finns Party out of government, but eventually accepted the Blue Reform ministers and MPs who broke with the Finns Party back into the coalition. The  Finns Party  is a right-wing populist party that is opposed to immigration and the EU. The  Social Democratic Party  is a centre-left party with strong links to Finland's trade unions. The  Green Party  is an environment-focused party founded in the 1970s with a growing supporter base among young, urban voters. The  Left Alliance  is a left-wing group with roots in the Communist party and strong links to the labour movement. The  Swedish People's Party  is a liberal party advocating for Finland’s Swedish-speaking minority. The  Christian Democrat Party  is a small, socially conservative party with links to Christian religious groups.


The Swedish People's Party (SPP) has been part of different coalition governments for close to 40 years, but since 2015 it has been relegated to the opposition. A prominent supporter of Swedish-language rights and interests in Finland, the SPP has traditionally received the support of Finland's Swedish-speaking minority, which makes up about five percent of the population.
 This week's APN asked journalist  Sam Kingsley  and political commentator  Sini Korpinen  about the prospects for the SPP now that the Swedish-speaking voter base is shrinking.
 Kingsley and Korpinen said that the party's unclear platform and apparent unwillingness to take strong stands on several recent controversial issues is proof that it is looking to keep its options open, in terms of potential future coalition cooperation.
 Yle's  latest poll  put SPP support at around four percent. Party chair  Anna-Maja Henriksson  has said she hopes the party will gain 11 seats in the April elections, two more seats than the party holds now.
 Turku University researcher  Matti Välimäki  also contributed to the conversation, noting that SPP has profiled itself as a pro-immigration party. He said in addition to SPP's support for European integration, that effectively means joining a coalition with the anti-immigrant Finns Party would be impossible.
 Cannabis, conscription and a mosque attack top the news
 Every Friday in our podcast, we take a look at the most popular stories of the past week. This week, Yle News readers were drawn to a report about commercial  gardeners in Finland hoping to make medicinal cannabis the country's next big export hit . Their announcement came on the heels of a recent decision made by the EU last month to distinguish medicinal cannabis from other uses of the plant. Currently, growing cannabis under any circumstances is illegal in Finland.
 The next-most popular story was a report about Parliament  overturning a law that previously allowed male Jehovah's Witness members to skip military or civilian service without facing penalties.  The exemption had been in effect since 1987 and has long been controversial. Last year, the Helsinki Court of Appeal ruled that the Finnish practice of allowing male Jehovah's Witnesses to avoid conscription was discriminatory.
 And finally, our readers were drawn to a story about  a smoke bomb being thrown through the window of an Islamic prayer room in the city of Oulu . Imam  Abdul Mannan  said that the attack was the ninth time that the facility had been vandalised within the past year. Oulu is currently home to an estimated 3,000 Muslims. The city has recently been dealing with a number of  suspected child sex abuse  cases allegedly carried out by individuals from the Middle East.
 If you have any questions, or would like to share something on your mind with All Points North, just contact us via WhatsApp on +358 44 421 0909, on our Facebook or Twitter account, or at yle.news@yle.fi.
 The All Points North podcast is a weekly look at what's going on in Finland. Subscribe via  iTunes  (and leave a review!), listen  on Spotify  and  Yle Areena  or find it on your favourite podcatching app or via our  RSS feed .
 This week's podcast episode was presented by  Zena Iovino  and  Pamela Kaskinen , with additional reporting by  Denise Wall . Our producer was  Anna   Ercanbrack ,and the sound engineer was  Anttoni Wikström.


The main opposition Social Democratic Party launched its election campaign more than a month ago, but the party's parliamentary group met for the first time this year with the party leader on Friday.
 The parliamentary delegation held a coffee reception on Friday morning to welcome  Antti Rinne  back to work after an  extended sick leave.
 Rinne also appeared before a TV camera for the first time this year, interviewed briefly by a reporter for Yle's morning chat show, Aamu-tv.
 Rinne, 56, fell ill with pneumonia while on holiday in Spain around Christmas. After returning to Finland on January 11, he was also diagnosed with a coronary thrombosis, which was treated with a balloon angioplasty. Rinne says that his condition was also worsened by a hospital-acquired infection.
 Rinne aims for premiership
 The SDP kicked off its election campaign in late January,  led by deputy chair Sanna Marin , a first-term MP. The SDP says it aims to become the nation's biggest party and to make Rinne the next prime minister. The party has held firmly onto the number-one spot in Yle opinion polls since last summer.
 Alongside an interview with the tabloid Ilta-Sanomat last week, Rinne released a physician's statement saying that he did not have any illness or injury that would "prevent him from continuing as a Member of Parliament or other corresponding work as of 1 March 2019”.
 Also last week the former union boss said in a Facebook post that he felt “good and enthusiastic”.
 IL: Seriousness concealed
 On Thursday the tabloid Iltalehti reported that Rinne's condition had been much worse than reported by the party, saying that he had been in an induced coma for at least two weeks and was medevacked back to Finland in that condition.
 The paper suggests that the party had deliberated tried to conceal the seriousness of his illness, suggesting that there was a power struggle behind the scenes, with some hoping to replace Rinne as the party's prime ministerial candidate.
 Advance voting for the next Finnish Parliament begins on 3 April ahead of Election Day on 14 April, followed by the European Parliament election on 26 May.


Two out of three candidates running in parliamentary elections due on 14 April said they would prefer to increase taxes on earned income rather than cut services or social benefits, according to the Uutissuomalainen news consortium.
 The news agency’s finding was based on an analysis of responses election candidates provided to election compass surveys conducted by the Keskisuomalainen news group and the regional daily, Karjalainen.
 Uutissuomalainen’s analysis found that most candidates running on the tickets of the Left Alliance and the Social Democratic Party supported increasing taxes on earned income, while National Coalition Party candidates were most opposed to the proposal.
 Candidates were asked to respond to the claim, "It is better to cut services and benefits than to hike taxes on earned income."
 All of the Left Alliance candidates and 95 percent of SDP election hopefuls disagreed with the assertion. A majority of Greens' candidates also rejected the idea.
 NCP candidates meanwhile most strongly opposed raising income taxes. Three out of four of the party’s candidates indicated that they would prefer to spend less on services and benefits than to hike income taxes.
 However Finns Party candidates were divided on the issue, with half backing steeper income taxes, while the other half preferring to scale back services and benefits to avoid higher taxes.
 Candidates from the Christian Democratic Party, the Seven Star Movement, the Centre Party and the Blue Reform all fell in the middle of the spectrum of views on the issue.


On 14 April voters will choose a new  parliament  and  government  in Finland, with 200 MPs to be elected.
 The current three-party government coalition is led by Prime Minister  Juha Sipilä 's Centre Party, with the National Coalition Party (NCP) and the Blue Reformparty also holding ministerial posts in the cabinet. Those parties currently control 104 of the 200 seats in the Finnish parliament.
 This is a thin majority for a country used to relatively broad-based coalitions; the previous government elected in 2011 included six of the then-eight parties in parliament. The electorate is divided into 15  regional constituencies  that each elect MPs using a proportional system.
 Governments need at least a simple majority to implement its legislative programme.  Lasse Isokangas / Yle Uutisgrafiikka
 Sipilä's three-party coalition has been more ideologically coherent, with market-based reforms and austerity dominating the agenda. The Sipilä government took office in 2015 pledging four billion euros in  annual spending cuts , and ended up cutting education and social security budgets while forcing through an increase in working time for most employees.
 The April election could see a big shift in policy if Sipilä and his Centre Party do not do well enough for him to continue as premier.
 What are the issues?
 The government’s  controversial and unfinished reform of health and social care (‘sote’)  is one of the biggest issues facing the country, but few voters fully understand it.
 A spate of recent scandals about  standards at care homes  has pushed that issue to the top of the political agenda, ensuring that parties are now discussing tightening the rules for operators of facilities for the elderly.
 After recent alarming news about climate change, the Green Party is framing this year's vote as the last chance to save the world,  hoping for a ‘climate election’ . The nationalist Finns Party meanwhile is pushing to make immigration a central theme of the election campaign, especially after a  series of sexual abuse cases in Oulu  in which the suspects were asylum seekers or immigrants.
 Who’s likely to win?
 The  Social Democrats  have been leading the polls and hope to emerge from the election as the biggest party.
 The party that wins the most MPs in the 200-member parliament gets the opportunity to form a government. To do that it will need to form a coalition with other parties commanding at least 101 MPs between them.
 If they get the mandate to negotiate, the SDP is likely to look to the  Green Party  as a potential coalition partner, as well as the  Left Alliance . Those three parties have been consistent critics of the current government’s austerity budgets and labour market reforms.
 The Greens have been pushing to break into the ‘big three’ of Finnish politics (the NCP, SDP and Centre), as their poll numbers rose after the last election before dipping again. They recently changed leader, electing former presidential candidate  Pekka Haavisto  to replace  Touko Aalto , after  Aalto took extended sick leave .
 Those parties are unlikely to constitute a majority, however, so the NCP or Centre Party may be asked to join the new administration along with a smaller party like the  Swedish People's Party  or  Christian Democratic Party,  or even the Blue Reform party that split from the Finns Party in 2017.The winning parties are likely to face  tough choices  in creating a working coalition, however, as the electoral arithmetic might not throw up an obvious, ideologically-coherent combination.
 President Sauli Niinistö is not up for re-election. Florian Wieser / EPA
 What about President Niinistö?
 Finland’s  popular president   Sauli Niinistö , who  brought together Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin last year , is not up for re-election having won a second term in 2018. His role is in foreign policy and diplomacy, as the president acts as a figurehead rather than getting his or her hands dirty in domestic politics.
 It is unlikely any coalition government would have big disagreements with Niinistö, who has been president  since 2012  and was formerly a member of the National Coalition party.
 What happens next?
 Coalition negotiations can drag on: In 2011 it took  more than two months  from election to confirmation of  Jyrki Katainen  as Prime Minister.
 Horsetrading and political wrangling aside, it's a big year for elections in Finland. New MEPs are due to be elected on 26 May, and new regional assemblies may (or may not) be elected as part of the troubled ‘sote’ reform.
 A recent economic upswing might well run out of steam in the coming years, leaving the incoming administration less room to manoeuvre than they might like.
 Lasse Isokangas / Yle Uutisgrafiikka
 A really simple guide to the main parties
 The  Centre Party  is a centrist party that enjoys strong voter support in the countryside. It has liberal and traditionalist wings. The centre-right  National Coalition  is an economically liberal party that is popular in cities and among higher-income groups. The  Blue Reform  split from the Finns Party after a hardliner took over as party chair in June 2017. The coalition partners objected and kicked the Finns Party out of government, but eventually accepted the Blue Reform ministers and MPs who broke with the Finns Party back into the coalition. The  Finns Party  is a right-wing populist party that is opposed to immigration and the EU. The  Social Democratic Party  is a centre-left party with strong links to Finland's trade unions. The  Green Party  is an environment-focused party founded in the 1970s with a growing supporter base among young, urban voters. The  Left Alliance  is a left-wing group with roots in the Communist party and strong links to the labour movement. The  Swedish People's Party  is a liberal party advocating for Finland’s Swedish-speaking minority. The  Christian Democrat Party  is a small, socially conservative party with links to Christian religious groups.


Prime Minister Juha Sipilä planned to ask President Sauli Niinistö to dissolve the Finnish Parliament on Friday morning, according to a statement from the government.
 The government planned to host a press conference at the prime minister's residence, Kesäranta, later Friday morning.
 Yle had previous reported on Friday that the administration's contentious flagship social and healthcare reform package, colloquially known as "sote" had run into an insurmountable obstacle over proposed regional government elections.
 The regional governments were to take over responsibility from local municipalities for providing social and health care services.
 More to come.


Described as a "farewell wish" before April's parliamentary elections, Defence Minister  Jussi Niinistö  has called for the creation of 605 new career jobs in the defence forces, largely in information technology.
 "The change in the security environment has required the development of preparedness and the creation of new capabilities, one of which can be mentioned is cyber [capability]," Niinistö told the opening of a national defence course in Helsinki on Monday.
 In addition to expanded capabilities in intelligence gathering, Niinistö also mentioned the need for more investment in basic operations such as conscript training and reserve exercises.
 Budget increase needed
 According to Niinistö,  changes in surveillance legislation  will increase staff needs in the military, as will expanding international cooperation.
 Trained personnel is not expected to be immediately available, but the Defence Ministry and general staff estimates look to filling hundreds of new positions by the mid-2020s at a price tag of around 45 million euros.
 "This will require additional funding so that personnel, operational, and material costs remain in balance," stated the defence minister. "The issue will have to be raised by the next government."
 Without more resources, Niinistö argued, national defence cannot maintain credibility.
 Swords into buildings
 The commander of the Finnish Defence Forces, General  Jarmo Lindberg , also took up funding issues on Monday, and growing costs for facilities. At present, 10 percent of the military's operational budget is spent on real estate related costs. In practice, these payments are made to the state-owned Senate Properties company. Lindberg complained about costs rising even though the number of facilities rented by the defence forces has declined.
 According to Lindberg, the current model is even degrading the operational efficiency of the defence forces, since more money is going into rents at the expense of training, preparedness and material acquisitions.
 "We are beating swords into buildings," is how Lindberg expressed it.
 Lindberg added that rental charges for state-owned facilities should not be tied to market prices, rather directly to costs. Other security organisations are also wrestling with the same problem, he said.


Foreign Minister and Blue Reform MP  Timo Soini  – best known for co-founding  and later quitting the populist Finns Party  – will not seek re-election to the Finnish Parliament in April. However he left the door open to a possible European Parliament bid in May.
 Soini made the announcement in his blog on Tuesday, the last possible day to register as a candidate for next month's Finnish election.
 He said he will support the fledgling Blue Reform party in its campaign ahead of  the election on 14 April . In his post, Soini does not mention a possible bid to return to the European Parliament, writing only of beginning a "new journey after this stint as an MP".
 Possible candidates for the European Parliament elections have until late April to register, a month before the 26 May poll.
 Soini's decision is likely to have a major impact on the Blue Reform's chances in this spring's two elections. Since being established in mid-2017, the party's support has remained low despite its status as a government partner.
 The most recent  Yle public opinion poll  shows support for the party languishing at just 1.4 percent.
 Track record of electoral victories
 In the 2015 Parliament election, Soini was the nation's second-most popular candidates, garnering nearly 30,000 votes, just behind Prime Minister  Juha Sipilä .
 The Blue Reform's parliamentary candidates this spring include defence minister  Jussi Niinistö , European and cultural affairs minister  Sampo Terho  and parliamentary group leader  Simon Elo .
 In the 2015 election, Niinistö and Terho gathered about a third as many votes each as Soini.
 Elo: "Blue Reform has a future without Soini"
 Soini co-founded the Finns Party in 1995, leading it from 1997 to 2017, when it  split into two . Its more hardline faction carried on under the old name led by MEP  Jussi Halla-aho , and was replaced in the cabinet by the  hastily-established Blue Reform .
 He was first became an MP in 2003, switching to the European Parliament after a landslide win in 2009. Soini returned to the Finnish legislature two years later, leading the Finns Party to a massive electoral victory but opting to remain in the opposition.
 Soini, now 56, has been foreign minister since 2015, first representing the Finns Party and then the Blues,  arousing controversy  over his participation in anti-abortion events while on official trips abroad.
 On Tuesday parliamentary delegation chair Elo said that the Blue Reform still has a future without Soini. He told the news agency STT that the party takes "a positive view" of the idea that Soini might stand in the European Parliament election.


An array of environmental NGOS carried out a protest in Helsinki on Wednesday to call attention to climate concerns. An estimated 250 people gathered on the steps of the Finnish Parliament. Eight people climbed the Parliament House's massive granite columns in Greenpeace overalls as part of the protest.
 The steps of the Finnish Parliament on 6 March.  Anne Orjala / Yle
 They were detained on charges of disrupting the peace and insubordination, but released later in the afternoon.
 Law enforcement told Yle earlier that it did not have plans to remove the climbers from the pillars, as it wished to avoid any dangerous incidents.
 Other groups taking part included the Finnish Nature League, Friends of the Earth, Extinction Rebellion, Climate Parents Finland and the performance art group Ilmastokirkko ('Climate Church').
 Helsinki Police reported on Twitter that about 250 people were taking part in the protest. Some of the banners at the protest contained slogans like "The future is decided now" and "Limit logging".
 A colourful protester at the event. Anne Orjala / Yle


The opposition Social Democratic Party (SDP) continues to consolidate support among voters just one month ahead of parliamentary  elections due in Finland next month , according to a fresh test of voter sentiment.
 Backing for the parliament's largest opposition group rose by 1.2 percentage-points from  a previous poll in February  and now stands at 21.3 percent, outstripping government coalition partners the National Coalition Party (NCP) and Prime Minister  Juha Sipilä 's Centre Party.
 Voter approval for the NCP fell just over one percentage point to 16.2 percent, the party's weakest performance in four years and the lowest during  Petteri Orpo 's chairmanship. Sipilä's Centre also posted a dubious distinction, with voter support slipping 1.5 percentage points since February to 14.1 percent, the lowest recorded by pollster Taloustutkimus since November 2011.
 The SDP's lead over the NCP is now 5.1 percentage points and it is 7.2 percentage points ahead of the Centre.
 Pre-election boost for Finns Party
 The populist Finns Party posted the biggest gains in Yle's latest poll, capturing the approval of 13.3 percent of voters and building up momentum that began earlier this year and racking up the highest level of approval under  new chair, the immigration hardliner   Jussi Halla-aho . This month's support reflects an increase of 1.3 percentage points over the last survey.
 "People who had previously voted for the Finns Party and who have occasionally been doubtful [about the party] are now restoring their support," said Taloustutkimus research director  Tuomo Turja .
 Before the latest voter survey, the immigration- and EU-sceptic party had been nearly neck-and-neck with the Left Alliance, but it is now challenging the Greens for the position of the country's fourth-most-popular party.
 Meanwhile the Greens, led by  former minister and presidential candidate   Pekka Haavisto , lost nearly a full percentage point of voter sentiment to settle at 13.7 percent backing, while the Left Alliance enjoyed a very marginal boost to register 8.9 percent support.
 Among the smaller parliamentary groups,  the Swedish People's Party  saw support rise to 4.7 percent. Approval for  the Christian Democrats  remained more or less steady at 3.5 percent. The  Blue Reform , which split from the Finns Party two years ago, seems to have failed to capture the imagination of voters, with support languishing at just 1.8 percent in the latest survey.
 NCP bleeding votes to Finns Party, Centre voters abandoning ship
 With undecided or floating voters switching allegiances in the run-up to the 14 April election, anything is still possible. Pollster Turja said that the survey's background data indicate that the Finns Party has managed to attract voters from the sidelines as well as from other parties.
 "The NCP and the Centre are most clearly losing [support] to the Finns Party," he added.
 However the majority of NCP deserters have fled to the Greens, while Centre voters are jumping ship to join a range of other parties, including "the Greens, the Finns Party, the NCP and the SDP...undecided voters are now a challenge for the Centre," Turja remarked.
 One interesting feature of the SDP's performance is not only its high approval rating during the survey period, but also the return of party leader  Antti Rinne  from an extended period of sick leave. Last Friday,  Rinne relieved vice chair   Sanna Marin , who has been  substituting as interim chair  during his absence. The final survey interviews were conducted on Monday and Tuesday, after Rinne's return.
 "This was clearly the weakest period for the SDP in the survey period," Turja pointed out.
 SDP and Greens would grab most additional seats
 Taloustutkimus voter surveys for Yle have made estimates of the number of parliamentary seats parties would have relative to their current representation, based on a calculation of a six-month average of voter support. The calculus indicates that if an election were held now, Orpo's National Coalition would secure four additional seats for a total of 41 MPs in Parliament, although voter support now is significantly lower than during the 2015 general election.
 The data show however, that the SDP and the Greens would post the biggest gains in the legislature. The SDP would nab 15 additional seats, bringing its present complement to 49, while the Greens would add 11 more MPs to seat 26 representatives.
 On the flip side of the coin, if voters went to the polls today, the Centre Party would see its number of MPs plummet from 49 to 36. The Finns Party delegation would only expand from 17 to 21, given that a large number of MPs have left to become part of the breakaway Blue Reform since the 2015 election.
 Researchers interviewed 2,905 respondents between 6 February and 5 March. The poll's margin of error is +/- two percentage points.


Green MEP  Heidi Hautala  has come under fire for what some perceive as her attempt to attenuate a proposed European Parliament resolution calling for asset freezes and visa denials for more than 30 Russian nationals believed to have played a role in the death of anti-corruption lawyer  Sergei Magnitsky.
 An  article by the online publication the  Daily Beast  referred to leaked emails in which Hautala reportedly lashed out at what she allegedly termed Europe's "obsession" with "targetting" Russian President  Vladimir Putin . It also quoted unnamed sources accusing the Green MEP of opposing the mention of Magnitsky's name in the resolution.
 Petri Sarvamaa , a conservative National Coalition Party MEP and former Yle reporter, commented on the  Daily Beast  article, which takes Hautala to task for allegedly pandering to the interests of Russia. Sarvamaa said in a tweet on Wednesday that he couldn't comment on Hautala's motives for her position on the resolution.
 "I can only confirm that with respect to the matter of naming Magnitsky, Hautala actively pulled in the same direction as the Kremlin," he declared in the same tweet.
 "I mean that it is not in the Kremlin's interests for Magnitsky to be associated with human rights in EU regulations. Russia does not like the EU talking about him," Sarvamaa told Yle.
 "I absolutely do not claim that she is consciously seeking Russia's interests. I only said that in this matter, she [appeared to have] a common interest. I don't know her motives or why she has been so energetic about it," he continued.
 Hautala: "My position is clear"
 Hautala has disputed the accusations reported in the  Daily Beast  that she was playing up to Russia, stressing that she supports the resolution.
 "My position is extremely clear: I fully support the EU's personal sanctions for human rights violations," she told Yle.
 Hautala is one of three MEPs from the Green bloc in the European Parliament who have tabled objections to the proposal.
 "EU directives are not named after private individuals," she declared.
 Sanctioning human rights violations
 Magnitsky was a Russian anti-corruption lawyer specialising in accounting who died in police custody in 2009. Legislation named after him in the US imposes sanctions against Russians suspected of playing a role in his death.
 The Netherlands has suggested that the EU should also introduce similar regulations to apply sanctions in the event of human rights violations. An official working group is currently considering the issue.
 The European Parliament's resolution aims to support these efforts. However no progress has yet been made in drawing up draft regulations.
 MEP Sarvamaa said that any proposed directive should specifically mention Magnitsky, although the regulations would not exclusively target Moscow, but would be applied to similar human rights abuses.
 "It would mostly draw attention and it would send a strong signal from the EU because this is such an infamous case internationally," Sarvamaa added.
 Magnitsky was working for an investment fund run by the US-born financier and economist  Bill Browder  when he was arrested by Russian authorities. Since Magnitsky's death, Browder has campaigned to have similar laws introduced in different countries.
 Browder took note of Hautala's objections to naming the resolution after Magnitsky and also took to Twitter to call her out for her position.


President  Sauli Niinistö  on Friday accepted Prime Minister  Juha Sipilä's  offer for the government to resign and asked the cabinet to complete its term in office in an administrative capacity.
 Sipilä planned to ask Niinistö to dissolve the Finnish Parliament on Friday morning, according to a statement from the government, after it became clear parliament would not pass his  flagship healthcare reform  before  elections due in April .
 The government said on its Twitter account that Sipilä would visit the president at his Mäntyniemi residence to tender his government's resignation.
 The government planned to host a press conference at the prime minister's residence, Kesäranta, later Friday morning.
 Yle had previous reported on Friday that the administration's contentious  flagship social and healthcare reform package , colloquially known as "sote" had run into an insurmountable obstacle over proposed regional government elections.
 The regional governments were to take over responsibility from local municipalities for providing social and health care services, a controversial element of which involved increasing the role of private providers.
 News agency Reuters reported Friday that Sipilä intended to offer his government's resignation to the president. The agency quoted the head of the PM's parliamentary group as saying that the resignation was due to the failed healthcare reform.
 National Coalition Party MP  Arto Satonen  told Yle that the situation will not make much difference as the government's term in office was nearly over.
 Finland goes to the polls on 14 April to elect a new government.
 Edit: Updated at 11.10am to affiliate Arto Satonen with the National Coalition Party and not the Centre Party as previously reported.
 More to come.


Prime Minister  Juha Sipilä  has described the collapse of his government over its failed social and health care reform package, “ sote ”, "a major disappointment.“
 "It's a major disappointment," Sipilä commented on the scuppered reform.
 Speaking to journalists at a news conference on Friday morning, Sipilä noted that the social and health care reform package and its related system of regional government was his administration’s central goal.
 "Our government operates on a 'do or die' principle. You must accept responsibility in politics," he declared.
 The Centre Party chair said that his coalition partners understood his reasons for proposing the government’s resignation.
 "I initially discussed resigning with the President last night and this morning with my government partners," he said. "It was my personal decision," he added.
 "Not enough time"
 Sipilä said that the government would have folded in any event if it failed to push the flagship measure through.
 "The collapse of sote would have led to the government’s resignation, regardless of how much time was left before the election," he disclosed.
 He noted that there was not enough time left in the current government term, regardless of how much effort was expended.
 On Friday morning,  Sipilä tendered his government’s resignation  to President  Sauli Niinistö  once it became clear that the reform measure would not progress through parliament.
 Niinistö accepted the resignation but asked the administration to continue in a caretaker capacity. Sipilä said that if post-election government formation talks extend into Finland’s chairmanship of the European Union – due to begin in July – his administration would be ready to continue as an interim government.


By the time APN sat down with political commentator  Sini Korpinen,  Prime Minister  Juha Sipilä   had tendered his government's resignation , citing  the failure of the administration's signature social and health care reform  package. President  Sauli Niinistö  accepted the premier's resignation notice, but asked the cabinet to complete its term in office in an administrative capacity.
 APN asked Korpinen about the potential impact the unexpected resignation could have and why it happened on the cusp of parliamentary elections due in April. She said nothing will probably change before  the general election , which is due on 14 April.
 APN returned to the originally scheduled topic of the day: our party profile of Finland's most leftward-leaning parliamentary party, the Left Alliance. Korpinen said that chair  Li Andersson  and her party still have plenty of work to do to clarify their message as to what they are offering for the future, instead of dwelling in the past.
 For example, as one of the few parties boldly calling for tax hikes to safeguard endangered social services, Korpinen says the Left Alliance should be able to list what it is exactly that Finland's taxpayers will get in return for their money.
 Join in our discussion via social media
 If you have any questions, or would like to share something on your mind with All Points North, just contact us via WhatsApp on +358 44 421 0909, on our Facebook or Twitter account, or at yle.news@yle.fi.
 The All Points North podcast is a weekly look at what's going on in Finland. Subscribe via  iTunes  (and leave a review!), listen  on Spotify  and  Yle Areena  or find it on your favourite podcatching app or via our  RSS feed .
 This week's podcast was presented by  Mark B. Odom  and  Zena Iovino.  Our producer was  Pamela Kaskinen ,and our sound engineer was  Tuomas Vauhkonen .


Helsinki Mayor Jan Vapaavuori says that he is relieved to hear that the government’s  package of social and healthcare reforms  will not be passed after the government  resigned on Friday . Vapaavuori has long been a critic of the reform, which would have diverted resources from the capital to other regions, but says that the constitutional issues with the legislation were the biggest red flag.
 “I have consistently said it was clear that it would fail,” said Vapaavuori on Friday. “And that for several weeks everyone who can read the constitution has realised that it would fail. But it’s good that we can draw a line under this failed exercise.”
 The National Coalition politician said that he felt the package, which combined a major expansion of private sector involvement with an entirely new layer of regional government, was simply too big to pass and that ‘megareforms’ would be off the agenda for a while.
 “Now we surely understand that we don’t need to get into a panic and build new models, but that we should carefully analyse what has happened and why it went like this,” said Vapaavuori. “Then we’ll calmly take steps in the right direction.”
 The mayor, who repeatedly  joined forces with other municipal leaders  from larger towns and cities to criticise the reforms, said the government was too stubborn in trying to force through its model and that ‘not even the fourth proposal was even close to being constitutional’.
 He denied, however, that this was a personal victory.
 “I think the Finnish people have won,” said Vapaavuori. “As we won’t have a reform that would have taken the country backwards, more towards the past than the future, against all trends in the global economy.”


Both the government and 'sote', the long-planned social and health care reform  ran aground in Finland on Friday , and many people are concerned about what this means moving forward. The public broadcaster Yle answered eight common questions it has been fielding from the public after the news broke.
 1. Who's running the country now?
 A caretaker government . Prime Minister  Juha Sipilä  and his government have been asked by the Finnish President  Sauli Niinistö  to  continue in office in a caretaker capacity  until the next government takes office. This means the same ministers will continue in their work, but their powers will be reduced. The caretaker government will handle the day-to-day matters of running the state, but will be unable to start any new projects, for example, due to its diminished mandate. Sipilä's Centre Party-National Coalition Party-Blue Reform coalition would have assumed this role anyway after the general elections on 14 April, until the new government is formed.
 2. How will this affect the upcoming elections?
 Not at all . The elections will take place as scheduled on 14 April. The processing of candidate applications has already begun and the electoral authorities have begun their preparations. Because there are only five weeks left until the elections, there is no reason to appoint a new government. Read our  really simple guide to the 2019 parliamentary elections  for more information.
 3. How will the failure of the 'sote' project affect social and health care services?
 Not at all . The fact that the government was unable to see its reform over the finish line will not affect services in any way. Everything will continue as it has been in the past, including in hospital districts where cooperation models and trials have been started.
 4. And what was 'sote' again?
 A project to reform Finland's social and health care system . Finnish politicians have been talking about 'so-te' (a name taken from the Finnish words for social and health) for so long that its meaning has become obscure. Sote refers to the Finnish government's push to reorganize and streamline social and health care services under a new tier of regional government. Sipilä's is the third consecutive government to have attempted the sweeping overhaul unsuccessfully, although his coalition made considerably more progress than his predecessors. Read our  'sote' explainer from 2017  to learn more.
 5. Will all the 'sote' reform work now go down the drain?
 No , the next government will likely pick up where the Sipilä coalition left off, using many elements of the plan and perhaps discarding other controversial components like the 'freedom of choice' option that would have opened the public services up to more private company competition.
 6. How much has preparation of the sote bill cost?
 Hundreds of millions of euros , according to most estimates. The total cost of the extensive bill's preparation has been difficult to calculate, as the groundwork has extended to many sectors and regions.
 7. Is there a chance the next government will cancel the 'sote' reform altogether?
 Not likely . The prevailing notion in Finland is that the current municipally-run system of social and health care is too expensive in light of an aging population. A new model must be introduced to consolidate services and make them more cost-efficient, the thinking goes. As pundit  Sini Korpinen  said in Yle News's All Points North  podcast  on Friday, it is likely that we have not seen the last of 'sote'.
 8. Was this government resignation an election stunt?
 Possibly . Prime Minister Juha Sipilä emphasized in his Friday press conference that the dissolution of his government was a " personal decision ". Yle's political analyst  Matti Koivisto  says that  polling  was suggesting dismal election results for Sipilä's Centre party, so the premier had nothing to lose. The  reaction of many opposition party representatives  indicates that they believe the move was a stunt, inspired by pre-election panic.


Finland's Prime Minister  Juha Sipilä   dissolved his government  on Friday, but at the request of the President, his coalition will continue as a  caretaker government  until 14 April. This means that he and his ministers will continue to handle the day-to-day matters of running the state, but will have a  diminished mandate . This new role will prohibit the government from starting any new initiatives or making any high-profile appointments.
 Normally, the government of Finland is charged with officially naming the heads of civil servant organizations. The only exception is defence ministry officers, who are normally named by the president.
 An important post that is still unfilled is the future Intelligence Ombudsman of Finland who will preside over civilian and military intelligence. Finland's security and intelligence authorities will likely soon see their intelligence-gathering and surveillance powers expanded, as the Finnish Parliament is expected to pass  legislation  to grant them  broader powers  in this area.
 The justice ministry's administrative director  Olli Muttilainen  says that if the caretaker government cannot carry out the appointment, it will likely fall on the next government to do it, which would likely delay the naming until next summer.
 "It will be a relatively long delay," he said.
 The Parliament's constitutional law committee issued a statement earlier this week that recommended  Kimmo Hakonen , general secretary of the Chancellor of Justice's office management, for the position.
 Finnish President  Sauli Niinistö  is also expected to name a new Defence Commander to replace  Jarmo Lindberg  who will be stepping down when his term ends. This appointment was also expected sometime during March, but may also be delayed.


Caretaker Prime Minister  Juha Sipilä  told Yle on Saturday that he will not seek re-election as chair if support for the Centre Party doesn’t rise.
 Sipilä told Yle’s Ykkösaamu interview programme that he will not seek a second term at the party’s helm if the election result shows that the party has not been able to boost support from the  14.1-percent voter approval recorded in Yle’s latest survey .
 "It is quite clear that I will not be a candidate in Vantaa with that kind of result," Sipilä said, referring to the party’s 2020 convention due to take place in Vantaa.
 "Of course the election result will influence whether or not I think I have the right to continue as party leader. Voters and party supporters also want to see results from the chairman in an election," the prime minister added.
 On Friday, Sipilä  tendered his administration’s resignation  to President  Sauli Niinistö , citing the failure of its signature social and health care reform programme. At the time he said that his government operated on the "show results or go home" principle.
 In spite of the dramatic start to the day on Friday, Sipilä was visible in a number of campaign events in the Häme region in southern Finland. However at that time he did not comment on whether or not he would be available to chair the party after  elections due on 14 April.
 Sleepless nights, but "no regrets"
 Sipilä told Yle that while he did not sleep very well on Friday night, he stands by his decision to tender the government’s resignation as the right one.
 "Without a doubt I stayed awake last night. I have no regrets. I think the decision was the right one. You have to be able to draw conclusions. I’m very comfortable with the outcome," he added.
 He revealed that on Thursday night, the Centre Party convened a meeting in which the group discussed the fate of the reform package and the continuation of the government under the circumstances. Sipilä stressed that  the decision to resign was entirely his  and not the party’s.
 The Centre head said that the failure to see the reform package into the goal meant that he went to see the President at his Mäntyniemi residence  as a failed premier .
 He denied that the decision to quit had anything to do with the party’s  poor performance in voter approval surveys  ahead of the approaching election. Sipilä insisted that he would have done the same regardless of the time frame.
 "I would have done the same, even if 'sote' [social and health care reform] had failed in November."
 Sipilä’s government coalition partners,  Petter Orpo  of the National Coalition Party and  Sampo Terho  of the Blue Reform said on Friday that they would have not scuppered the government, had they found themselves in the same position.
 Opposition to blame for failed reform
 Sipilä insisted that in the end, the ambitious plan to overhaul social and health care services did not stumble over the constitution or shortcomings in the government’s proposals, but over resistance from the opposition.
 "The opposition has wanted to do this for the entire term [in office]. There has been immense pushback."
 Asked why the government did not table proposals that complied with the constitution, Sipilä said that the issue was not the proposals’ unconstitutionality, but a question of interpretation of the constitution.
 "Based on their preparation, the [reform] proposals were constitutional," Sipilä asserted, referring to plans to increase the role of private sector providers in the social and health care system.
 The corporatisation element has been included in the model in 2016, and was selected in part because  it would not require filing a "notification" for the EU to assess  the measure. When the corporatisation model, tanked the issue of notification reared its head once more.
 "The constitution is constantly being interpreted," he noted.
 "The model is continuously changing. We have done our best and listened to the expert. This certainly would have been completed if we had a little more time," Sipilä added.
 The PM declared that the derailment of the reform programme will have costly consequences. So far, it has cost the public purse up to 300 million euros.
 "This also means that for public finances, curbing spiralling [social and health care] costs will be postponed."
 Meanwhile some local governments have already started outsourcing their health care centres to private players. Sipilä predicted that the trend is likely to continue. "There will be serious consequences," he reiterated.


Helsinki deputy mayor  Nasima Razmyar  says she is concerned about the "alternate reality" that some immigrant groups occupy. Speaking to  tabloid daily Ilta-Sanomat , Razmyar referenced a  Helsinki stabbing attack  just over one week ago, in which two adults and three children were injured, and where  the assailant is still on the run .
 IS writes that the assault is believed to be linked to "honour violence". The 33-year-old suspect,  Hayder Al-Hmedav , had reportedly threatened his former wife with disfigurement because she had gone out in public without a veil.
 Razmyar told IS that it is important to take this kind of "alternate reality" in the capital area seriously. "A large majority of immigrants and asylum seekers understand what integrating into a new society means. We still have a small minority that wants to live according to their own norms, to try crimes themselves and to hand down judgments in their own courts," she declared.
 "A huge number of ethnic communities act as bridge builders to Finnish society, but a small number build walls instead," she added.
 Razmyar said that one challenge that some immigrant women face is that they do not have the courage to speak to the authorities. Another issue is that the authorities do not take threats women receive seriously or they do not understand the situation.
 MPs cosying up to voters?
 MPs will gather on Tuesday to consider a bill that aims to eliminate  parachute pensions for lawmaker s. Hot off the presses in Turku, southwest Finland,  Turun Sanomat writes that the term  "adjustment pension" is itself a misnomer for the perk, since many who receive it have not reached retirement age.
 In Finland, former MPs in Finland are entitled to adjustment pensions if they were elected to Parliament before 2011 and have served for at least seven years. On average, adjustment pensions amount to about 3,000 euros per month.
 The draft legislation was prompted by  a citizens' initiative that gathered support  from 70,000 signatories, propelling it to Parliament in spring 2018. The initiative has proceeded through parliament along with a similar proposal drawn up by lawmakers themselves.
 According to TS, there is broad support for the draft legislation although it will sharply reduce the income they receive from the parliamentary careers. TS speculated that one reason for the apparent enthusiasm is an attempt to curry favour with voters ahead of upcoming parliamentary elections.
 The first reading of the bill takes place on Tuesday, with MPs likely to vote on the measure on Wednesday. A crucial second reading is then likely to take place next Monday or Tuesday.
 Violence increasingly seen as a means of influence
 Terrorism, climate change and global politics have contributed to a heightened sense of insecurity among young people in Finland, according to a new youth survey.
 Leading circulation daily  Helsingin Sanomat reports Tuesday  that more than three-quarters of respondents in the annual poll said that they felt somewhat more or very much more insecure or uncertain about climate change. Ten years ago, climate change was a headline concern for 40 percent of respondents to a similar survey.
 All the same, a clear majority of the 1,900-odd interviewees said they were optimistic about their personal outlook as well as that of the country, although there was a slight increase in uncertainty about the future of the world.
 The survey revealed increasing interest in politics among 15 - 29-year-olds, indicating steady growth since the 1990s. Two-thirds of young people told researchers  Elina Pekkarinen  and  Sami Myllyniemi  that they were either somewhat or highly interested in politics. The research pair attributed the outcome to rising concerns about the climate.
 However although young people may be paying more attention to politics, they said they have less faith in politicians, with one-third of survey participants declaring that politicians are unreliable. At the same time, confidence in political parties was found to be lower than in other societal institutions. Trust in the office of the president, however, rose sharply during President  Sauli Niinistö 's term to reach 93 percent in the 2018 survey.
 HS reported that the researchers also found it worrying that more young people see violence as an increasingly effective means of creating impact, compared to previous barometers -- nearly one in ten said they believed it is possible to use violence to make a major difference.


The Finns Party has become as well known for controversy as it has for what it calls its scepticism of immigration and the EU. A recent Yle poll  shows the populist party gaining momentum  in the run-up to the April general election.
 The party appears to have bounced back from the internal division that saw the Blue Reform breakaway to return to the  Juha Sipilä  administration, which said it was not prepared to work with a Finns Party led by immigration hardliner  Jussi Halla-aho.
 APN looked at the pitched battle for poll position with political commentator  Sini Korpinen  and AFP journalist  Sam Kingsley.  Taloustutkimus researcher  Tuomas Turja  also shared his analysis on the party's 13.3-percent polling in Yle's latest political survey. According to Turja, the Finns Party is known for rapidly gaining ground ahead of parliamentary elections to post big gains among voters at the ballot.
 Finns Party among the "big three"?
 Korpinen agreed, saying that in her view, the nationalist group is still to reach its peak and will continue to improve in the polls until the election. She predicted that it would not be far-fetched for them to even rise to the ranks of the "big three" after the vote. Journalist Sam Kingsley agreed, noting that the "immigration-sceptic" party may have been provided with "a gift" in the form of heavy media coverage of suspected sexual abuse in the northern city of Oulu.
 Kingsley also referred to a recent Turku University study indicating that nowadays Finns Party voters are more educated, middle-income earners worried that they have more to lose and are consequently concerned about immigration. Both pundits agreed that if the party does end up in government, as  chair Halla-aho has said is his wish , it will likely struggle to maintain "street cred" as it did during its previous turn in the Sipilä administration.
 If you have any questions, or would like to share something on your mind, just contact us via WhatsApp on +358 44 421 0909, on our Facebook or Twitter account, or at yle.news@yle.fi.
 The All Points North podcast is a weekly look at what's going on in Finland. Subscribe via  iTunes  (and leave a review!), listen  on Spotify  and  Yle Areena  or find it on your favourite podcatching app or via our  RSS feed .
 This week's podcast episode was presented by  Denise Wall  and  Mark B. Odom , with additional reporting by Denise. The sound engineer was  Joonatan Kotila .


The political party that Finnish residents would most like to see as part of the new government is the Social Democrats, according to a  recent poll  conducted by the Foundation for Municipal Development, an interest group that looks after the best interests of Finland's over 300 municipalities.
 Close to half, or 45 percent, of the survey's over one thousand respondents said they would like to see the SDP in the next coalition. The next most popular were the Greens with 35 percent support, followed by the National Coalition Party (NCP) and the Centre Party, who were tied with just slightly over 30 percent support each.
 Support for Finns Party in government up
 The only party whose support in the poll increased from a similar poll the municipal group conducted last summer was the Finns Party. Now the survey showed that just under a fifth of the respondents would like to see the Finns Party have a role in government.
 Voters who plan to vote for the SDP, Greens or Left Alliance answered that they would prefer to see a coalition of these three players in government for the next four years. In contrast, supporters of the Finns Party in the poll were unable to indicate even one party that they would like to see in government with their party representatives.
 The survey was carried out by the pollster Kantar TNS, reaching out to 1,112 respondents that represented 18 to 79 year olds in all corners of mainland Finland. The margin of error for the results is less than three percentage points in either direction.
 Yle also did its own assessment this week about which parties would be willing to work with which others, based on responses to its  election compass .
 The SDP came out on top of this assessment, too, as the most desirable coalition partner. The NCP and the Centre Party candidate responses indicated that neither would rank the other as the number one partner in a potential future government.


The news agency STT approached several environmental organisations and specialists about how Finland's main political parties differ in the  pre-election  solutions they are offering to tackle climate change.
 The experts agree that none of the parliamentary parties seem to understand how quickly new policies must be enacted in order to avoid  dire consequences .
 The panel advises voters that are concerned about climate change to first compare the parties' goals for achieving carbon neutrality in Finland. Attaining a net zero carbon footprint would require lowering overall carbon dioxide emission levels to equal carbon removal capacity. Finland's vast forests already provide a sizeable carbon sink, but other measures such as carbon offsetting and increased renewable energy are also important in this effort.
 Different carbon neutral target dates
 STT's experts say the parties' projected carbon neutral dates are a good indicator of their willingness to forsake fossil fuels and peat, for example.
 The Greens pledge that they want Finland to be carbon neutral by 2030, while the Social Democrats (SDP) and the Swedish People's Party (SPP) have set a target of 2035.
 The centre-right National Coalition Party (NCP) says it wants to make fossil fuels a thing of the past "sometime in the 2030s", while the Centre Party has set a target date of 2045.
 The Left Alliance is also ambitious, saying that they want to "make Finland carbon-negative by the early 2030s".
 Carbon neutrality target dates are conspicuously missing in the election platforms of the Christian Democrats, the Blue Reform and the Finns Party.
 Few clear plans and exact percentages
 Environmental rights researcher  Heta Heiskanen  of the University of Tampere says a second important target for eco-conscious citizens to analyse is the emission reduction percentage that political parties state in their manifestos.
 For example, the Greens call for 60 percent reductions, while the NCP calls for an increase in the 2030 EU emissions reduction target to 55 percent from its current 40 percent, compared with 1990 levels. Many of the remaining parties, like the SDP, Centre and the Left Alliance, pledge that they would like to see emission reduction percentages increased, but without stating specific numbers.
 Another thing the experts say voters can follow is whether the parties have clear plans in place to make attainment of these targets possible.
 "Ask yourself whether they are speaking of larger entities and significant political policies, or if they seem bogged down in discussions of the little details," says project manager  Janne Peljo  of the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra.
 Lack of understanding about the means towards the end
 Before Christmas, eight of the nine parliamentary parties in Finland sat down to compose a  joint statement  that said the country must play its part in limiting the global average temperature rise to 1.5 degrees. However, according to the experts that spoke with STT, the parties do not necessarily understand the means required to make good on this commitment.
 Mia Rahunen , a climate expert at WWF Finland, points out that this promise can't be kept without eliminating the use of fossil fuels. She too feels that none of the party manifestos seem to reveal a sufficient understanding of the seriousness of the situation.
 The parties show clear differences when it comes to laying out specific courses of action, the STT experts say. For example, the Greens, Left Alliance, SPP and SDP each have clear action points to tackle climate change in their election manifestos, while the NCP and Centre Party sections on the environment raise many questions.
 "When it comes to the former government coalition parties in particular, it is tough [to understand their climate goals]. They seem to say one thing and do another," says  Olli Tiainen , climate and energy campaigner and project leader at Greenpeace Nordic.
 Tampere University's Heiskanen agrees that it is difficult to ascertain the NCP stance from their pre-election platform.
 "It's hard to figure out how much of the work will be left to volunteer organizations, and how much they will be effectively pushing things forward themselves," she says.
 Climate expert  Hanna Aho  from the development NGO umbrella group Fingo says that she too has sensed a conflict within the NCP. She says that the party has presented several concrete initiatives to combat climate change, and several MPs have made important contributions, but that she found many of their campaign slogans to be in some part antagonistic to the cause.
 Aho also says it is also valuable to examine party messages for their consistency. For example, a political party might have outlined ambitious climate goals, but at the same time be in support of subsidies that are harmful to the environment.
 Next government will have a major climate impact
 After the  14 April elections , the future government will define climate policy for the next four years. The experts in the STT poll predict several divisive issues may come up in negotiations to form the new coalition. For example, there are clear dividing lines between the parties on the issue of using peat for energy, the area of business subsidies, and the extent to which a climate action plan should be built on the back of Finland's electricity supply.
 Heiskanen estimates that potential coalition partners will have an easier time agreeing on such things as support for the circular economy and funding for research and development.
 WWF's Rahunen says it is unclear how big a priority climate issues will be in the government formation talks, as none of the nine parliamentary parties have indicated whether certain climate measures would be potential red lines in the sand when it comes to cooperation.
 Fingo's Aho comments that the ideal situation would be a future government made up of parties with mutually reinforcing environmental aims.
 "But if, for example, the SDP and the NCP end up in the same coalition, with no Green or Left Alliance input, then it's really hard for me to see that at the end of the day, sufficient climate action would be taken," she says.
 Heiskanen says she was also surprised by how little mention the parties made of legislation in the climate sections of their pre-election manifestos.
 "Only the Swedish People's Party had nicely declared that climate considerations should be taken into account in the drafting of all future laws."


The Finnish Parliament wraps up its final plenary session on Tuesday, and the last items on the agenda include the implementation of a new firearms directive and legislation to capture and cull alien flora and fauna in the country.
 This session, the last before  elections on 14 April , marks the end of many MPs' careers at Arcadia Hill.
 Centre Party MPs  Seppo Kääriäinen ,  Sirkka-Liisa Anttila ,  Niilo Keränen , and  Tapani Tölli  have each announced that they will not be seeking re-election on 14 April. Kääriäinen and Anttila have both served in the Finnish Parliament for decades, and have held seats as ministers in previous governments.
 Among the Blue Reform party, MPs  Maria Lohela ,  Lea Mäkipää  and  Pentti Oinonen  will not be returning. Lohela served as Speaker of Parliament from May 2015 to February 2018 and was the youngest person to hold the post. She announced in January of this year that she would be leaving the Blues to join the Liike Nyt political movement.
 From the SDP ranks, MP and former minister  Lauri Ihalainen  joins former Speaker  Eero Heinäluoma  and MPs  Riitta Myller  and  Maria Tolppanen  in not seeking re-election.
 National Coalition Party MPs leaving the chamber are former ministers  Pertti Salolainen  and  Lenita Toivakka , while the Swedish People's Party is losing MPs  Mats Nyland  and former minister  Stefan Wallin .
 MP  Kari Uotila  from the Left Alliance will also not seek re-election.
 These MPs' decisions will mean 16 fewer candidates contesting the April  general elections .


This April Finland  elects a new parliament  and ahead of that poll Yle News is hosting an election debate featuring all of the major parties to grill them--in English--about their plans for Finland’s future.
 So if you're concerned about the climate, worried about your wages or enthusiastic about education, our debate on Monday 25 March at 3pm is a must-see event.
 Representing the Left Alliance we have  Veronika Honkasalo , a party vice-chair and city councillor from Helsinki who works as a researcher and says she combines ‘stubborn commitment with political cooperation’.
 From the Finns Party vice chair  Laura Huhtasaari is joining us, claiming that she wants to avoid ‘the problems of immigration’.
 Our Centre Party participant is  Kimmo Tiilikainen , who currently serves as Environment Minister and says he wants to work toward sustainable development.
 Antton Rönnholm  is the Social Democratic Party secretary and has worked for several top social democrats. He is not a candidate in this election.
 National Coalition MP  Elina Lepomäki  is an outspoken advocate of free markets and has even developed her very own model for welfare reform.
 Anders Adlercreutz  represents the Swedish People’s Party, bringing his brand of liberal politics to parliament. He’s currently an MP from Uusimaa.
 Our Green debate participant is  Olli-Poika Parviainen , a first-term MP running for re-election from the Pirkanmaa constituency. Parviainen is currently vice chair of the Greens' parliamentary group.
 Aki Ruotsala  joins joins us from the Christian Democrats, and he’s hoping to be elected from the Vaasa constituency.
 And the Blue Reform representative is  Tiina Ahva , who serves as the party’s third vice-chair.
 Our general election coverage includes a  really simple guide , the  ‘election compass’  which shows you which candidates most closely reflect your views, a  series of in-depth podcasts  on each of the nine largest parties, and of course up-to-the-minute results on election night itself, 14 April.
 You can follow the debate from 3pm (1pm GMT) on Monday 25 March right here at  yle.fi/news , via our  Facebook page  and on  Yle Areena . Join the conversation on social media using the hashtag #YleNewsDebate.


Last summer, Finns Party lawmaker  Teuvo Hakkarainen  was  convicted of assault and sexual harassment  against fellow MP  Veera Ruoho  after a Christmas party in December 2017.
 The Helsinki Court of Appeal has now raised Hakkarainen's punishment from 45 day fines to 80 day fines. Based on Hakkarainen's income, that adds up to 5,440 euros.
 Ruoho, who earlier in 2017 defected from the nationalist Finns Party to the conservative National Coalition Party, was sitting in the Parliament House café with another MP when she was approached by Hakkarainen, who had been drinking at a party elsewhere in the building.
 Ruoho told the court that Hakkarainen grabbed her jaw and tried forcibly to kiss her despite her protestations.
 The appellate court ruled on Friday that a previous district court sentence was insufficient. It ordered Hakkarainen's fine to be raised because the violence was directed toward the head and neck area, involved sexual harassment and took place at their workplace.
 Prosecutor sought suspended jail term
 Prosecutor  Eija Velitski  had called for a two-month suspended prison sentence for Hakkarainen. However the court ruled that the act did not warrant imprisonment, as it did not involved choking.
 It did however find that Hakkarainen had firmly grabbed Ruoho in a headlock and turned her head.
 "Despite the potential danger, [the incident] was very brief and the harm relatively mild," the court declared.
 The prosecutor argued that the assault led to Ruoho having to undergo neck surgery last June, as well as "long-running aches and pains in the neck area as well as insomnia due to shock".
 "If the right spot is pressed there, it can kill you," Velitski told the news agency STT, claiming that the incident had re-activated an old sports injury.
 Ruoho is a former member of the Finnish Olympic taekwondo team and police officer specialising in foreign citizens' issues. She quit the Finns Party in mid-2017 when immigration hardliner  Jussi Halla-aho  became its leader.
 Hakkarainen has a record of seven convictions since 1985, including chopping down trees illegally while drunk, stealing silverware and wine from a church, drunk driving, speeding, and  incitement against an ethnic group  for anti-Muslim comments on Facebook in 2016.
 Either side may still appeal the case to the Supreme Court.


Security personnel at the scene quickly wrestled down the perpetrator wearing clothing adorned with the logo of anti-immigrant group  Soldiers of Odin .
 Soini, former leader of the Finns Party who split to set up his own Blue Reform faction in 2017, told onlookers that his security detail apprehended the man attempting to strike him.
 The incident did not deter Soini from continuing his meet-and-greet activities at the farmers' market in Vantaa’s Korso district.
 "Today I faced an unfortunate incident, that nobody should want or hope for," wrote Soini on his blog. "The threatening situation was calmed quickly. I've told police what I saw and experienced. The matter is now being dealt with and investigated by the authorities. They know how to handle this. I thank the security men for their good work."
 Foreign Minister Timo Soini was out in Vantaa on Sunday to lend a hand to the Blue Reform's parliamentary campaign. Timo Jaakonaho / Lehtikuva
 Attacks on politicians are rare in Finland. In 2012, a man  pulled a knife on then-Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen  at a municipal election rally in Turku. Three years later in Tampere a man doused Alexander Stubb, who was Finance Minister at the the time,  in coke .


Nine politicians locked horns in the Yle News election debate on Monday, with topics from climate change, through ethics in politics to labour market policies under the microscope ahead of elections due on 14 April.
 Our pundits highlights some surprising stances, fixed ideological positions, a likely end to austerity and, amid a nine-way discussion, Finland's 'crowded political marketplace'.
 Sini Korpinen , politics expert for the All Points North podcast, said that she found the ethical dimension raised in the show brought up interesting contrasts when  Veronika Honkasalo , a leftist councillor from Helsinki said she had a clear line on coalition partners. Korpinen doesn’t think everything is so simple.
 "Where do you draw the line? We have seen them walking out of government for some other issues. They are so strict about their principles that I’m not sure they are a good coalition partner. It’s not an easy question when you get into the broader issues."
 Finns Party MP  Laura Huhtasaari’s  reaction was also a point of interest for Korpinen, who said Huhtasaari’s party has shifted slightly as the election approaches.
 "[Finns Party leader]  Jussi Halla-aho  has previously said that the party does not care whether other parties want to be in government with them, but now they have said they want to be in government and they have to react--it is an interesting dynamic," said Korpinen.
 Story continues after photo

 Fellow APN pundit  Sam Kingsley  said that participants' language skills were up to the task.
 "The level of English among all the candidates was extremely impressive, especially when you consider they have to sell their ideas at the same time, even knowing how well Finns speak English," said Kingsley.
 The tricky task of playing a political insurgent when you're actually in the government was given to Environment Minister Kimmo Tiilikainen, and Kingsley felt his role revealed something about this election.
 Story continues after photo

 "He came out fighting against austerity cuts and this government’s record, which showed almost an accepted truth in this election which is that austerity has gone too far," said Kingsley. "He was saying that his government has brought the nation’s finances back into balance, trying to claim that any largesse possible now is thanks to the government’s fiscal record."
 Voters face a difficult decision
 Aki Ruotsala  was a 'good speaker', according to Kingsley, who noted that the general competence displayed in the debate showed how difficult the decision will be for many voters.
 "The debate showed how crowded the Finnish political marketplace is in many ways," noted Kingsley. "Voters have a tough job choosing who they want to vote for, and it will come down to charisma and personality in the end--which we’ve seen in previous elections as well."
 Our pundits were intrigued by the focus of the Finns Party representative on one policy area.
 Story continues after photo
 Yle News / Mark B. Odom
 “It was clear that the only policy area Huhtasaari was comfortable on was immigration, she didn’t have much else to offer,” said Korpinen.
 "It was interesting that Huhtasaari kept talking about asylum seekers and crime when the debate had moved on to talk about employment and integration, and that showed how the Finns Party are really focusing on their core message that immigrants make us unsafe, even though figures perhaps don’t bear that out," said Kingsley. "It showed how ideological immigration is as an issue for the Finns Party.
 The "humane" side of immigration
 Immigration was a hot-button issue, and one dear to the hearts of the Yle News audience. Korpinen noticed one contribution that was perhaps a little surprising.
 "Elina Lepomäki  was very good, talking about the humane aspect of immigration policy--it was unusual to hear a National Coalition Party politician talk like that because usually their party line is about immigrants paying taxes to compensate for Finland’s low birth rate," said Korpinen.
 Korpinen picked out Social Democrat  Antton Rönnholm  and  Elina Lepomäki  as the debate’s star performers, but gave a special mention to the Blue Reform representative.
 "Lepomäki managed to soften the image of the National Coalition, and Rönnholm was very good at talking about values-based politics," said Korpinen. " Tiina Ahva  was very clear and got her points across very well, she didn’t dodge any questions she just answered in a fairly straightforward way."
 "Whatever you think of the party’s policies she was very well-researched, she had clear lines of thought and she came across well," agreed Kingsley. "We can be absolutely sure that we’ll be seeing more of her in years to come, whatever you think of her policies or politics."
 Korpinen also felt the discussion was well-managed, declaring on Twitter that she was starting the ' Denise Wall  Appreciation Group'.
 "I was impressed by the moderators, they were good at holding candidates to account and especially good at keeping watch of the clock!"


The elimination of biannual clock-changing rituals across the EU has taken a step forward.
 On Tuesday the European Parliament voted to eliminate the practice of changing the clocks by an hour back and forth twice a year across the EU. MEPs approved the measure by a margin of 410 yes votes, 192 no votes and 51 abstentions. All 28 EU states currently change their clocks an hour ahead and back twice a year.
 The EU Parliament endorsed a proposal by the European Commission to end the biannual clock change, but pushed forward the deadline from this year to 2021.
 The matter is not settled however, as each EU country needs to decide whether to remain on daylight saving time (during spring and summer) and standard time (from mid-autumn until early spring).
 Consensus needed
 Last month the Finnish government said it  supports scrapping seasonal daylight saving  and to permanently stay on standard time. A  citizens' initiative  on the matter was sent to Finnish lawmakers in 2017.
 In order to avoid problems and market conflicts, the EU Parliament said it wants individual countries to coordinate their decisions on their changes with each other.
 Going forward - if and when member states come to agreement - countries that decide to stay on daylight saving time will turn their clocks forward an hour for the final time in March 2021 and those that choose to remain on standard time will turn their clocks back an hour for the last time in October 2021.
 Last year, following requests from the public, the EU Parliament and some member states, the EU Commission decided to examine the issue of eliminating the practice of daylight saving time changes.


A survey conducted by leading circulation daily Helsingin Sanomat suggests that  Greens chair  Pekka Haavisto  has emerged as the lead candidate to be Finland’s next prime minister after parliamentary elections due in April.
 Haavisto managed to force a second round in Finland's 2012 presidential election, but lost to the National Coalition Party candidate  Sauli Niinistö . Niinistö later  crushed a second challenge from Haavisto  and others in the 2018 presidential poll.
 Altogether 22 percent of survey respondents said they’d like to see Haavisto take office after next month’s parliamentary elections. The second-most popular candidate for the post was the National Coalition Party’s  Petteri Orpo , with 16 percent backing from interviewees.
 Next in line in third and fourth position with 15 and 14 percent backing respectively were the Social Democratic Party’s  Antti Rinne  and the Centre Party’s  Juha Sipilä .
 In spite of voters’ preferences for the next prime minister, party support polls show that  the next premier is likely to come from the Social Democratic Party or the National Coalition Party .
 Market research firm Kantar TNS interviewed 1,000 respondents for the HS poll in March and the margin of error was +/- three percentage points.
 Meanwhile, in a separate poll by the Lännen Media newspaper consortium, respondents also placed Haavisto ahead of other contenders in the race for the premiership. That survey, which was conducted by pollster Taloustutkimus for the newspaper group, also put the NCP’s Orpo in second place.
 Voters want the SDP and Greens in government
 Respondents to yet another survey indicated that the opposition parties the SDP and the Greens are favourites to form the backbone of the next government.
 This time around, the agricultural lobby-backed paper Maaseudun Tulevaisuus commissioned Kantar TNS to sound public opinion on the three parties voters would like to see in government. The pollster questioned just over 1,000 voters on their opinions in mid-March.
 Respondents placed the NCP in third place, narrowly ahead of Juha Sipilä’s Centre. Drilling down into the poll data indicated that while the Centre still has strong support in rural areas, it has lost its top ranking among these voters to the SDP.
 The Foundation for Municipal Development KAKS also tested voters’ temperature on the issue of which parties they’d like to see in government.
 According to that survey, nearly half of respondents said they’d like to see the SDP in government, followed by the Greens with 35 percent backing. Both the NCP and the Centre trailed with just over 30 percent support for forming the next administration.