Category Archive

I recently discovered an interesting blog called ‘Migrant Tales‘. The author of which is clearly concerned with immigration matters and writes a lot on Finland’s migration politics. Often, in debates on how immigrants should be integrated into Finnish society, one hears the argument “When in Rome, do as the Romans”; in other words, that integration should mean that migrants to Finland so quickly as possibly forget their own background and take on entirely a Finnish lifestyle - essentially abandoning or replacing their own cultural values and taking on ours completely. This argument comes up in comments to Migrant Tales and in many other online and offline debates on immigration and integration policy.

This “When in Rome, do as the Romans attitude” got me thinking today when I heard a story on Yle Radio Västnyland (I’m on holiday at the moment in my wife’s home area near Ekenäs) this morning about the increase in people moving from the capital region to the rural municipality of Ingå. The report was about this high level of Finnish-speakers moving into Ingå causing the municipality’s sole Finnish-language school becoming overcrowded and featured a Kokoomus (National Coalition party) Finnish-speaking member of the Ingå council suggesting that Ingå ought to urgently look to constructing a new, second Finnish-language school in the municipaltiy as many Finnish-speaking families were “making do” with putting their children in Swedish-language Ingå schools to save them from travelling longer distances to the municipality’s one Finnish school.

Now, I wonder what the “When in Rome, do as the Romans” attitude holders would make of this. Surely if Rome were Ingå, and one was to do as the local ‘Romans’, one should be adopting the Swedish-language rather than insisting on Finnish language services.  Today’s Ingå is a bilingual municipality with Swedish as the majority language (according to the municipal website, around 57% of the 5 458 residents speak Swedish - 40% have Finnish as their mother tongue.)  If one went back to 1950, before any widescale immigration to the municipality had got underway, you would have found that 89,5% of Ingå’s residents spoke Swedish as their mother tongue (according to Folktinget’s statistics). Before the wars of the 40s, you would have found that the municipality was unilingually Swedish-speaking. So, presumably if you held the “When in Rome” attitude, you would be condemning those unthoughtful Finnish-speaking immigrants of today and the latter half of the 20th century for not integrating and insisting on the superceding of their own culture on to the Finland-Swedish.  You would be accusing them of failing to act as one should in Rome.

Incidentally, this argument could be applied to many, many more districts - including municipalities that no Finnish speaker would think of as a traditionally Swedish-speaking area today; for instance, the capital region’s Esbo (Espoo) which is today’s second largest city in Finland with around 235 000 residents (mainly due to immigrants from the rest of the country moving to the capital region) was 43% Swedish-speaking still in 1950. Today it is 8,9%. Before the wars and in the first half of the 20th century it was still a very rural, sparsely populated unilingual Swedish municipality. Is this another example where the “When in Rome” attitude holders would see a failure?

Now, I’m not arguing for the application of the “When in Rome, do as the Romans” (i.e. integrate completely or stay away) attitude in official policy. Hopefully my thoughts here help expose such thinking as unrealistic at the very least. I would love to hear from some “When in Rome, do as the Romans” attitude holders as to whether their beliefs also cover their own Finnish-speaking compatriots when they have chosen to move to Swedish-speaking areas and often cause them to dramatically change in cultural and linguistic character.

That’s the opinion of the minister of defence, Jyri Häkämies (national coaltion Kokoomus party). Häkämies told the Finnish Atlantic Society that the Nordic countries’ influence in defence matters would markedly increase if Finland and Sweden joined Norway, Denmark and Iceland as members in the Nato defence alliance. Häkämies believes that the Nordic region would be more secure from a military perspective and that Nato membership would improve and enhance the opportunities for a common planning of regional defence leading to greater efficiency and cost savings.

Häkämies also said that a common Nordic front within Nato would also be of advantage when considering that Russia is regaining some of its former strength. Häkämies previously caused debate when he made a speech in Washington saying that “Russia, Russia, Russia” was Finland’s key foreign policy challenge. This was quickly played down by both prime minister Matti Vanhanen (centre) and president Tarja Halonen.

With known Nato enthusiast Alexander Stubb (Kokoomus) also now in government, it seems that the highest levels of Finnish government are increasingly positive towards Nato. It remains to be seen what effect continued media prominence on the Nato issue will have on Finnish public opinion, which according to the most recent polls is still generally negative towards any Nato membership application.

photo: Statsrådets kansli / Lehtikuva Ab

Sacked foreign minister Ilkka Kanerva (Kokoomus national coalition party) has spoken to the newspaper Turun Sanomat about the events that led to his dismissal by his party.

Kanerva criticised Kokoomus party leader Jyrki Katainen for altering his stance over night. Both Katainen and prime minister Matti Vanhanen (centre) has assured that Kanerva had their full trust on several occasions before his sacking. According to Kanerva, Katainen’s decision to fire him undermines Vahanen’s attempts to protect politicians’ private lives and gives a signal to the media that private lives are now fair game.

Kanerva expressed his surprise that his 200 SMS text messages to an erotic dancer have caused such a stir. According to Kanerva, his sacking over such a small affair as text messages is unique in an international context. As an example, Kanerva pointed to the former US president Bill Clinton who was involved in an affair with a low-racked White House worker which he at first denied. Despite this, Clinton stayed in post.

The sacked foreign minister believes that the publication by the gossip magazine Hymy of a selection of his messages is clearly illegal as the constitution guarantees the privacy of all correspondence. However, he has ruled out taking legal action.

Kanerva bitterly said to the newspaper that his life’s work had now gone to waste.

When foreign minister Alexander Stubb (national coalition Kokoomus party) was appointed last week (after scandal hit Ilkka Kanerva’s departure), people wondered how long it would be until Stubb would start talking about his favourite subject, Nato. Stubb has previously been seen as somewhat of a Nato enthusiast.

Well, it seems it hasn’t taken him long at all. In an interview on Yle’s Aamu-tv morning television programme this morning, Stubb claimed that Russia’s stance on any Finnish membership of Nato is unchanged. It’s an opinion that Stubb’s party colleague, the veteran Pertti Salolainen (Kokoomus) who is chairman of the parliament’s international political affairs committee, does not share. Salolainen stated recently that Russia’s opposition on any Georgian or Ukrainian Nato membership would affect Russia’s stance also on Finland. He has said that he thought it would have been easier for Finland to enter Nato without large-scale Russian opposition during Russian president Jeltsin’s time in office. In Salolainen’s view, today’s Russia is again more assertive in its foreign policy concerning its neighbours.

In direct contrast, Stubb thinks that Russia was in fact far more critical of any Nato enlargement in the mid-1990s. He told morning television that he has already had a telephone conversation with his Russian counterpart and that he sees Russia as an opportunity rather than a threat. Stubb said that he thought last week’s Bucharest Nato summit showed that the alliance’s European members were gaining in influence.

Stubb said he wants to renew foreign policy debate in Finland by making it more accessible for the public. As part of this he is considering starting blogging during his foreign minister job.

Stubb’s views on where the decision making power lies within Nato can probably be seen as an effort by him to alter the presentation of Nato in Finnish public opinion, where the alliance is often seen as a body dominated by the United States whose confrontational foreign policy is widely unpopular. If such a view on Nato could take hold, it would no doubt be easier to convince people of the merits of Nato membership. It seems Stubb will continue, at least in a small way, to bring forward his positive views on Nato even in his new job.

Finland’s Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen (centre party) has ruled himself out of the 2012 presidential election already. Vanhanen told the newspaper Itä-Savo that he doesn’t want to be president and had already experienced one presidential election (the last one in 2006 where he ran and was eliminated in the first round after coming in third place with 18,6% of the vote). Vanhanen did however state that he was aiming for a third term as prime minister.

This leaves potentially both Centre and the Social Democrats without obvious candidates for the 2012 elections, although it is obviously still a long way off and the SDP will get a new chairman this summer.

Their main rivals, the National Coalition party Kokoomus do however have one obvious candidate, Sauli Niinistö. Niinistö came second in 2006 with 48,2% of the vote in the second round against Tarja Halonen. This was a respectable result considering highly popular Halonen got 49,4% in the first round and before that took place, people were tipping the election to be already settled in one round. Since then, Niinistö has been elected to the Finnish parliament in 2007’s election, getting the most personal votes ever in a parliamentary election, and become speaker of parliament. He’s seen to be popular and easily the favourite right now to become Kokoomus’ first president since Paasikivi who left office in 1956. Still, if a week is a long time in politics, 4 years is surely an eternity.

It seems sacked foreign minister Ilkka Kanerva (Kokoomus national coalition party) is having some communications problems in getting his formal resignation to the president’s office.

The Foreign Ministry, from which Kanerva is officially on sick leave since Monday, did announce that Kanerva would be sending his formal resignation request letter by fax.  It’s too late for it to be posted by mail. However, according to Hufvudstadsbladet, the fax plan has failed on the grounds of technical problems. Instead, a car will collect Kanerva’s resignation letter from his home in Turku/Åbo tomorrow morning and drive it to the president of the republic’s office.

Perhaps he would have found it easier to send a text? Then again, given recent events, perhaps Tarja Halonen doesn’t want to give him her number.

The official appointment by President Halonen of Alexander Stubb (Kokoomus) as Finland’s new foreign minister will happen during the government-presidential session this morning at 11.00. Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt (from Kokoomus’ Swedish equivalent, the Moderates) will fly to meet Stubb already this afternoon in Helsinki/Helsingfors.

The erotic dancer who was on the receiving end of sacked foreign minister Ilkka Kanerva’s (national coaltion Kokoomus party) 200+ text messages has sad that she is distressed to be stamped as the one who is behind Kanerva’s sacking.  In an interview with the newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet she described the situation as lacking in justice.

“I am sad,  angry and sorrowful. What has happened is injust and wrong. I had no relationship with Ilkka Kanerva. He wrote humorous text messages to me. It’s got nothing to do with sexual harassment. There are no reasons for forcing Kanerva to go.”

Turkiainen will not take responsibility for the chain of events that began when she gave the text messages to the gossip magazine Hymy.

“I couldn’t influence what happened later even if I tried to forbid the publication of the text messages. Kanerva can take a part of the blame himself. He lied and changed his version the whole time. First he denied that the SMS messages existed, then he said that they were work-related. It would have been better to admit that it was all a question of innocent flirting from the beginning.”

For Johanna Turkiainen the past weeks have been tough. She has received many threats, “The e-mails and text messages I’ve received from normal people have been horrible and threatening. People are very angry and accuse me of ruining Kanerva’s carrier.  It’s unpleasant”

The relationship with her partner of 8-years also hangs in the balance, “I love my man and I hope that he forgive me so that we can continue our relationship. Should that be the case, I can probably get over this situation, but if he leaves me it’s going to be difficult. Then I’ll move to the USA and commit myself to a dance carrier there.”, says Turkiainen to Hbl.

Turkiainen says that she regrets allowing the magazine Hymy get hold of the messages, “I’ve paid the money back to Hymy and I’ve not accepted the offered trips or bribes,” explains Turkiainen.

Today, April Fool’s Day, the gossip magazine Hymy printed, as promised, a selection of Ilkka Kanerva’s text messages to the erotic dancer Johanna Tukiainen. This was however no joke but perhaps did make the foreign minister the April Fool de jour. In total, Hymy published 24 of Kanerva’s messages, with a selection being:

- It’s sounds almost like a fantasy. Have you kept your ‘garden’ in shape?

- Would you like to do it at some exciting place? What could that be?

- How would it feel to touch you with my fingers at a nightclub?

- There was nothing wrong with yesterday’s dress either. Very womanly.

Well, you get the idea. Nothing overtly sexual but suggestive none the less. Enough for the chairman of Kanerva’s Kokoomus conservative national coalition party however. It was a clearly emotional party chairman, finance minister Jyrki Katainen, that finally explained to the press this morning that he had sacked Kanerva, “Ike is my friend and he performed his ministerial job brilliantly”, explaining that it was one of the toughest decisions in politics he has had to make but that Kanerva had broken his promise to stay away from his previous tradition of scandals when he had been appointed a minister this time around. For his part, Kanerva has said nothing today and called in sick to the foreign ministry this morning.

Alexander Stubb to be the new foreign minister

Kokoomus has selected Alexander Stubb to be the new foreign minister. The President of the Republic will formally appoint him on Friday.

Alexander Stubb is currently a member of the European Parliament and is 40 years old today. He was a voting magnet in the last European parliament elections, attracting over 115 ooo personal votes. For an MEP, he has a relatively high profile both at home and even in other European countries. He’s known to be an expert on the EU having written a number of books on the institutions and workings of the union. He has also stated favourable attitudes towards Finland’s membership of Nato in the past. However, he told Radio Vega this morning that a foreign minister can’t have personal views and that he will naturally represent the government’s viewpoints.

It is likely that Stubb will quickly gain a higher profile on the EU level with his formidable knowledge and understanding of the union and his already sound reputation.

Alexander Stubb is bilingual, speaking both Swedish and Finnish to mother tongue level. His Swedish-speaking roots (his father) come from Esse in Österbotten with his Finnish-speaking side (mother) having its roots in Viborg/Viipuri (now in Russia). At school level, Stubb attended both Swedish- and Finnish-speaking schools. He has studied in both Paris and USA, receiving a doctorate from London School of Economics on EU matters.

Ironically, another scandal hit politician will return to a job as a result of Stubb’s promotion. Stubb’s replacement in the European parliament will be Sirpa Pietikäinen who previously left active mainstream politics after being convicted of driving whilst drunk.

International media and politicians have followed the events

The events surrounding Kanerva’s departure have been noted abroad. The British news agency Reuters and German DPA have both written about it.

Stockholm’s Dagens Nyheter believes that this could put prime minister Matti Vanhanen (centre party) in a difficult situation, as he has supported Kanerva to the last whilst at the same time being involved in his own attention-grabbing affair with his ex-lover.

Sweden’s foreign minister Carl Bildt thanked Kanerva for his contribution saying that he thought Kanerva did important work for Finland. Bildt explained that he knows Stubb well, having helped him in his election work and that he thinks Stubb has much to give.

Scandal-hit foreign minister Ilkka Kanerva (national coalition Kokoomus party) has pulled out of a seminar in Tallinn that he was due to take part in this morning, reports the Aktuellt news bulletin (Radio Vega). The Estonian meeting arrangers were the ones to annouce this. As reported previously, Kanerva has been involved in a scandal in which he sent over 200 text messages to an erotic dancer. The gossip magazine Hymy will publish a selection of these in its next issue.

Notably Kanerva already arrived in the Estonian capital yesterday. One must wonder what has happened during yesterday evening and this morning in Kokoomus circles? Is Kanerva’s resignation or a reshuffle of Kokoomus’ government ministers imminent?

Those that have been following Finnish news will have heard of the recent headlines involving Finland’s foreign minister Ilkka Kanerva (a member of the conservative Kokoomus national coalition party) and his 200 or so text messages to erotic dancer Johanna Tukiainen. Up until now, Kanerva has managed to retain the trust of his party leader finance minister Jyrki Katainen and of Centre-party prime minister Matti Vanhanen (who has said it is an internal matter for Kokoomus). However, it seems he could yet find himself in more stormy water.

The gossip magazine ‘Hymy’ has annouced it will publish some of the text messages that Kanerva sent to Tukiainen in its next edition (which comes out next Wednesday). According to news reports, Tukiainen attempted in a last minute court action to prevent Hymy from publishing the SMS messages. The court has however declined to do so. Hymy claims, according to Hufvudstadsbladet, that the SMS messages should be published so that the truth about their contents can stop the current rumours about what they might contain. Therefore, in Hymy’s opinion, the publication is to the advantage of Kanerva.

Hymy’s editor-in-chief Esko Tulusto said, “As far as I’m aware, the constitution is still in force and the constitution forbids censorship in advance.”. He declined to comment on the contents of the SMS messages other than to say that the magazine would not be taking a position on whether or not Kanerva should resign.

The publication of Kanerva’s SMS messages will again return the spotlight to Finland’s foreign minister for all the wrong reasons. Naturally, politicians must be entitled to have private lives. This is, however, not Kanerva’s first SMS scandal involving women. Kanerva may yet find that his position becomes untenable - if everything he does in his post becomes overshadowed by the gossip surrounding his text messages, he simply may not be able to get on with his job of promoting Finland’s foreign policy. It’s also doubtful Kokoomus would tolerate an even more prolonged period of “bad news” stories surrounding one of their most prominent government ministers. In short, Kanerva is still very much skating on thin ice.