A number of Tuesday’s front pages carry pictures of the middle-aged men in suits who have begun thrashing out the details of the “social contract” – Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s hoped-for accord between the government, unions and employers’ groups over pay and employment conditions for the coming years.
Helsingin Sanomat lays out the views of the different parties round the table – which it notes are “very far from each other”. The business lobby, the EK, wants job competitiveness; the local government employers’ association wants better conditions for creating employment, the blue-collar union umbrella group the SAK says they won’t agree to extending working hours, and the white-collar union conglomerate says the talks are slanted in favour of employers.
Hanging over all sides is the government’s threat of 1.5 billion euros’ worth of extra cuts if the talks fail – so the pressure’s on to strike an outline of a deal in the coming 19 days.
The papers all offer their own analysis and comment – Hesari’s editorial calls for something to be done, pointing out that it’s now seven years since the global financial crisis began, and Finland’s economy is still yet to recover. Instead, unemployment is rising – and people are staying out of work for longer.
The paper notes that the coalition has already backtracked from the timetable it set out in its government programme and gone for a more realistic choreography, but it says the deal – which will involve a full six months of negotiations – looks a little over-inflated. The grandly titled “Social Contract” is little more than a standard co-determination agreement, the paper says, though newly appointed mediator Juhani Salonius will have his work cut out.
Meanwhile Iltalehti's political correspondent is more openly damning. He argues that Sipilä’s aimed-for deal is not going to be an equal one. Despite the PM’s repeated calls for flexibility and humility from all sides, anyone with any sense knows that the point of the deal is to improve companies’ and employers’ standings, the paper says.
Neo-Nazi Swedish links
Many of this morning’s papers also carry follow-up to last weekend’s violence in Jyväskylä by the neo-Nazi group calling themselves the Finnish Resistance Movement. Ilta-Sanomat leads with the claim that the group has extremely close ties to the Swedish neo-Nazi organisation SMR. The writer Mikael Brunila, a specialist on the extreme-right, claims that the leader of the Finnish Resistance Movement, Juuso Tahvanainen, regularly reports back on his group’s activities to a farm in northern Sweden, which is the home of Klaus Lund, who heads the umbrella network of white supremacists.
Iltalehti points out that while the Finnish group has been responsible for violent assaults, most recently on three people this Saturday, their Swedish counterparts have in fact carried out a number of murders. The paper carries a warning from Finland’s security services Supo that neo-Nazi violence has become more widespread, but points out that there are only around a hundred active members, and that the threat from the group is mild and localised.
Ambassadorial greetings
“He speaks Finnish already!” So the long-awaited arrival of the United States’ new ambassador to Finland, Charles Adams, is greeted with evident delight by many papers this morning. Flanked by his wife and daughter, the new arrival addressed the country’s media yesterday in their own language, saying: “It’s great to be in Finland. My family and I are happy that we’ve finally got to Finland. I hope I can now get down to work as soon as possible.”
HBL points out that the former active member of President Obama’s election campaign has a very international upbringing, having been born in Northern Ireland, and more recently, worked in Switzerland. As well as a smattering of Finnish – which he says he intends to improve – Adams speaks Swahili, French and German.
The paper also notes that a number of former US ambassadors have been colourful characters. Adams’ predecessor, Bruce Oreck, was a former bodybuilder who wasn’t afraid to bare his rippling torso should the situation call for it. We’ll have to wait to find out more about Ambassador Adams though. “First off I’m going to get better acquainted with my new home,” he said.