#harry harkimo

[iibislintu]

Varsinainen vaalipäivä on sunnuntai 28. tammikuuta. Jos kukaan ehdokkaista ei saa yli puolia äänistä, järjestetään toinen kierros 11. helmikuuta. Toiselle kierrokselle yltävät ehdokkaat säilyttävät samat numerot kuin ensimmäisellä kierroksella.

[ered]

in case you've missed it, and I'm assuming most of you have, we're having a presidential election here in Finland. First round is currently going on, so I thought I'd give you a quick run down of our candidates!

(in alphabetical order, party in parentheses)

Mika Aaltola (independent): Has mainly worked in academia and apparently has experience in international politics, which is good for the job. I honestly know next to nothing about this dude, but he seems to positively radiate Just Some Guy energy. What would be interesting about him winning: I have no idea. Chances of winning: Ehhh - but it wouldn't be the first time we get a president from outside the daily politics.

Li Andersson (Left Alliance): current leader of the Left Alliance, former Minister of Education. What most people seem to say about her: "she's clearly the best choice, but has no chance of winning so I won't be voting for her." What would be interesting about her winning: first Left Alliance president Chances of winning: Unfortunately slim. Left Alliance is a small party and half of the country still seems to think they're Evil Communists.

Sari Essayah (Christian Democrats): she's also the leader of her party. Most known for being a former racewalker and religious. What would be interesting about her winning: How the hell did it happen??? Chances of winning: zero.

Pekka Haavisto (Green League): Former Minister of the Environment, International Development, and Foreign Affairs (three different terms, not all at once). He was born in 1958 and hasn't done much beyond politics. He's been in the presidential race twice already too, both times losing to our current president, Sauli Niinistö. What would be interesting about him winning: first gay president. Chances of winning: he made it to the final round twice already, so maybe third time's a charm? He has been polling first this time around.

Jussi Halla-aho (Finns Party): a prominent rightwing blogger, a Slavic linguist by education, and the current Speaker of the Parliament. He's "immigration critical" in the same vein "gender criticals" tend to be. He's is considered something of an intellectual in the rightwing circles despite having the vibes of an anthropomorphic raisin, and has amassed a cult following - who literally call him Mestari (master, but in Finnish the vibes are more a master of a trade and not some dude who spanks you in the bedroom. What would be interesting about him winning: finding out if I can immigrate to Denmark. Chances of winning: none if I can help it, but like I said, he does have a very solid fanbase.

Hjallis Harkimo (Movement Now): best known for being the owner of an ice-hockey team or something. His real name is Harry and for some reason he has been elected into the parliament twice. I assume it's the famous allure of a "successful businessman" or because he's something of a celebrity? Who knows. What would be interesting about him winning: How did it happen? Chances of winning: slim.

Olli Rehn (Centre Party): Served as the Minister of Economic Affairs for like a year under our most fuck-witted prime minister in recent history. Not much else to say about it. Somehow seems older than Pekka Haavisto tho he's actually younger. What would be interesting about him winning: absolutely nothing. He's so dull it's almost offensive. Chances of winning: who knows? Maybe he'll be a dark horse if all other candidates fall flat.

Alexander Stubb (National Coalition Party): Former Prime Minister, and former Minister of Finance. He's ehhhhhh not the worst possible option, honestly, and is on the more liberal side of the Rich Getting Richer party. What would be interesting about him winning: how will he be different from our current (National Coalition Party) president, I guess Chances of winning: last I checked, he was polling second, so I guess it's a possibility?

Jutta Urpilainen (Social Democratic Party): Former Minister of Finance. Social Democrats are one of the biggest parties we have, but they took a while deciding on who to pick. She's alright. Social Democrats are usually fine, and she'a long term Social Democrat. What would be interesting about her winning: uhh... possibly the first president to have released a Christmas album? Chances of winning: I just don't think she's that popular, to be honest. But she might make it into top three at least, like I said, it's one of the biggest parties behind her.

[beardedmrbean]

Helsingin Sanomat's most-read story on Friday morning covers the government's major reforms to social benefits that combine different forms of support.

The administration wants to simplify Finland's benefits system while removing incentive traps that can make it less advantageous to work.

A new "general support" will be implemented step by step. These reforms emerged from a joint committee representing different parliamentary parties. By 2026 the government wants to, for example, merge different forms of jobless benefits, according to Minister of Social Security Sanni Grahn-Laasonen (NCP).

The government also wants to introduce a "single application model" for benefits from Finland's social insurance institution Kela.

Cutting down

A 12-member parliamentary working group is about to hand down its assessment of Yle's financing and mission, but while the six-month deadline is approaching, the politicians involved are still far apart on reaching consensus, according to Hufvudstadsbladet.

When the working group assembled, government parties, the National Coalition and the Finns Party, called for Yle's budget to be significantly cut. The Finns Party proposed cuts of 25 percent, the NCP slightly less, 22 percent. The opposition Centre Party also indicated that a 20-percent cut could be made to the public broadcaster.

The Swedish-language daily cites sources calling these proposals "unrealistic," as any cuts must be reached through a consensus.

Movement Now's MP, Harry Harkimo, told HBL that Yle could save on personnel costs by purchasing more of its content.

While Left Alliance MP Jussi Saramo was tight-lipped on his party's stance on the broadcaster's financing, he emphasised the importance of Yle retaining its independence.

"It's like Trump and Orbán to want to turn Yle into a company where the government controls the content, and that you only get funding if you satisfy the government parties," Saramo said.

Enjoy it while it lasts

Finland is set to bask in summer warmth on Friday. Heading into the weekend, many areas are expected to break the country's elusive 25-degree-Celsius "heat" benchmark.

While Kouvola recorded the season's heat record so far this year at 27.6C on Thursday, Ilta-Sanomat suggests that the warm spell heating up the country this weekend could be short-lived.

Meteorologists expect colder air to gradually flow from the north towards the south at the beginning of next week.

"The forecasts indicate the weather will cool down by Monday. The highest temperature would be around 20 degrees Celsius along the southern coast," forecaster Henri Nyman of the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) told IS.

[xylophonetangerine]

At least Mika Aaltola and especially Harry Harkimo suffered humiliating defeats!

[nordnews]

Andersson, on the other hand, was the only candidate who judged that the interests of the environment should come before job creation and economic growth in circumstances where the...

[vesku56]

Pitäis kannustinloukkuja purkaa, että ihmisten olis pakko mennä töihin.

- Harry "Hjallis" Harkimo, natsi

[kivikunnas]

Harry Harkimo liikenyt pääministeri Sanna Marinin takki kääntyi rivakasti

[debaattimedia]

:VÄLIKYSYMYS: Liike Nyt mukaan välikysymykseen

:VÄLIKYSYMYS: Liike Nyt mukaan välikysymykseen

Liike Nytin puheenjohtaja, kansanedustaja Harry Harkimo. Liike Nyt lähtee mukaan perussuomalaisten välikysymykseen, joka koskee polttoaineiden ja sähkön hintoja ja niiden vaikutusta ihmisten ostovoimaan ja elintasoon. -Kun bensan ja dieselin, sähkön ja ruoan hinnat nousevat enemmän kuin palkat, ihmiset köyhtyvät. Työssä käyvät ja veroja maksavat ihmiset ja yrittäjät ovat Suomen taloudellinen…

[gogotefa40]

on Bitcoin Era kirjoittanut Harry Harkimo huijaus vai legit? lue rehellinen Bitcoin Era kokemukset ennen tulosten jakamista ja keskustelu...

[kyyjonssoni]

via Twitter

[beardedmrbean]

Finnish President Alexander Stubb's quips on alcohol and double-entendre Estonian words during his state visit to Estonia were not too well-received by some Estonians and Finns, according to an Iltalehti report.

Finnish experts on Estonia suggested to Iltalehti that the jokes were outdated, and hearkened back to the alcohol tourism of the 1990s.

At a dinner on Monday evening at the Tallinn cruise terminal, Stubb mentioned his playlist of Estonian artists like Eleryn Tiit, Stefan and Karl-Erik Taukar. He noted that Taukar has a song called 'Cuba Libre' and Smilers has a song called 'Mojito.'

Stubb then quipped in English, "I wonder when Eleryn Tiit will release a song called Viru Valge?" This remark was met with awkward chuckles, particularly from the Estonians. Viru Valge is a popular Estonian vodka brand.

In his speech, Stubb also mentioned Estonian words that mean something entirely different in Finnish. One of them was 'ämmä' which Stubb explained means a grumpy old woman in Finnish.

Tapio Reini, editor-in-chief of the Finnish-language radio station SSS-radio in Estonia, was among those who felt Stubb's jokes were distasteful and outdated.

"The rule of thumb is that if a Finn starts telling alcohol jokes in Estonia, they always backfire," said Jari Havia, a Finnish non-fiction writer specializing in Estonia.

On Tuesday, Stubb visited the Rakett69 science studio in Tallinn, where Estonian IT guru Taavi Kotka introduced the HK Unicorn Squad, an initiative promoting women in tech. To this, Stubb quipped, "In Finland, the name HK is already claimed by sausage."

This particular HK sausage also represents an unfortunate chapter in Finnish-Estonian economic history, as HKScan, the manufacturer of the HK sausage, owned production units in Estonia for over 20 years but ultimately withdrew from Estonia and the Baltics.

Parties say EU must pay for border fence

The EU should pay for a fence to be built on Finland’s eastern border — this was the opinion of the representatives of all nine parliamentary parties in Ilta-Sanomat’s European election debate on Tuesday.

The debate at Sanomatalo in Helsinki featured several votes where participants displayed their stance on various issues with yes or no placards.

Helsingin Sanomat reported that the question about funding the eastern border fence was the only one to receive unanimous support from all nine parties.

The question read: "Should the EU pay for a fence to be built on the eastern border?"

Those who raised the green placard were Petteri Orpo (National Coalition Party), Antti Lindtman (Social Democratic Party), Riikka Purra (Finns Party), Petri Honkonen (Centre Party), Li Andersson (Left Alliance), Sofia Virta (Greens), Anna-Maja Henriksson (Swedish People’s Party), Sari Essayah (Christian Democrats), and Harry Harkimo (Movement Now).

All parties were represented by their leaders at the event except the Centre Party, which sent former Culture Minister Honkonen.

After the vote, Finns Party chair and Finance Minister Purra said the EU’s border security funding instruments currently do not allow for funding of the fence from union funds, but hopes it could be possible in the future.

Purra added that Finland’s 1,300-kilometer-long eastern border cannot be protected entirely with fences and that such barriers are expensive. Fences are being built only in areas where the Border Guard deems them most beneficial.

The Border Guard plans to build about 200 kilometres of barrier fence on the eastern border from 2024 to 2026. In the first phase, a total of 70 kilometres of border fence will be built at border crossing points and their surrounding areas. The total cost of the project is estimated at 380 million euros.

End of Foodora market

Food delivery service Foodora plans to shut down its online grocery store, Foodora Market, in Finland, as reported by Taloussanomat.

Foodora Market's director Anni Ahnger confirmed to the paper that the company has started layoff talks with employee representatives aimed at ending Foodora Market's operations in Finland. The talks will potentially affect 80 employees.

The company has a total of seven Foodora Market stores in Helsinki, Tampere, Turku, Espoo, Jyväskylä, and Oulu. Products could be purchased from these stores through the Foodora app and then delivered to the customer. The first Foodora Market opened in Helsinki in December 2020.

An Aamulehti report stated several reasons behind the closure of Foodora Markets, with consumers' price consciousness being one of them.

Online grocery shopping has also not developed as hoped in Finland after the boom during the Covid period, compared to other European countries, Ahnger told Aamulehti.

She added that the profitability of Foodora Markets in Finland is impacted by regulation. In Sweden and Norway, Foodora delivers alcohol, tobacco and pharmacy products.

Foodora Market will continue to operate normally in other countries.

Foodora, which is a part of the German group Delivery Hero, has faced significant financial losses in Finland over the past years. In 2022, the company reported a loss of approximately 15.5 million euros despite generating a turnover of around 175 million euros.

Finland among hottest in Europe

Finland is currently basking in some of Europe's warmest temperatures, as reported by commercial broadcaster MTV.

While southern and eastern Europe boast similarly warm or even hotter conditions, cooler air masses dominate in the west.

MTV Meteorologist Aleksi Jokela explains that the reason behind Finland's exceptionally warm May is a high-pressure area formed over northern and eastern Europe and Russia. Continuous cold air flows into Siberia through the high-pressure area, but the high pressure system transports warm heat masses from southern Europe to Finland via eastern Europe.

On Wednesday, some parts of Finland are expected to hit the 30-degree mark.

[insuranceautolawnews]

Pääministeri Juha Sipilänhttp://ift.tt/2gOQoGi (kesk) ja kokoomuksen eduskuntaryhmän puheenjohtajan Kalle Jokisenhttp://ift.tt/2isruMy muistikuvat Veikkaus-keskusteluista ovat keskenään ristiriidassa.

Kokoomuksen näkemyksen mukaan Sipilä nimitti Harry Harkimonhttp://ift.tt/2hYrfsR (kok) Veikkauksen hallitukseen vastoin kokoomuksen toivetta.

Sipilä sanoi HS:lle lauantainahttp://ift.tt/2lNXooF saaneensa Harkimon nimen kokoomukselta.

”Sain ryhmältä kolme nimeä ja kerroin, että näistä kolmesta valitsen tämän (Harkimon). Sanoin vielä, että jos haluatte kantaa muuttaa, niin kertokaa”, hän sanoi.

Jokinen kiistää Sipilän tulkinnan tilanteesta.

”Sanoin Sipilälle, että kokoomuksen ykkösnimi Veikkauksen hallitukseen on kansanedustaja Timo Heinonenhttp://ift.tt/2iyORon”, hän sanoohttp://ift.tt/2lNWSXy Iltalehdelle.

Heinonen on Harkimon tapaan kokoomuksen kansanedustaja.

Jokinen kertoo puhuneensa samassa yhteydessä myös kansanedustaja Ilkka Kanervan http://ift.tt/2hkU5D2roolista Veikkauksessa.

”Samassa yhteydessä puhuttiin myös kansanedustaja Ilkka Kanervasta ja siitä, että Veikkauksen hallintoneuvoston puheenjohtajana Kanervalla olisi läsnäolo-oikeus myös Veikkauksen hallituksessa, mutta mitään kolmatta nimeä en näissä keskusteluissa itse maininnut”, Jokinen kertaa Iltalehdelle.

Sipilä keksi Jokisen mukaan Harkimon nimen täysin itsenäisesti.

”Se oli Sipilä, joka toi esiin Harkimon yhtenä kokoomusvaihtoehtona Veikkauksen hallitukseen”

Jokisen mukaan kokoomus ei saanut jälkeenpäin mahdollisuutta muuttaa vaikuttaa Sipilän ehdotukseen.

”Sipilä totesi minulle, että hän tekee päätöksensä nimitysasiassa seuraavana päivänä ja sanoi, että jos me sitä ennen haluamme vaihtaa omaa ehdokastamme Veikkauksen hallitukseen, on se mahdollista, mutta mistään päätöksen jälkeisestä muutosmahdollisuudesta nimityksen suhteen ei ollut kyse.”

Harkimo on jääkiekkojoukkue Jokereiden pääomistaja. Veikkaus puolestaan on Jokereiden merkittävä sponsoroija. Sponsorisopimuksen arvo on Iltalehden tietojen mukaan 200 000 euroa.

Jokisen mukaan Sipilä oli tietoinen Harkimon ja Jokerien Veikkaus-kytköksistä.

”Nostin tämän asian esiin myös Sipilän kanssa käydyssä keskustelussa, mutta pääministeri vakuutti selvittäneensä asian ja sanoi, ettei Veikkauksen hallitus päätä sponsorirahoista, jolloin ongelmaa Harkimon suhteen ei ole.”

[beardedmrbean]

Helsingin Sanomat covered billionaire Elon Musk promoting a Finnish presidential debate in English hosted by Aalto Management on the social media website X (formerly Twitter).

On Wednesday, Aalto Management, an organisation of Aalto University students, will host a presidential debate for the upcoming election early next year, which will be streamed live on X.

Musk has one of the largest followings on the social media site X, which he bought last year when it was known as Twitter.

Alexander Warén, Aalto Management's head of communications, told HS that the organisation's board wanted X to partner with the event, as this would allow the debate to reach as many people as possible internationally.

"There is a person close to the board who was in direct contact with Elon Musk," he told the newspaper, adding that Musk shared a post announcing the debate himself without being prompted by the group.

Warén noted that neither Musk nor anyone outside the university played a role in the organisation or content of Wednesday's debate.

The debate will be broadcast live on X on Wednesday at 6pm entirely in English and feature presidential candidates Alexander Stubb (NCP), Pekka Haavisto (Green), Olli Rehn (Centre), Mika Aaltola and Harry Harkimo (MN).

Candidates not appearing at the debate include Jussi Halla-aho (Finns), Li Andersson (Left) and Sari Essayah (CD), among others.

Tight squeeze

Tabloid Iltalehti dove into the perception that parking spaces seem smaller than they were in the 1990s.

While the spots themselves have not shrunk, the cars using them have grown and legislation has not kept pace with the trend.

More than 40 percent of new cars registered today are SUVs, increasing the tight squeeze.

"These [parking spots] tend to be two metres wide. According to the Road Traffic Act, the width of a parking space should be 2.4 metres and its length 5 metres. When the width of an SUV's body is 2 metres and the side mirrors add 40 cm, that's a lot of effort to get the car in," said Hanna Korpela, a parking expert from parking app EasyPark.

According to the Finnish Crash Data Institute (OTI), Finnish car parks see an accident five times an hour, every day of the year. In total, this means that insurance companies reimburse motorists for around 42,000 parking-related dents and dings each year.

Hibernal Halloween

Tuesday's snowy weather continued overnight into Wednesday, especially in Tampere, where local newspaper Aamulehti covered the storm.

The paper noted that snow, sleet and rain covered the region and made driving conditions dangerous, highlighting that the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) issued a rare red traffic weather warning until 11am on Wednesday.

Meteorologist Petri Hoppula from the FMI told AL that the Tampere area could get up to 30 cm of snowfall, an increase from Tuesday's forecast.

The FMI also issued a slippery-conditions warning for pedestrians in Pirkanmaa.

[beardedmrbean]

Tiktok has grown in Finland since 2020, with the Chinese-owned platform now claiming around a million active users in the country. That audience skews young: the majority are aged under 24.

Politicians have begun to establish a following on the platform, with the Finns Party dominant so far.

It's no surprise, then, that Helsingin Sanomat is interested enough to produce a deep dive looking at how young men's Tiktok feeds look.

They asked four Tampere teenagers to explain what they look at and what makes Tiktok so interesting, and got a self-aware response: dopamine.

The youngsters explained that they started using the platform in 2020, during the pandemic, and since then their attention spans have radically decreased. One noted that he used to watch 20 minute Youtube videos but now can't manage that — Tiktoks are under a minute in length.

They mentioned several Finns Party influencers along with a therapist-turned-SDP MP as politicians they're aware of on Tiktok, along with septuagenarian Apprentice host and leader of the Movement Now party Harry "Hjallis" Harkimo.

That information could help explain voting patterns in a world where the Miltton consultancy found that Tiktok was especially influential in voting patterns among men aged 18-25.

Tampere real estate woes

Rising interest rates are a threat to the Finnish property market, and the cost of servicing debt may be starting to show in building firms' plans.

Aamulehti reports that the city of Tampere had to offer building plots for sale in a second round of bidding, after construction companies returned plots they had already acquired.

The land is in Ranta-Tampella, Vuores, Kaleva and Ojala, and is earmarked for small family homes and apartment blocks.

The city says that rising costs and a flat property market are behind the decisions, although each of the plots also has special characteristics that make it more difficult to build on than normal.

Some are earmarked for social housing, one is for wooden construction, and one is proposed as a location for resident construction.

Even so, the city has no plans to change the conditions attached to the plots to attract new builders.

Back to school

All the papers remind their readers that children are heading back to school on Wednesday and Thursday after the long summer break.

Tampere, Lahti, Jyväskylä and Kokkola schools are starting up on Wednesday, with the capital city region and others opening their doors on Thursday.

Police announced on Tuesday that they will be stepping up traffic enforcement this week as a result, with first-graders in particular getting used to their new routes to school.

[beardedmrbean]

Finland's ageing population will be putting increasing pressure on its health care system, yet successive governments have demanded a curb on spending. So how are Finland's social and health care services going with their cost-cutting, asks Helsingin Sanomat. Not very well, according to chosen expert, Mika Kortelainen, Turku University's professor of health economics.

The desired cost-cutting won't be achieved if the regions continue operating under the current model, says Kortelainen. If the system is to be made truly cost-effective, the wellbeing services counties must be given the right to impose taxes, he says.

Wellbeing services counties receive all their income directly from the state according to a financing model. That model includes incentives for the counties to save money, but according to Kortelainen, it doesn't provide enough incentive to invest in preventive medicine, for example. He thinks the counties should have the right to impose taxes if they are to make a dent in this year's combined deficit of more than one billion euros.

According to the law, wellbeing services counties must cover this year's deficits by the end of 2026, a requirement that has already led to services being closed. The current government has said that the counties should independently find ways to curb costs by around 900 million euros by 2027. However, the government has not announced clear plans on how the counties would go about achieving these savings, according to the professor, who noted that the previous government also failed to offer suggestions on such savings measures.

The paper also interviewed Jani Pitkäniemi, head of the Ministry of Finance's municipal and regional unit. According to him, cumulative savings of around 300 million euros should be achieved by 2029. He says it will take time before the savings begin to materialise and that the problems of social security costs would not be automatically solved by giving counties taxation rights.

The most important thing now, according to Pitkäniemi, is to monitor how existing cost control mechanisms work before decisions can be made about whether other incentives are needed.

Robot cars in Tampere

On a very different matter, Finland's dark, rain, snow and fog make it a useful testing ground for robot vehicles, writes Aamulehti.

The Research Institute of Finland, VTT, has been researching and developing vehicle automation and autonomous driving systems for 20 years in Tampere. Now it's taking two robot cars (named Martti and Heluna) out for a wintery test drive.

Over a two-and-a-half-month period, the cars will participate in three European automotive industry research projects evaluating how autonomous vehicles cope with Arctic conditions.

A bit of ice, snow and fog are useful when it comes to putting the robots to the test, but freezing weather is not all Lapland has to offer in terms of automated driving challenges.

"In Muonio, we once drove into such a torrent of mosquitoes that all Martti's automation stopped working for a distance of 50 kilometres," says team leader Matti Kutila.

Not-so-pressing presidential Q&A

Meanwhile, back in the capital, Ilta-Sanomat put Finland's 2024 presidential candidates to the test with some unusual questions. The paper grilled each candidate on the hot issues, which ranged from "does pineapple belong on pizza?" to "dog or cat?".

Highlights include Sari Essayah (CD) saying she reckons you can pick up a litre of milk on sale for 29 cents and Jutta Urpilainen's (SDP) candid admission that a dear friend's passing had allowed a momentary fear of death to creep in, even amid the election rush.

In other news, Harry 'Hjallis' Harkimo (MN) lives off about 500 euros a week, Li Andersson (Left) swears, but not in public, and Pekka Haavisto (Green) says he has never tried cannabis – even in the wild 70s.

And in case you're wondering, Mika Aaltola is okay with pineapple on pizza and Jussi Halla-aho (Finns) is a cat person.

[beardedmrbean]

Half of the more than 1,000 adults in Finland surveyed in a poll commissioned by the daily Helsingin Sanomat agreed that the nation must prepare for war within the next few years.

Only 13 percent of respondents were of the opinion that Finland does not need to prepare for war in the near future. Twenty-six percent neither agreed nor disagreed with the statement, and about 10 percent answered that they were unable to say.

Reporting on the poll, Helsingin Sanomat noted that the views expressed were quite similar regardless of age or gender.

Worries about war were also found to cut across party lines. Only supporters of the Left Alliance stood out, with only about a third agreeing that Finland should prepare for war. The highest rate of agreement with the statement, 59 percent, was among supporters of the National Coalition Party.

Although half of the respondents said that it is necessary to prepare for war, based on the survey, few (about one-fifth) have personally taken concrete measures to be ready in the event of war or a state of emergency.

The HS poll also examined views on the war in Ukraine.

Based on the survey, the Finnish public does not widely support the idea that the West should start persuading Ukraine to make peace, if it means that Ukraine would not be able to get back all the territories taken by Russia.

A fifth of respondents did say they would back such a move. More than twice as many, 43 percent disagreed.

However, a majority of those polled, 53 percent, said they fear that if the war in Ukraine ends with Russia in possession of at least part of the territories it has seized from Ukraine, there is a risk that Russia will attack a Nato country within the next few years. Only 16 percent said they disagreed it could happen.

The Helsingin Sanomat survey was carried out by the pollster Verian (formerly Kantar Public) which interviewed 1,047 individuals representative of the adult population of mainland Finland during 15-20 December 2023.

Election by the numbers

Turun Sanomat reports that candidates in the race for the Finnish presidency on Thursday were randomly assigned the numbers that voters will use on the ballot to cast votes for their choice.

Li Andersson of the Left Alliance is candidate number two. Candidate number three is OIli Rehn, who is running for the Centre Party and with the backing of a voters' association. Harry Harkimo of Movement Now is candidate number four.

Finns Party candidate Jussi Halla-aho will appear on the ballot as candidate five and the Social Democratic Party's Jutta Urpilainen is number six. The independent Mika Aaltola was assigned number seven and the National Coalition Party's Alexander Stubb is candidate number eight.

The Christian Democrats' Sari Essayah is now running for president as number nine. Pekka Haavisto, a Green Party MP backed by a voters' association, is number 10 on the list.

Election day is Sunday, 28 January. If none of the candidates receives more than half of the votes then, a second round will be held on 11 February. The top two candidates who make it into a second round will run with the same ballot numbers.

Advance voting in the first round will take place from 17 to 23 January 2024, and abroad 17 to 20 January 2024.

Winter solstice

Savon Sanomat is among the papers reminding us that today, Friday, is the winter solstice with the day at its shortest of the year in the northern hemisphere.

The Ursa Astronomical Association points out that in southern and central Finland, the arc of the sun across the sky is at its lowest point, while north of Sodankylä, Arctic night continues with the sun staying below the horizon.

Friday's period of darkness in southern Finland lasts 14 hours 19 minutes, in Oulu 15 hours 5 minutes.

The sun is above the horizon Friday in southern Finland for about 6 hours and in Oulu for a good 3.5 hours.

But, as the paper points out, daylight hours will now slowly start to grow again.

White Christmas, slippery roads

An Uutissuomalainen news group report carried by Uusimaa tells readers that the good news for those celebrating the holiday is that the latest snow storm means that Christmas will be white even in southern parts of Finland.

In southern Finland, daytime temperatures will be around zero on Friday, colder as one moves north.

The Finnish Meteorological Institute forecasts subzero temperatures during the weekend, with cloudy skies Christmas Eve across most of Finland, and the thermometer at minus 1C-7C.

However, this was already creating very bad conditions for motorists in southern Finland on Friday morning and for holiday traffic in general as far north as North Ostrobothnia and Kainuu.

According to the road transport authorities, the the heaviest holiday traffic is likely to be seen on Saturday.

In addition, the paper warns pedestrians that pavements in the southern parts of the country are extremely slippery.