Monday’s negotiations on the state budget ended late in the evening without a resolution, allowing Finnish journalists to try to find out what to say about the negotiations.
Director of the Center Annika Saarikko told reporters when he left the negotiations after 11pm that he did not know how this would happen. His MEPs were scheduled to meet on Wednesday morning to discuss the state of negotiations.
IS reports on Wednesday that the 2023 budget deficit is one of the major controversy. The deficit would then be EUR 500 billion, according to the original proposal, and the Prime Minister Sanna Marin (SDP) has proposed to support this gap with spending cuts of € 300 million and tax increases of € 100-150 million.
It may or may not be enough to persuade the center. Chairman of their parliamentary group Antti Kurvinen said Iltalehti that his colleagues are concerned about the direction of the government.
The Center and the Swedish People’s Party have supported budget discipline, while the SDP, the Greens and the Left Alliance are more relaxed about government borrowing. Planned expenditures have increased as a result of the Covid crisis, so the current controversy is about how quickly Finland will return to the expenditure framework.
This year, the SDP figures including the vice president Mattias Mäkynen have discussed public finances with a new emphasis. In January, Mäkynen said Helsingin Sanomat said that the international debate on the issue had progressed and that the biggest risk was to cut spending too quickly, as he claimed to have happened after the 2008 financial crisis.
Such a speech has spread, according to Kurvinen of the Central Party, and therefore the fate of the government is now in balance.
He told Iltalehti that he wanted to ensure that the government is a so-called “red earth” administration, where the centre’s rural base is taken care of together with SDP interest groups. According to Kurvinen, financial discipline is crucial in creating an impression.
"If economic policy continues in the same way as Lipponen, Vanhanen and other governments, it will not be a Green Left government," said Kurvinen. "But if we move into some kind of new economic era and try to adhere to new economic doctrines that differ from Finland’s economic policy, we can move to a Green Left government."
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Harris is calling
Several papers report president Sauli Niinistö call with the vice president of the United States Kamala Harris, which the president’s office described as “long and pleasant.”
The two leaders stressed that bilateral relations were “excellent”, and Finnish reading there was reference to U.S.-Russia relations.
"The discussion also focused on superpower relations and the tense international situation," read the statement. "President Niinistö developed his initiative to strengthen the spirit of Helsinki when it turns 50 in 2025."
Has been speculation About the meeting of the President of the United States Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin this summer. In 2018, the then president Donald Trump met Putin in Helsinki.
Apnea happens more
On Wednesday, Helsingin Sanomat will have a story about the increasing incidence of sleep apnea in Finland.
The magazine mentions the medical publication Lääkärilehti, saying that about 1.46 million people in Finland may suffer from the disease and 80 percent of them are undiagnosed. People with sleep apnea momentarily stop breathing while sleeping.
Snoring is one of the symptoms and people need to see a doctor if they often wake up at night sweating or feel tired even after a full night.
The condition increases the risk of a heart attack, and the fatigue it causes can be a factor in dementia.
Apnea treatment referral rose by 50 per cent in Helsinki and Uusimaa hospital districts after Finnish musician Olli Lindholm died of sleep in 2019.
"The musician left a great legacy," said the ear nose and throat doctor Miikka Peltomaa. "Many people have found their illness thanks to him. But it shouldn’t have happened."
Source: The Nordic Page
