Ahead of this weekend’s local election Tampere-based Aamulehti has examined the criminal records of candidates in Pirkanmaa.
According to Aamulehti, 12 percent of the area’s candidates were charged with a crime in the district court in 2004–2021. The Finnish party had the highest number of criminal charges in its list of candidates, followed by the National Coalition Party (NCP). , paper reports.
In total, 27 per cent of the candidates of the Finnish party in Pirkanmaa and 12 per cent of the candidates of the People’s Party have been accused since 2004, Aamulehti writes.
Nine percent of Center Party and SDP candidates, 8 percent of the Left Alliance, 7 percent of Christian Democrats, and 5 percent of green candidates in the region also have a criminal record.
It should be noted that not all criminal charges lead to guilt or conviction.
In response to Aamulehti’s observations, Chairman of the Finnish Party in Sastamala Maire Villo said "We have a lot of candidates, and Finns include people from all walks of life. Other parties may have more elites, but we have more people at the grassroots level. Something is wrong in society when people are involved in crime."
Jussi HaavistoThe chairman of the Kangasala National Contact Point told Aamulehti that the revelations would simplify finding candidates in the future.
"If it is in journalism and in the public interest to report them, so be it, but I disagree. Who dares to stand if drunk driving after the 2006 Christmas party is announced?" he said.
The Finnish police are involved in global crime
Tabloids Ilta-Sanomat reports in a major police operation that took place on Monday in 18 countries, including Finland.
Although the details of the Finnish operation have not yet been revealed, IS writes, Australian researchers have held a press conference on their own part, called Operation Ironside, where hundreds of people were arrested.
The plan, drawn up jointly by the Australian Federal Police (AFP), the FBI and Europol, saw investigators breaking into a messaging app called An0m. Gangs favored the app, believing it to be a safe way to communicate.
Police officers who were able to access the application were able to read the messages in real time.
"They just talk about drugs, violence, attacks on each other, innocent people who will be murdered, all sorts of things," said the AFP commissioner Reece Kershaw.
The Swedish police were also involved, Ilta-Sanomat says at the invitation of the Swedish Minister of the Interior Mikael Damberg "a serious blow to Swedish organized crime."
According to Ilta-Sanomat, more detailed information on the Finnish attacks will be announced at a Europol press conference later on Tuesday.
Entrepreneurs abandon salary proposals
The Finnish Business Association (FFE), an organization of small and medium-sized enterprises, has criticized the government’s plans to improve the transparency of companies’ salaries, the business says daily. Kauppalehti.
The Department of Social Affairs and Health (STM) has drafted a bill that will allow employees to see how much their colleagues are paying if they suspect they have been discriminated against. According to the government, it would help address issues such as the gender pay gap.
But according to Kauppalehti, FFE’s labor market director Janne Makkula struck the idea that the pay gap was related to factors such as gender.
"Mere unexplained pay gap does not mean that anyone is discriminated against. Salaries are based on skills, experience, where you come from the workplace, your background and how you have managed to negotiate your salary," he told the magazine.
"It’s basically about non-gender. We must prevent regulation that would lead to unfair requests," Makkula added.
Katarina Murtothe management association Akava defended the proposals, Kauppalehti writes.
"We do not want everyone’s wages to be open to everyone. It would be important to open up pay systems, as staff do not always know which components make up their pay.
"I don’t think this would be an anti-privacy law for people to go in and ask each other for wages. The law restricts the grounds for obtaining salary information," Fraction said.
Source: The Nordic Page