According to Helsinki magazine Helsingin sanomat newspaper, Minister of Economic Affairs Mika Lintilä (Cen) took part in a floorball match between Finland and Latvia on Sunday afternoon, although he had been informed on Saturday of possible exposure to the coronavirus.
Lintilä had attended a meeting on Friday, which was also attended by the Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto (green), which detected the virus the next day.
In an interview with Helsingin Sanomat, Lintilä said he did not believe he had been exposed to the coronavirus, explaining that he had sat far from Haavisto, that masks were worn during the meeting and that he took a home test before going to the event. match.
Meanwhile, the tabloid Ilta-Sanomat tells about it that Minister of Defense Antti Kaikkonen A participant in the same meeting with Haavisto (Cen) also attended a dinner on Sunday during the 75th anniversary of the downtown youth wing.
Kaikkonen said in an interview with Ilta-Sanomat that he did not believe he was revealed.
"I was in the same room with Foreign Minister Haavisto at the board meeting on Friday. The meeting was short, about 15 minutes. We were not in close contact. We sat across the room. All participants had a mask," Kaikkonen told the magazine and added that he also took a test that gave a negative result before coming to dinner.
Hanna MarkkanenThe chairman of the downtown youth organization told Ilta-Sanomat that the Minister of Science and Culture Antti Kurvinen (Cen) and the Minister of Finance Annika Saarikko (Cen) withdrew its plans to attend the event after receiving information about possible exposure.
Special treatment for politicians?
In written comment on Thursday Iltalehti is a journalist for political affairs Crete Karvala notes that communication problems are often used as a scapegoat in various crises, such as the media storm surrounding the Prime Minister this week; Sanna Marinevening in the city.
However, communication problems often indicate that the organization’s policies and guidelines are not in place, Karvala says.
"If the public has had difficulty finding out the guidelines for the coronavirus, the same has happened to politicians," he writes, noting that although the instructions given to MPs and ministers are based on the same THL instructions, they are tailored differently.
"One would think that common sense dictates that the health of a foreign minister who travels abroad an average of two a week would be of particular concern. But Haavisto, 63, has still not received a third dose of the vaccine, less than six months after his second dose." Karvala continues.
He suggests that, at this stage, the practice should be updated so that politicians who decide on national affairs and travel abroad for work receive special treatment in a healthy and functional way.
A hard road for basic Finns
Journal of the Farmers’ Union Future of the countryside writes that the opposition party still has a long way to go to achieve its goal of being the biggest winner of the January council election.
In last spring’s municipal elections, the party ranked fourth. The magazine points out that supporters of basic Finns are generally not very active voters, and according to preliminary estimates, the turnout in this new parliamentary election is very low, about 40 percent.
In an interview with the President of Basic Finns on the Rural Future Riikka Purra criticizes the current government "hurry forward" from the rest of Europe in climate action. According to his party, Finland should keep pace with other EU countries and strive for carbon neutrality in 2050 instead of Finland’s target for 2035.
"Prime Minister Sanna Marin repeatedly says that Finland will gain an advantage as a pioneer [Finnish] companies gain a foothold in the market. However, there is no evidence of this. There is simply no concrete evidence" Bite said.
"The desire to be number one in climate action is mainly related to selfish mailing," he claims.
The airport referendum was rejected
Swedish-speaking day Hufvudstadsbladet writes that the closure of Helsinki Malmi Airport and the plan to fill the area with flats are a haunting issue for local politicians time and time again, and there was another heated debate in the city council on Wednesday night.
Many Helsinki residents are dissatisfied with the closure of the airport and oppose the planned housing construction for tens of thousands of new residents.
Nearly 27,000 people have signed a local civic initiative to hold a consultative referendum, which was filed at the end of the summer.
The vote to reject the referendum proposal was split between most of the parties represented in the council, and the Greens were the only party to reject the proposal unanimously.
The main argument against the referendum is that the matter has been discussed and plans have been discussed in the council several times since 2012.
Source: The Nordic Page