Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs, Mika Niikko (Finns) have announced their resignation from the committee on Wednesday after criticism of a tweet he published on Tuesday suggesting that French President Emmanuel Macron or someone else publicly announce Ukraine’s non-accession to NATO.
Niikko retreated quickly and explained that his tweet was "carelessly said" and that "It goes without saying that I am defending Ukraine’s sovereignty and Finland’s foreign policy."
Several papers, including Evening NewsNiikko said late in the evening that he would resign as chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee at its Wednesday meeting and ask his parliamentary group to replace him.
A group of basic Finns is expected to vote on compensation on Thursday.
Offensive F-word
Use of the term Cold War "Finnishization" and its connotations of the bending of an independent country to external pressures always provoke a backlash in Finland itself.
The New York Times wrote that the President of France Emmanuel Macron told reporters in Moscow on Monday before a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin that translating Ukraine into a possible way to resolve the ongoing crisis.
Iltalehti tells about it that Finland’s former Prime Minister of the Coalition Party Alexander Stubb replied to the report with a tweet saying "The use of the term Finnishisation – in its context or in isolation – is considered offensive in Finland’s foreign policy debate. Experts and political leaders have used it for years – knowingly or by mistake. Old conditions for new situations rarely work."
Former Prime Minister of Sweden Carl Bildt also tweeted Macron’s remark "did not win him points in Finland" and that " Ukraine did not do very well either."
Mika AaltolaThe director of the Foreign Policy Institute shared Bildt’s tweet and added, "What is happening in Ukraine and Ukraine will not be left to Ukraine. This also applies to the questionable Finnishization model."
Kristi RaikThis is how the director of the Estonian Foreign Policy Institute described Macron’s proposal "disruptive".
"Let us not forget that the Soviet Union wanted to make Finland part of the Eastern bloc, which the Finns managed to resist, but it was a very fierce, constant struggle to limit the Kremlin’s intrusion into Finnish sovereignty. The Finnish experience cannot be recommended to anyone" wrote Raik.
Dear gas
By Helsingin sanomat newspaperClass 98 petrol already costs more than two euros per liter at several petrol stations in Finland, the average price in the Helsinki metropolitan area on Tuesday is 1.99 euros.
The price of slightly cheaper 95-class petrol jumped to 1.9 euros in many places. Diesel can cost more than 1.8 euros.
The magazine looks at where these prices come from.
Almost 60 percent of the price of a consumer pump consists of taxes. Higher taxation explains the long-term rise in gasoline, but last year’s rise is due to several other factors.
Fuels are subject to excise duty on the basis of energy content and CO2 emissions. There is also a small security deposit.
The rest of the price consists of a complex equation of the price of crude oil, the price of renewable fuels, the profit margin of refining operations, exchange rates, freight costs and the margin of distributors.
Fuel prices are becoming an increasingly hot political issue. Inside something a separate itemHelsingin Sanomat asked the leaders of the parliamentary groups whether and how the state should support citizens due to rising fuel and electricity prices.
It stated that all opposition parties want the state to help consumers cope with rising prices. The most obvious way to do this is through tax cuts.
So far, government partners have been more cautious about the idea of compensating for consumer fuel prices.
The issue is politically difficult because the government is facing tough internal negotiations in the spring about how much money will be spent in the remaining term. Expenditure pressures are already estimated to be more than € 1 billion higher than previously projected in the government’s expenditure framework.
More houses are rising
Journal of the Farmers’ Union Future of the countryside says that deliveries of prefabricated houses increased by almost 50 per cent in Finland last year.
One reason, according to the magazine, is that nationwide, the price per square meter of detached and semi-detached apartments is cheaper than that of apartments in city centers.
Most of the new houses will be built in large cities, in the surrounding municipalities and in the vicinity of the provincial centers. Small municipal centers are also growing in popularity. The newspaper states that according to surveys, one tenth of the population wants to live in the countryside.
Most detached and semi-detached houses are being built in Espoo, followed by Oulu, Vantaa, Helsinki and Jyväskylä. In November, these areas accounted for 28 percent of new building permits. Uusimaa accounts for one third of new detached and semi-detached houses.
Meanwhile, The Hufvudstadsbladet reports this that Finnish rock star Ville ValoThe former lead character of the gothic rock band HIM has once again put their home in Helsinki, in a Gothic-style castle-like tower block, again for sale and at a fair price.
The 180-year-old red-brick tower with a beam decorated on the slopes was originally built to store grain. Valo bought the historic building in 2006.
It has been extensively refurbished and has approximately 170 square meters of living space on more than 1,000 square meters of land.
When it first went on sale in 2015 for $ 2.6 million, it sparked so much interest that the agent’s website crashed. But no buyer was found. It came back on the market in 2018 with 2.3 million. According to Hufvudstadsbladet, the price request is now just under 2 million.
Source: The Nordic Page