Friday’s newspaper review finds Helsingin Sanomat reportage On the proposal of the Ministry of the Interior to deal with illegal immigrants who have been in Finland for a long time.
The ministry proposed an amnesty for persons who had applied for asylum before 31 December 2016 and who have not been convicted of a crime in the meantime.
The aim is to deal with the Finnish population, which is vulnerable to exploitation, works in the gray economy and does not have access to public services.
However, the amnesty is not politically popular, and the report was immediately rejected by the Center Party and Social Democrats in the Parliamentary Administration Committee.
They said the proposal could be a “pull factor” for illegal immigration, even if the ministry claims that any amnesty would be a one-off and would be contrary to the government’s program and the common Nordic immigration line.
It leaves the green interior minister Krista Mikkonen contradicts his coalition partners, but he says some other solution must be found – especially for Finnish illegal children.
Want the most popular stuff of the week in your inbox every Thursday? Then sign up for All Points North!
Gasoline price cuts
Politicians have also been chewing on high petrol prices that Finns have had to deal with recently. The price of a liter of petrol is about two euros, so motorists like to pinch.
Evening News reports The Coalition Party and the Basic Finns’ proposal that the government cut fuel taxation, but it is not very well supported by the governing parties.
The problem with cutting taxes is that people who donโt need help with their fuel bills benefit as much as those in difficulty. According to IS, targeted support is more popular when one of the Confederation of Finnish Industry’s proposals received support from MPs.
The union says a higher cap on the tax deduction for commuting would make it easier for those who really have no choice but to use their car.
The Left Alliance, for its part, wants to provide support through the income support for the poorest in cases where households receive surprisingly large electricity bills.
Turku snow removal
Turku newspaper Turun Sanomat deals with a topic close to the heart for everyone: snow work. This winter has been particularly severe in southern Finland, where some winters can be almost snow-free.
Turku is one of the warmest places in mainland Finland, but on Friday morning the city’s weather stations stored 20 cents of snow in the country, and more is promised over the weekend.
Locals have not been impressed with the local councilโs snow removal efforts, with TS claiming that many side streets are covered in white goods.
The magazine meets the councilโs street clearing manager and asks if there are fewer plows in the city (no, there are more than usual), if the season has been tougher than normal (yes, it has lasted longer), if there were any. better 10 years ago (I canโt say I wasnโt at work then).
However, he hopes that the people of Turku will soon survive this trauma.
Source: The Nordic Page