What a Time to be a Finn!
Jubilant scenes at Helsinki’s Bolt Arena
“It will mean so much to us” spluttered the captain, Tim Sparv. No, he wasn’t talking about Finland’s rotating presidency of the European Council, but rather that his side had just reached Euro 2020, the first major football competition in their 113-year history.
But perhaps he should have been. Finnish government officials can hold their heads high, now that their six-month stint in charge of the direction of policy in the European Council is over. To everyone’s delight, the post-presidency ritual of giving each other pats on the back in front of a semi-comatose plenary in the European Parliament is over, after Juncker lost his rag at the fact that nobody cared about Malta’s moment in the limelight.
What did the Finnish Presidency achieve? They deliberately rankled Poland and Hungary, by inserting measures in their proposals for the next Multi-Annual Financial Framework (MFF), the seven-year EU budget that lasts from 2021-2027, to protect EU funding from countries which flirt with the rule of law.
On employment rights, Finnish ministers were instrumental in pressuring Commissioner for Jobs, the other Luxembourger Nicholas Schmit, into rethinking how EU labour laws are implemented. And to round it off, the Finnish Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment announced their plans to finance a €1.7 million initiative to give free courses in AI to all EU citizens. The plan is to upskill at least 1% of EU citizens or 5 million people to complete the course from 2020-2021.
Finland also dodged a bullet in not having to deal with the aftermath of a catastrophic 'No-Deal Brexit'. With Johnson’s renegotiated deal set to pass in January, the honour of handling Britain’s exit goes to Croatia, whose Prime Minister called Brexit a “lose-lose situation”, even though they stand to gain another MEP.
Yet failure in some way was inevitable and what could have been a perfect record was dashed on the most pressing of issue of the day, climate change. Poland struck back by refusing to sign up to their ambitious targets of reaching climate-neutrality by 2050, inexplicably going for 2070 instead. And as the year drew to a close, EU functionaries watched helplessly as the Finnish governing coalition unexpectedly collapsed over a botched attempted to handle a postal strike which snowballed into a sympathy strike by Finland’s flag carrier Finnair, cancelling almost 300 flights.
Finnish PM, Sanna Marin
But the Finns instantly bounced back, electing Sanna Marin as Prime Minister and at the age of 34, makes her the youngest PM in the world. With an insurgency of ambitious young female politicians into Finnish politics, the country is governed by a coalition of five parties, all lead by women, four of which are under 35.
Marin has kicked off 2020 by setting out concrete plans for a four-day week, consisting of six-hour days. Throughout last month’s UK election campaign, Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell was ridiculed for proposing such an idea, which in the end fizzled out along with Corbyn’s hopes of ever entering government. But the fact that it enraged the likes of Dan Hannan MEP, who backed Libertarian Gary Johnson for US President, it’s safe to presume that Marin might be onto something.
Best of all, Finland has for now managed to rid itself of the populist right, who were in government as recently as 2017. Right after being voted into power, the True Finns lead by the outspoken and virulently Islamophobic Jussi Halla-Aho MEP, saw a wave of defections that lead to all its cabinet members quitting. A classic example of apoplectic populists being unable to govern once in power.
If anything, Finland’s political journey from 2017 to 2019 has shown us a way out of the dark days where right-wing anti-immigrant populism strangles the discourse on a country’s future. By focusing on social justice and climate change, Finland has emerged in this new decade as a pioneer in the politics of hope and with a renewed sense of optimism, which isn’t just football related. Long gone are the memes mocking the Finns’ traditional love of hard spirits and anxiety about encroaching their personal space. 2019 certainly Finnished on a high note.