Left Alliance leader Paavo Arhinmäki has called on police to explain their actions towards May Day marchers in Helsinki, describing their behaviour as “scandalous” and saying they prevented protesters from free expression.
Police briefly detained ten people attending the traditional workers’ solidarity parade in the capital. Police described the marchers as anarchists carrying weapons disguised as flag handles.
The ex-minister, who pulled his party out of the government coalition last month in protest at planned cuts in social services, wrote on his blog that he has been contacted by a number of people complaining about police behaviour at the march.
Arhinmäki claims that among those held were three people carrying entirely normal May Day parade materials back to the Left Alliance storeroom after the march.
