The newspapers were mostly nonplussed by the promotion of PM Alexander Stubb's friend and colleague Sanni Grahn-Laasonen to become Environment Minister. The 31-year-old first-term MP's rise has been meteoric, moving from Stubb's election campaign team in the 2004 election to become his special adviser when he was Foreign Minister to parliament following the 2011 election.
'Expert or votewinner?' asked Ilta-Sanomat, noting that with just over six months to go to the next election a fresh-faced young dynamo could help the National Coalition Party increase support--even if she has not previously shown much interest in environmental issues. The accompanying comment piece was titled 'A reward from Stubb?' and detailed the close links between Grahn-Laasonen and Stubb before asking whether he had simply picked the candidate most likely to hoover up votes in the next election.
Helsingin Sanomat's editorial takes a similar line, observing that in the paper's opinion the "Upcoming elections are beginning to show". In addition to Stubb's promotion of his young colleague, the paper suggests the SDP will choose Kotka MP Sirpa Paatero to take over the vacant International Development portfolio. That would give the party more visibility in eastern and south-eastern Finland, which are regarded as Social Democrat strongholds and might need to be love-bombed to ensure that support stays with the party in the next election.
The challenge of tweeting as PM
Tabloid rival Iltalehti, meanwhile, went with a much gentler headline: 'A normal green Mum'. Perhaps another aspect of the new minister's CV played a role here--before she joined Stubb's team she worked for the Alma Media tabloid.
Hufvudstadsbladet takes a different tack. The Swedish daily noted that news of the incoming Environment Minister came first from Stubb's Twitter account, where he said in the morning that he would make the appointment that day. The PM's Twitter style is unconventional, mixing observations about the weather, sleeping patterns and sport with important matters of state.
Janne Matikainen, a media researcher at Helsinki University, told HBL that as PM Stubb's tweets are regarded as official communication. He did not venture an opinion on whether Stubb's use of the medium was appropriate for someone in that position, but HBL helpfully printed a selection of the premier's tweets around the piece, including this example of the genre from Sunday 21 September: "That feeling when you sleep like a log, wake up and think it's Monday. Then realise it's Sunday. A good start to the day. Good morning."
Divided property market
In other news, Kauppalehti goes with another example of the growing economic gulf between the Helsinki region and the rest of the country. The housing market is completely different in the capital, with flats and houses there costing several thousand euros more per square metre than similar properties in the provinces.
Tampere is another city with a strong property market, but for the rest of the country the outlook is bleak. In Kouvola, for instance, the average cost of an apartment is just 1,090 euros per square metre. In Helsinki it's 4,230 euros per square metre. Things aren't perfect even in Helsinki, though--properties are now on the market for longer than before as buyers become more cautious.
Russia's recent switch to a somewhat more active foreign policy stance has preoccupied Finnish policy-makers, especially with regard to the Russian speakers currently living in Finland. Iltalehti follows this trend keenly, and on Thursday runs a story on Russia's activities among the Russian-speaking population in Finland.
The paper reports that Finland's Security Interlligence Service (Supo) says that the Russian Foreign Ministry has individuals in Finland whose task is to gather information about any marginalisation or discrimination suffered by Russians living here. Russian-speaking immigrants number some 70,000, with 20,000 dual citizens among that group. Some 31,000 of them have only Russian citizenship.
The Russian Foreign Ministry's people in Finland are part of a unit dedicated to Russians living outside the borders of the Russian Federation. Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed to 'actively defend' Russians living abroad, and according to Supo he is living up to that pledge in Finland. The Russian Foreign Ministry is encouraging Russians to write directly to President Vladimir Putin if they feel they have a problem in Finland (or elsewhere), with online forms widely available to make that process easier.
