Helsingin Sanomat writes that Finland's finance minister, and leader of the nationalist Finns Party, Riikka Purra wants to place restrictions on who can receive social assistance payments.
The benefit, considered a last-resort form of financial aid, should only be granted to people who have lived in Finland for at least 10 years, according to Purra.
"In the opinion of the Finns Party, the welfare system can only be saved by limiting social security to Finnish citizens. This would require a constitutional amendment. However, something can be done already in the next term: let's restrict basic social assistance to those who have lived in Finland for at least 10 years," Purra proposed in a column she wrote for the rural-focused newspaper Maaseudun Tulevaisuus.
According to her proposal, immigrants who have lived in Finland for less than 10 years would still be entitled to primary social security benefits, such as unemployment benefits and housing allowance, but not to the social assistance aid.
Purra added that social assistance has "lost its purpose and gotten out of hand", and that the benefit discourages people from going to work.
"If a family receives 4,000 euros without any earned income, the impetus to work naturally decreases. Few will go night-shift cleaning if they can get the same money for doing nothing," she wrote.
However, HS notes that social assistance is a right protected by Finland's Constitution.
"Everyone who is unable to secure the means necessary for a life of dignity has the right to indispensable subsistence and care," the constitution says.
In this way, social assistance differs from other forms of social protection because it safeguards the minimum subsistence guaranteed by the Constitution, a so-called "existential minimum". HS therefore considers it unlikely that the Constitution would allow social assistance to be completely denied to those who have lived in Finland for less than 10 years.
End of the line for the West Railway link?
Many newspapers carry the news on Tuesday morning that plans to construct a 4-billion-euro West Railway line between Helsinki and Turku have been derailed by a municipal council vote in Kirkkonummi.
Often referred to in the Finnish media as "Turku's one-hour train", the project would see the construction of a high-speed rail connection between the two cities along Finland's southwest coast.
Prime Minister Petteri Orpo (NCP), a native of Turku, has long championed the plans but as his government is only covering a portion of the overall cost, it needs the backing of several municipal councils who must foot the rest of the bill.
One of those municipalities is Kirkkonummi, and the local newspaper Kirkkonummen Sanomat writes that the council rejected the motion on Monday evening by 36 votes to 15.
The paper reports that the meeting heard several arguments for and against the project, but the main objections came from councillors concerned about the high cost, the knock-on financial impacts, and the effects on local nature.
Kirkkonummi council's rejection of the plan inevitably raises questions about whether the "one-hour" Turku-Helsinki train will ever become a reality — with Pekka Ottavainen, CEO of Länsirata (West Railway) Oy, declining to speculate in the aftermath of Monday evening's vote.
The project's future, or lack of, will perhaps become somewhat clearer next week when the municipal councils of Lohja and Salo cast their votes.
Football stand gutted by fire
Tampere-based Aamulehti reports that police in the region now suspect a fire which engulfed a stand at football club FC Haka's stadium in Valkeakoski was started deliberately.
The blaze broke out at about 8pm on Sunday and spread very quickly through the wood-constructed stand at Tehtaan kenttä (roughly translated as Factory field), according to the paper.
The club, from a small town of about 20,000 people, has a long history of punching above its weight in the upper tiers of Finnish football, and that history is closely linked to the stadium, which was originally built in 1934 as a recreation spot for local factory workers.
Aamulehti notes that the stadium is located in the very heart of the local community.
"A truly terrible situation, I am at a loss for words," said Erkki Kuivajärvi, CEO of Valkeakosken Tehtis, which owns the field.
The fire is yet another setback for the club, which suffered relegation from the Veikkausliiga last month.
"A terrible blow for FC Haka and Valkeakoski. The club will rise again," local MP Pauli Kiuru (NCP) wrote on X.
