Can Finland still be considered a welfare state, capable of looking after its citizens in their time of need?
In a Helsingin Sanomat column, Tampere University researcher Johanna Vuorelma argues that it cannot.
Citing the results of her own study, Vuorelma writes that people in Finland have lost faith in the welfare state's promise of equal access to social and healthcare services.
"Citizens' fear of being left alone in times of need shows that the Finnish welfare state no longer succeeds in producing a broad sense of security," she notes.
Vuorelma's research took her to parts of the country that have been hit hard by the overhaul of Finland's social and healthcare system and the centralisation of key services.
She recounts the anger and frustration she heard from interviewees.
"Don't get sick after four in the afternoon or on weekends," was the sardonic advice offered by one woman about how to deal with the services on offer in her area.
Vuorelma concludes the article by pointing out that economic performance has become the metric by which these services are assessed, noting the "triumphant rhetoric" that accompanied recent reports that some wellbeing services counties were finally turning a surplus.
"Values such as wellbeing, trust, and community fade into the background when economic figures become ends in themselves," she notes.
An inflated controversy
Tabloid Iltalehti meanwhile delves into the perennial question that motorists in Finland face every spring: When should I change to summer tyres?
This year though, IL writes, the conversation has become a full-blown rengaskohu — a tyre controversy — after top cop Heikki Kallio said earlier this week that drivers could face fines for continuing to use studded tyres, especially in southern Finland.
According to Finnish law, studded tyres may only be used after March if the weather or road conditions require it, and in Kallio's view those conditions no longer exist in the south following a period of warm and mild weather.
"If the condition for using studded tyres defined by the law is not met, the police's hands are tied when it comes to interpretation," Kallio stated, and a fine will be imposed.
But what if you need to drive early in the morning, when temperatures are often still below zero? Or if you need to take a trip up north?
Luckily, other opinions are available — even from the police themselves. Chief Superintendent Dennis Pasterstein, who has garnered a significant following on social media platform X by posting videos of traffic violations by Finnish motorists, seemed to directly contradict Kallio's view.
"If the customer has a valid explanation for why they still have studs on, then the police will consider it," Pasterstein told IL.
"I'm not high, I'm just friendly"
There are entire corners of the internet dedicated to the trope that Finns don't do small talk.
But it seems that Hollywood actor Jason Segel didn't get the memo (or the memes).
Ilta-Sanomat reports that Segel was in the Tampere region for about two months in the autumn of 2024 to shoot the soon-to-be-released movie Over Your Dead Body, and he recounted his experiences to talk show host Jimmy Kimmel earlier this week.
Segel told Kimmel that whenever he goes to a new place, he tries his best to talk to people and get to know the locals — you can probably see where this is going — and thought nothing of waving and saying "hi" to strangers during a trip to a smalltown Finnish grocery store soon after he arrived.
When he left the store, and went to get into his car, he was stopped by the store's security guard who told him that she could not let him drive as he was clearly on drugs — given his odd behaviour in the store.
"I'm not high, I'm just friendly," Segel recalls telling the guard, who apparently accepted this explanation and let him go.
Tampere-based Aamulehti meanwhile reports finding the summer cottage that was used as the location for the movie, in which a dysfunctional couple plot to murder each other during a weekend away at a cabin.
