Finland lurches

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Gotta say that the tangent content of this thread has gone right off the charts. Sorry to our finnish correspondents.

[anton pulisov]

Yeah you get that from people rooted in the British political system. I mean it's certainly how sinn fein talk about politics in ireland

ouch!

[Muukalainen]

Negotiations have been going on for a week now, thrashing out the details for the next parliament. The parties involved are Kokoomus, PerusSuomalaiset, Ruotsalainen Kansan Puolue (RKP, Swedish People's Party) and Kristillis Demokraatit (KD, Christian Democrats). I don't know what the RKP are doing in there, they were part of the previous SDP-led government and stated that they wouldn't work with PS, but it seems that the allure of power is stronger than sticking to whatever principles they have. Them aside, we have a very right wing government.

[Muukalainen]

And we're off to a flying start. Less than three weeks in and the new government has suffered its first casualty. The portents weren't good: I saw a survey about a week ago and about half (just under or just over, I don't remember) of those questioned reckoned that the present government wouldn't last its full term. The Minister for Economic Affairs, Vilhelm Junnila (go on, guess which party) has been under attack all week over his links to the far right. He narrowly survived a vote of no confidence on Wednesday (this included the majority of RKP party members, that's a government party, voting against him) largely because a number of opposition MPs were absent, but finally threw in the towel today. It's since transpired that he's been telling porkies about his academic and work history.

[Hot Pepsi]

And we're off to a flying start. Less than three weeks in and the new government has suffered its first casualty. The portents weren't good: I saw a survey about a week ago and about half (just under or just over, I don't remember) of those questioned reckoned that the present government wouldn't last its full term. The Minister for Economic Affairs, Vilhelm Junnila (go on, guess which party) has been under attack all week over his links to the far right. He narrowly survived a vote of no confidence on Wednesday (this included the majority of RKP party members, that's a government party, voting against him) largely because a number of opposition MPs were absent, but finally threw in the towel today. It's since transpired that he's been telling porkies about his academic and work history.

On that site, this bit caught my eye. Not sure if it's part of a rising tide of extremism or of this kind of thing always happens in Finland from time to time.
https://yle.fi/a/74-20039190

[Muukalainen]

Not sure if it's part of a rising tide of extremism or of this kind of thing always happens in Finland from time to time.

Both. Racism exists over here as it does elsewhere and PerusSuomalaiset's success in recent elections has undoubtedly emboldened those of a racist bent to behave more aggressively. Having said that, what these five were apparently planning is so far removed from the norm that, in my experience, it is unique.

[ursus arctos]

A depressing familiar pattern in Germany, I'm afraid

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Both. Racism exists over here as it does elsewhere and PerusSuomalaiset's success in recent elections has undoubtedly emboldened those of a racist bent to behave more aggressively. Having said that, what these five were apparently planning is so far removed from the norm that, in my experience, it is unique.

This sort of thing can happen anywhere and does. Catching them before they do all that much is unusual, and suggests that the Finns are more on top of this sort of thing than other countries.

[Mr Delicieux]

Since last commenting on this thread, I was fortunate enough to receive my residency permit under the brexit withdrawal agreement, valid through to 2028.
That should be enough to keep me here until then, but I'm expecting hurdles to be placed in my way.

None of this changes what my plan here, as in continuing my integration, passing my YKI test (citizenship test) once I speak the language to a high enough standard.

When selecting my integration path, despite a little bit of resistance from the authorities here I was able to choose Swedish as my language of choice, which seems mostly safe due to the Swedish people's party forming part of the coalition government.
Yes, it feels like a pyrrhic victory.