How Finland voted.

international | politics / elections | news report

Monday January 30, 2006 16:14

by iosaf

bcn

Finland like Ireland is a neutral state with a small population whose economic and social transformation is felt by its citizens to be thanks to its membership of the European Union.

It has re-elected Tarja Halonen as President for the next 6 years.

Her re-election ought be of interest to Irish readers, as her candidacy was completely supported by the Finnish Left Alliance party "Vasemmistoliitto" which founded in 1990 campaigns on a political platform of the "new global left" ; a party that promotes the ideals of the French Revolution - liberty, equality, and fraternity - in addition to peace and environmental values and is a member of the "Nordic Green Alliance" in the European parliament.
Finland will thus suceed Austria (another neutral) as president of the European Union in July 2006 as a socialist state to take part in the G8 Russia conference on "energy security".

____________________________________________________________________

I have a lot of affection for the Finnish, having many friends in the frozen north, and much admiration for their contribution to the open source movement, (perhaps the most famous Finn is Torvold Linux) and also to the continuing debate in certain neutrality circles on increased NATO involvement.

Memership of NATO was an issue in the elections for the right wing parties who contested and lost these elections. it is now certain that most Finnish citizens see increased involvement in NATO and the potential "alliances of the willing" promoted by its founder the USA as likely to lead to "increased risk of terrorist attack on Finnish territory or interests".

And just like little neuveux riche Ireland, Finland boasts extra-ordinary interests throughout the popularly perceived "states of terrorist threat" (the Middle East, Mid Asia and northern and eastern Africa).

Other themes up for debate and ultimately "approval" or "rejection" by the electorate included the "Christian identity of the Baltic" and increased or decreased power for the office of the President.

It seems by the result that the presidency is not to garner more direct power (as wished by the right), nor to lose it (as argued by the left).

A few years ago there was a brief attempt to float an "indymedia finland" but it failed to fulfill its potential for a variety of reasons, you may still see the sight here
http://www.vaikuttava.net/ and wonder at the Finnish language which really does seem to work those vowels. Finnish is an "ugraic" language whose closest "national state language" relative is surprisingly Hungarian.

Considering that Finland will suceed Austria (another neutral) as president of the European Union in July 2006 as a socialist and ecological state to take part in the G8 Russia conference on "energy security" it is also worth pointing out that Finland's existence and neutrality was a condition set by Soviet Russia for its independent existance, and furthermore that the Finnish are the most ecologically sustainable nation-state in the EU. Hopefully they will argue to steer the G8 states towards sustainable energy policies.

Here is the link to Wikipedia Finnish election presidentials 2006
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_presidential_elect..._2006
Everything is there. Indeed Wikipedia are covering elections very very well these days, a sign of that sites new directional policies, and as a reflection of the respect felt in online circles for their work, the former "touchstone" site of such information "election world" has now decided to join the wikipedia team.
http://www.electionworld.org/finland.htm

I thus have decided to leave less "election news stories" now on the newswire, we in the "open source" movement have developed in many different ways evolving many different facets of our ideas and are now functioning very well at different things. But I promise the faithful reader that if an election merits comment from "our perspective" in addition to mere "data", I'll try and cover it.

Here thus are the links to elections covered on indymedia 2005
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/73567
and those which have been celebrated of interest in 2006
Chile victory for left:
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/73802
Quebec (& Canada) victory for right:
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/73916
Palestine victory for armed struggle (as reported by the swp):
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/73969

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Comments (5 of 5)

finland findlan finland, finland has it all

by fin

Mon Jan 30, 2006 17:30

to quote monty python

dont forget the Conan O'Brien Factor!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Ilta_Sanomat_front_page_Conan_and_Tarja.gif
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conan_O%27_Brien

No more election coverage? :(

by este es ES

Mon Jan 30, 2006 18:38

I really like your 'how the ... voted and not voted' coverage and with so many elections coming up this year in south america, I hope your coverage is only being placed on the back burner for now.

no worries.

by oh lordy forbid - {iosaf}

Mon Jan 30, 2006 21:50

in the carve-up of prioritised archiving of political change,
wikipedia do the elections with last minute opinion poll details,
links to files of debates, manifestos, political party or candidate websites, and any other sundry trivia. just what you'd expect from the encyclopedia of the open source movement.

But we still do the "real politics" stuff. & considering that our strength is the championing of abstentionist votes and the true equality of universal suffrage and an end to the oligarchy which once masqueraded as liberal democracy and now quite merrily rues democratic defecits....

south america elections are indymedia. (((sorry wikipedians but there are limits to expertise)))

My next "sunday papers" article will be entitled "house arrest" edition, and is to appear this week. It was going to appear yesterday, but things sort of got complicated. In it I'll review the "other campaign" of the Zapatistas in Mexico, only one month out on the road, and preview the Peruvian elections later this year.
As well as reflecting on how democracy never was what it pretended to be, and so we can't really get perplexed if in the middle east at this time it amounts to a popular sentiment to declare war on the West in general and the USA in particular. Oh and jokes too. And the cliff hanging endings. And a competition to win either an asian made free trade rolex or house trained gazebo.

never forget the "no vote" is increasing.
we now are @ average 30% abstention in most developed states.

Finnish language

by Suomi

Tue Jan 31, 2006 14:25

I know it's not that relevant to the article above, but just a minor correction - Finnish is indeed a Finno-Ugric language but its closest "national state language" relative is not actually Hungarian, but Estonian.

quite correct. I'm sorry to Estonia and Estonians.

by corrected I stand.

Tue Jan 31, 2006 14:42

I realised after I had written it, that I had been guilty of an ignorance of our European Union, and had forgotten the Estonians. I had almost added that Finland boasts the highest percentage of natural blondes in the world. Glad I didn't. Estonia boasts the highest percentage of natural blondes in the world. Estonia as European as Pyroxide can be. :-)

The Estonians last celebrated local government elections in October 2005
Estonians allow "internet voting" and won the Eurovision song contest.

There are many famous Estonians http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_famous_Estonians but my personal favourite is Arvo Pärt, the composer who was born on September 11th 1935 and is the best exponent of what has come to be termed "spiritual minimalism". His most well known work perhaps being "Tabula Rasa" commisioned by Gidon Kremer for violin and piano. But since 2000 he has composed exclusively for human voice. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arvo_P%C3%A4rt

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How Finland voted.

Comments (5 of 5)