Interesting the news from Finland. The current right to far-right Government has, surprise, surprise, triggered widespread strikes. The strikes are in reaction to proposals by Finland's centre-right government, led by the prime minister, Petteri Orpo of the National Coalition party, to make changes to the labour market. These would restrict employees' rights to strike and prevent the national labour mediator from offering wage increases that exceed those received by export sectors and cuts to unemployment benefits. And: Ulla Liukkunen, a professor of labour law at the University of Helsinki, said the scale of the strike in terms of participation and breadth of sectors signalled "a broad front that is not satisfied with the government's policy". She added: "This comes as no surprise, given the current government programme, which weakens workers' protection. The way in which the reforms have been pushed forward has been fast moving, and the way in which the reforms under way have been prepared [are] a departure from the tradition of well-established tripartite law-making on which Finnish labour law system is built. The Nordic labour market model has been one of stability, which is valued by all, and the present situation is worrying." But this 'centre-right' coalition? Who is in there? The Finns Party (once the True Finns) whose positions are? Ideologically, the Finns Party has been described as right-wing[59][60][61] and far-right.[68] It is a nationalist[69] and national-conservative[70][71] party that opposes immigration,[59] while on foreign stances it is Eurosceptic.[69][59] The party combines left-wing economic policies[72] and economic nationalism[73] with socially conservative values,[74][71] and ethnic nationalism.[75] Several researchers have described the party as fiscally centre-left, socially conservative,[76] a "centre-based populist party" or the "most left-wing of the non-socialist parties", whereas other scholars have described them as radically right-wing populist.[71][77][78][75][note 2] In the parliament seating order, the party was seated in the centre of the plenary until 2019 when they were moved to the right of the plenary despite their opposition to the move.[10] The party's supporters have described themselves as centrists.[81] The party has drawn people from left-wing parties but central aspects of their manifesto[82] have gained support from right-wing voters as well.[83][84][note 3] The Finns Party has been compared by international media to the other Nordic populist parties and other similar nationalist and right-wing populist movements in Europe, whilst noting its strong support for the Finnish welfare state.[87][88][79] It also calls for austerity policies to curb deficit spending.[89] And yet in government they drop the support for their 'left' policies. Surprise, surprise. | | | |  | You can also reply to this email to leave a comment. | | | | |
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