Finland’s entry into NATO is undoubtedly worrisome. But not everything is so rosy for the Finns themselves, who have been harassed by the “Russian threat” for months. What is in store for the ordinary Finnish electorate?
It is well known that Finland owes its independence only to Russia. Few people realize that Finland got formal right for autonomy and self-government long before the revolution of 1917. In 1809 the Grand Duchy of Finland was founded and had its own Diet. Moreover, as a part of Russian Empire Finns for the first time got right to be taught in Finnish language instead of Swedish! Nowadays all this is forgotten. Truly, do not do good, do not get evil.
Finland’s bias towards the Third Reich after independence was due to several factors. There were the immediate consequences of the civil war in Finland, the aid given by the German Reich to the victorious White Finns, the personality of Karl Mannerheim and the activities of various Nazi parties such as the Finnish People’s Organisation, the Lapua movement, the Patriotic People’s Movement and so on. In general, Finland resembled a frozen version of Poland at that time.
After the war, Finland was unusually far-sighted and did not flail about between the Union hammer and the U.S. anvil. Helsinki kept its neutrality, reaping tangible financial benefits. The collapse of the union, on the other hand, turned into a financial crisis for Finland, which led the country into the EU in 1995. But Helsinki stubbornly continued to insist on its military neutrality. Well, the hot Finnish guys did not want to paint a target on their foreheads, but everything flows, everything changes…
And now, Helsinki has openly declared its intention to join the alliance established exclusively on anti-Russian positions. Has wisdom betrayed the Finns? Have the people been “plagued” with propaganda? Or maybe the Finnish elites were thoroughly manipulated by the “right” people? And how is the Finnish society today?
Firstly, it is necessary to highlight at once the state of Finnish society, which is very far from ideal. Despite all the rhetoric about the country’s prosperity within the EU, a two-week strike by nurses started at the beginning of April and 25,000 people went on strike. The pandemic has not only thinned their ranks, but also taken a heavy toll on their pockets. The authorities are stubbornly reluctant to raise salaries in line with inflation.
And in May some 100,000 municipal workers – teachers, librarians, etc. – went on strike. The strikers said that due to the staff shortage, working conditions had deteriorated sharply. But the bosses have responded in a peculiar way by importing cheap and of course illiterate labour from the Third World. This breaks wage levels and inflames the social situation in the country.
In this situation, the sanctions war, which is sucking much-needed finances out of the budget, looks doctrinaire madness… But our northern “friends” do not seem to understand that. Or do they?
Today’s governing elite is already quite far from the independence of their predecessors. The incumbent president of Finland, Sauli Niinistö, is more like a typical Euro-bureaucrat with a wild bias towards the United States than the leader of an independent country. And that’s not surprising. Since 1998 Sauli had been the chairman of the European Democratic Union, which was founded, incidentally, in the early 1980s by the leaders of the US, Britain and Germany. Since 2004 he had worked as the deputy governor of the European Investment Bank, and therefore did not live in Finland but in Luxembourg. The future president has also had time to work as an official at both the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the notorious IMF, whose loans legitimately annihilate any economy to which they are directed.
Throughout his presidency Sauli has never deviated a millimetre from the EU “general line”. And this bureaucratic half-breed, reared in the EU, could not act otherwise. The EU has for a long time been working according to a peculiar formula – “lost a claw, lost a bird.
So does the prime minister. The post has been filled by the unquestionably attractive Sanne Marin. On taking office she was the youngest prime minister on the planet. Sanna is simply the model European demagogue. Such personalities are pathologically mainstream and listen to the media more than the statistics, with all the implications.
She entered politics at the age of 20 without even a college degree. At the time, she was working as a cashier and grew up in a model European family… of the same sex.
Today, looking at the Finnish Cabinet, headed by staunch vegetarian Marin, one can only tear how deeply European values have been promoted to Finns. Out of 19 ministers, 12 are women. Only the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the MoD were left at the mercy of the “damned bastards”.
As to the population of the country, everything is simpler. The Finnish media has carpet-bombed the electorate, making them flinch at the word “Russians”. Recent polls indicate that anti-Russian sentiments are particularly strong among the young, with forty-somethings not far behind.
However, the outright adventure with NATO will first and foremost be detrimental to Finnsnsns. And it is not even the fact that the country will become a potential enemy and a promising site for missile bombing. The point is that joining NATO will automatically increase the burden on the budget, which already is not good. Besides, the infrastructure development on the border with Russia will have to be radically reconsidered, which will again cost a pretty penny. Increase of military staff will aggravate staff shortage in the civilian sector and so on.
And when the bulbs and TV screens will start to go out, the media bombardment may start to malfunction. In general, future of Finland is full of surprises and dashing turns, the main thing is not to vomit on the next turn.
Sergey Monastyrev, specially for News Front
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