Sunday 2 April we vote in Finland. The popular premier, but the polls give her third (slightly). Does it have to do with the holidays? No, public spending. Her: We’ll make it
FROM OUR REPORTER
TAMPERE AND HELSINKI — At the Tampere market it appears like a tulip among a sea of black coats (fa -5): vermilion lips, pale red cashmere, leather jacket. 8 December 2019 was her first day in government and she, Sanna Marin, who at the age of 34 she was the youngest premier in the world, was wearing a somber knee-length suit and not an iota of makeup. April 1, 2023 was perhaps her last day as prime minister fully in office: in 40 months and a pandemic, and a war, the world changed and another one too. Maybe that will cost them at the polls.
Today we vote in Finland e the premier-star’s party, the Social Democrats, only third in the pollshere so predictive as to bring the decimals: yesterday the National Coalition Party, centre-right led by 54-year-old Petteri Orpo, with 19.8%; Then the Finns of Marin’s archenemy, Riikka Purra, with 19.2%. Finally the Social Democrats, 18.7%. The government is made by the candidate of the party that gets the most votes; the one in office remains, for the processing of current affairs, until the formation of the new one, which is expected to arrive in the summer. Consultations begin on 17 April. My heart is high, I know we’ll make it, exhales Marin in a smile among fans asking her for pictures. Tampere, with a working-class past, is his city.
And yet I won’t vote for you, for example, his contemporary engineer Janne Palttala, than at the passing rally. Too aggressive, too intense. Demonize your opponents. As he speaks, the square applauds Marin. What did he promise him? More nurses in nursing homes. In fact there are few of Marin’s and Palttala’s peers here. The cheering crowd made up largely of retirees. One waves a crutch to cheer. The first row is a row of walkers. An investigation by theHelsingin sanomat newspaper
three years ago, showed that among party members there were more over-90s than under-35s. Marin’s rally seems like a postcard from an idyllic past that 15 years of global crises seem to have eroded here too: the watchword, in fact only pronounceable at these latitudes, welfare statei.e. social status.
The best resource of the country are not the forests, they are the brains, thunders Marin, and already applause: for six minutes of the 14 of the rally he talks about school, which we will bring back to the best standards. The specter is Estonia, which beat Finland in first place in the OECD-Pisa tests. Growth is not achieved by reducing taxes on the company, but with research and development. Then health care, inequalities, subsidies. It takes her an hour to leave: everyone wants a picture with her.
Marin’s liking high: 62%. And 69% among womenexplains Marko Junkkari, columnist and managing editor of theHelsingin sanomat newspaper. And abroad like it. From all over the world, 60 accredited journalists today. Then why is he trudging? Blame the Partygate that overwhelmed you last summer? No. It discounts political errors. THEThe Center Party no longer joins forces: Too leftist. By ruling out that you would have allied yourself with the sovereigns, you have broken a tradition of very broad agreements. And with Orpo he can hardly govern: statist, he calls for 6 billion cuts.
The deficit worries me, explains the economist Martin Paasi, owner of a financial education podcast and candidate with Petteri Orpo. With Marin we made 10 billion in debt a year. 45% of public spending are social safety nets. There are 200,000 unemployed, instead of feeding them we need to train them: there is a manpower crisis, but supply and demand do not meet. Arguments that bring votes in an economic crisis. Ours are not waste, but investments, articulates Sanna Marin from Lempl’s stage, second rally on his last day in the campaign. No one will be left behind Queues at party stands offering – tradition – sausages or pancakes. The typical dish of the Sdp pea soup. Like in the military, remembers a member. One million 700 thousand Finns voted early; the remaining 60% vote today.
If you have abstentionist friends, bring them along: the matriarch of the party also took the stage in Helsinki, in the formerly degraded district of Karhupuisto Tarja Halonen, 79 Anni, first female president of the Republic (between 2000 and 2012, known in the Italian news since Silvio Berlusconi said he had obtained the residence in Parma of an EU agency in which Finland was also interested, dusting off my playboy skills with her) . Do you see your colleague again? Very. And I’m proud of her. She had an unthinkable four years, and she came out great. Nevertheless. Among the critics it is strong to reproach Marin for being nervous: the symbolic photo of the campaign sees her and Riikka Purra arguing in a TV studio, while Orpo laughs.
Losing weight, tested by the Party-gate, Marin has just bought a house in a neoclassical building in the elegant Tl district. Maybe alone. In the capital gossip rumors of divorce they chase each other: the joint press release with her husband Markus Rikknen would be ready in the drawers of a pr note, pending the outcome of the vote. For his possible new life as an underdog, I think he won’t want ministries, not right away. Perhaps he will run for the presidency of the RepublicJunkkari speculates. Others think NATO. From the Karhupuisto stage, where star Sanna Marin’s campaign closes, Tl is not far away.
April 1, 2023 (change April 1, 2023 | 23:09)
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