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".

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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