Yearbook 2019
Finland. According to
CountryAAH, the Finnish government resigned in early March;
new elections were announced until April 14. The reason for
the resignation was, according to Prime Minister Juha
Sipilä, party leader of the Center, that they failed to
achieve a health and landscape reform, which he said was
"one of our most important projects". At the election, the
Social Democrats became the largest party for the first time
since 1999, with 17.7%, followed by the True Finns (17.5%)
and the Collective Party (17.0%). The center made its worst
choice in over 100 years and ended up at 13.8%. The Greens
got 11.5%, the Left Federation 8.2%, the Swedish People's
Party in Finland 4.5% and the Christian Democrats 3.9%.
After the election, 92 out of 200 members were women, which
is the highest figure so far.
 However, it would take until June for a government to be
in place. The Social Democrats under Antti Rinne formed a
coalition with the Center, the Green, Liberal Swedish
People's Party and the Left League. In an analysis, Dagens
Nyheter's Philip Teir writes that Rinne forms the "reddest
government in Finland in several years"; heavy items such as
the Minister of the Interior and Foreign Affairs will go to
the Greens, who have had great success in both parliamentary
and EU elections. In the Prime Minister's vote, Antti Rinne
was appointed to lead the government (111 yes to 74 no; 14
were absent). Eleven of the 19 ministerial posts were held
by women.
In December, Prime Minister Rinne was forced to resign.
The reason was the recent turbulence that arose in
connection with an extensive postal strike. A week later,
the 34-year-old Communications Minister and the party's
Deputy Chairman Sanna Marin took over the role of Prime
Minister. All five government parties are now led by women
where only one is over 35. In addition to Sanna Marin (born
1985; Social Democrats) there are Katri Kulmuni (born 1987;
Center), Maria Ohisalo (born 1985; The Greens), Li Andersson
(born 1987; Left federation) and Anna-Maja Henriksson (born
1964; Swedish People's Party). Of the government's 19
members, 12 are now women.
In the European Parliament elections, things went better
for the Assembly, which received 20.8% and three seats in
Parliament, followed by the Greens (16% and two seats), the
Social Democrats (14.6% and two seats), the True Finns (13.8
% and two mandates) and the Center (13.5% and two mandates).
The turnout was below the EU average, just under 41%.
On July 1, Finland took over the EU Presidency. As
chairman, during the second half of 2019, the sustainability
crisis would work. In August, the United Kingdom asked that
Finland, as the country of the Presidency, vote on behalf of
the British at the EU meetings that it would not attend
until Brexit. This is because after September 1, the British
would only attend meetings "of national interest".
In May, the Arctic Council's eight member countries'
foreign ministers held a meeting in Rovaniemi. Member
countries are Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden,
Canada, the Russian Federation and the United States. But
since the United States did not want to include the word
climate change in a final declaration, there was none. US
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo saw the melting ice in a
completely different light than the other participants, in
the form of new seaways and increased trade. Prior to the
meeting, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) had warned that
climate change in the Arctic is going faster than elsewhere;
the area heats up two to three times faster than the rest of
the world.
The Finnish national salary trial expired at year-end
2018/19. After two years, it was realized that it did not
work very well - the approximately 2,000 unemployed citizens
who received the national salary did not succeed in getting
more jobs or higher wages. According to critics, however,
the evaluation time was too short.
According to the UN report World Happiness Report 2019,
Finland remains in last year's top position; in second place
came Denmark and in third Norway. Sweden advanced from ninth
to seventh place. Every year, the World Happiness Report
ranks 156 countries on the basis of GDP, freedom,
corruption, longevity and social protection networks. In
June, if necessary, to reduce the happiness in the country,
it was announced in June that the Finnish public service
channel YLE would shut down its news broadcasts in Latin,
which has been going on for 30 years, five minutes a week.
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