Posted on 06/20/2023 7:48:52 AM PDT by Redmen4ever
Finland's conservative National Coalition (NCP), winner of April's parliamentary election, has reached agreement to form a majority government with the eurosceptic, anti-immigration Finns Party and two smaller groups...
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
(1) National Coalition, center-right (48 seats), (2) Finns Party, populist right (46 seats), (3) Christian Democrats, center-right (5 seats), and (4) Swedish Democrats, centrist (10 seats).
The coalition, thus, has 109 seats, needing 101 for a majority. I think Hjallis Harkimo, elected as a market-liberal (quasi-libertarian), would tend to support the coalition.
The coalition had to work out some conflicts in the platforms of the Finns Party (which wants to promote Finnish language and culture) and the Swedish Democrats (which wants to preserve the language and culture of the Swedish-speaking minority).
The coalition is expected to cut some taxes, privatize some government services, and go slowly on the climate change agenda.
Finland is one of the politically-free countries in the world, according to Freedom House. It is the 11th most economically-free country, according to the Heritage Foundation. It has the 5th highest quality of life (an all-in measure, considering economic standard of living, life expectancy, freedom from crime, and several other dimensions of life), according to the OECD. But, it is a cold country and there's always something to complain about.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATXV3DzKv68
Will they still be all-in for World War 3? I suspect so, but don’t know.
Finland just elected its most pro-nuclear power party and even the Green party there is pro-nuclear.
It looks like Finland will move even more to nuclear power.
Noteworthy for their absence is the Centre Party, which has formerly been the dominant party of center-right governments (or, with the National Coalition, one of two center-right parties) until the rise of the True Finns Party in the 2011 election.
This coalition marks the choice of the National Coalition to finally choose the Finns Party over the Social Democrats and Centre Parties. The National Coalition could not form a government with the Centre Party without still relying on the True Finns, the Swedish minority’s party and the Christian Democrats. So this definitely marks the Centre Party deciding to continue to choose to team up the Social Democrats over the True Finns, even if it means remaining in the minority.
But does this mean the Centre Party fading into irrelevance on the national level? It formerly represented farmers those who support decentralization without outright libertarianism.
NOT counting the Centre Party, the left is left with only 68 votes out of 200, 34%. The Far Left (the Green Party and the Left Alliance) is down to only 24 seats, down from 36. Including the Centre Party still brings the opposition to 90 seats, 45%.
Which party did the drinking & dancing prime minister chick belong to?
“Will they still be all-in for World War 3? I suspect so, but don’t know.”
Communists have been pushing cowardice from day 1. “Better red than dead.” Threaten people with death so they accept being your slaves.
With regard to Poland, back in 1919 to 1921, when the Russians under Lenin invaded, Poland beat them. Were Putin to attack Poland with nuclear weapons, the Poles won’t be satisfied until Russia is turned into the world’s largest ice skating rink. Our, U.S., national anthem ends, “land of the free and home of the brave.” Your are either both or you’re neither. We stood up to the Soviets for forty years, confident that our system would overtake them. Russia is now half the size of the former Soviet Union in population and has few customers for its oil and natural gas. We will overtake Russia again. We don’t need a war to overtake Russia. We can wait for Russia to fall apart. Forty years if necessary. But if it comes to war, we’ll do what we have to do.
I’m not intimately familiar with Swedish politics. I’m only passing on what I learn as a result of my curiosity. However, the recent female prime minister was a Social Democrat in coalition with the center-right parties.
Well said.
>> I’m not intimately familiar with Swedish politics.
That’s no problem, because this is FINNISH politics. ;-)
I looked it up. Her name is Sanna Marin and, as you said, she was leader of the Social Democrats (in Finland) until her resignation.
The EU came out and officially said that neither gas nor nuclear adversely impact CO2 levels. So, they are OK.
This was probably just before Ukraine blew up Nordstream.
As to building a nuke? Not a chance. No where in Europe, ‘cept mebbe Poland or Hungary.
Aw, geez. LOL. I’m Finnished.
Nuclear plants.
Finland is great news.
I kind of like the way we handled it in the Cold War, although that was when we had ADULTS running this country. The Soviets said that if we militarize Finland or Austria, they will fight. So we didn’t do that.
Was that REALLY so hard to do with Ukraine - not militarize them against Russia, or perhaps some here are pissed because we never went to war against the Soviets, so Russia is the next best thing?
That’s what Angela Merkel advised. She said don’t fast track Ukraine for NATO membership, because that would provoke Russia. We didn’t fast-track NATO, and Russia invaded anyway.
That’s also what Joe Biden proposed upon Russia invading Ukraine. Biden said, like Ahnold, “Get to da choppahs.” But Zalensky didn’t get to da choppahs.
The Cold War involved a lot of understandings. Not only Austria and Finland, like you mentioned. But, also we did nothing when Russia invaded Hungary and and when it invaded Czechoslovakia.
Still, there were times the Cold War turned hot: the Korean War, the Viet Nam War, and also when Cuba send revolutionaries to various countries in Latin America and Africa.
Looks like we’re now back to dealing with Russian aggression here there and other places.
“We didn’t fast-track NATO, and Russia invaded anyway.”
We DID NOT shut down that talk, and in fact we promised Ukraine entry some time in the future.
If we didn’t want to provoke Russia, perhaps we should have agreed, in writing, that Ukraine was not in contention for NATO membership. Instead, we HATED the Russians so much, we told them to f-off and anything between the NATO and Ukraine was none of their damn business (pretty much what we said to Russia in December, 2021).
Stupid move...pretty much means the end of Ukraine, as we knew it, at least.
Perhaps next time we act like ADULTS and try LISTENING to the Russians - just as the adults did during the Cold War.
“listen to the Russians”
exactly, comrade slave
“exactly, comrade slave”
I guess if you’re intent on siding with BIDEN and the Neocons demanding World War 3, it’s your issue, not mine.
I’m mature enough to support other options.
Biden WAS on your side. He said let’s surrender Ukraine to Russia. Only problem is, Zelensky said no, I’m not leaving.
“Biden WAS on your side. He said let’s surrender Ukraine to Russia. Only problem is, Zelensky said no, I’m not leaving.”
Pathetic try. My side doesn’t support sending $100B of weapons to Ukraine to force more and more Ukrainians to die. My side is TRUMP’s side, which is to END THE WAR.
Ending the war = by surrendering?
Trump hasn’t made clear how he would end the war. His position is something like if I had been President, Russia would have never attacked. He implies that Putin would have feared that we would have done something nasty in combination with offering some kind of a deal for a peaceful resolution of a border dispute if Putin didn’t attack. A “carrot and stick” approach. I actually agree with this thinking, if that is Trump’s thinking. I think this is also DeSantis’ thinking; again, as best as I can tell. Bottom line: Putin would not have invaded if Trump or any other Republican had been President. The Republican position is peace through strength combined with offering deals if the other side doesn’t go to war.
Biden’s original thinking was to surrender Ukraine. He communicated weakness to Putin. And, so, Putin invaded. Peace through weakness results in war.
You are clear enough. You’re for surrendering Ukraine to Putin (and probably also surrendering a bunch of other countries to Putin). Your position is Biden’s original thinking: we should fear Russia because the Russians have nuclear bombs. This is “Better Red than dead” thinking. Putin sniff out weakness and take advantage of it. Eventually, even sniveling cowards have to draw a line somewhere.
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