The Finnish Hospitality Association MaRa is calling on the government to fully compensate business owners in the sector for their fixes costs, including staff salaries, while they’re forcibly closed. On Monday prime minister Sanna Marin announced a state of emergency and three week shutdown of restaurants, bars, cafes and nightclubs in parts of the country with high levels of coronavirus. Public health officials, doctors and scientists are worried that a weeks-long increase in Covid-19 cases, including a high proportion of new, fast-spreading strains, will put significant pressure on hosp ..read more

Finland has declared a state of emergency, with immediate effect, because of the rising number of coronavirus cases – especially in the capital city region. The government made the announcement on Monday, in consultation with President Sauli Niinistö, and after a cabinet meeting, Under the terms of the Emergency Powers Act a state of emergency can be triggered when there is a serious infectious disease, “the effect of which is comparable to a major disaster.” The overall number of coronavirus cases in Finland has been on the rise in recent weeks, but it’s the rapid appearance of new variants o ..read more

The Finnish Kennel Club Kennelliitto has announced a ban on training of guard dogs as a hobby after video last week showed animals being abused by trainers. The video, taken secretly at training events and released by Finnish animal rights group Oikeuttaelaimille shows dogs being beaten, kicked, dragged around by the neck, whipped with leashes and beaten with sticks as part of the training process. The animals are also throttled around the neck if they don’t bite on pads firmly enough, and only released when they learn to bite harder. Other compliance methods include the use of electric shock ..read more

The exiled opposition leader of Belarus Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya is beginning a four day visit to Finland on Monday. During her trip she will meet for talks with President Sauli Niinistö, Prime Minister Sanna Marin and Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto. It’s not the first time that Tsikhanouskaya has met with Haavisto, the pair previously held talks in Vilnius where she has been living since she fled Belarus in the aftermath of presidential elections in August 2020, which were widely condemned at home and internationally as rigged. Opposition to the regime of incumbent president A ..read more

National Coalition Party MP Elina Lepomäki has announced that she’ll be a candidate in May’s municipal elections, standing for a Helsinki City Council seat – but that she doesn’t want to be the mayor. The move was surprising because just a few days before, Lepomäki told Ilta-Sanomat that she had neither the time nor inclination to participate in the municipal elections, citing her recent divorce, and saying she didn’t even know which municipality she would live in. She also said she wanted to spend more time with her children “and protect them.” However there’s been a swift change of poli ..read more

Meteorologists are forecasting spring-like weather on the way this week, but the fairer conditions come with the warning of ‘takatalvi’ or ‘winter backlash’ still ahead. On Sunday one of mainland Finland’s most southerly weather stations near Hanko recorded its warmest ever February day at +9.1°C. The weather station at Tvärminne on the south coast has been recording conditions since 1962 and meteorologist Mika Rantanen says the temperature is “more like April than February.” On Friday the temperature in Åland rose to +9.8°C but the warmer conditions won’t last long. “Although the end of Febru ..read more

The City of Helsinki says 274 new Covid-19 cases were confirmed on Saturday, the highest single-day tally for the capital since the start of the pandemic. The previous highest daily figure was 202 positive cases and currently about 5% of people who get a coronavirus test get a positive result. Public health officials say they’re worried about the next stage of viral spread with winter holidays ending and more people moving into the Helsinki region. “When ski holidays are coming to an end, there is a danger that the coronavirus epidemic will continue to spread as people return to work, schools ..read more

Flags are flying in Finland today to celebrate Kalevala, the national epic literary work written by author Elias Lönnrot in 1835. February 28th is also known as Finnish Culture Day. Kalevala is based on folk poems that Lönnrot collected in the 19th century, featuring strong, noble and often tragic characters at the centre of the action, weaving heroic tales of everyday folk with mythology and magical acts. In the early 1800s he made many poetry tours in Finland, across the eastern border and to residential areas to gather together folk story histories and preserve them together in his Kalevala ..read more

The National Coalition Party candidate in the Helsinki mayoral race Kirsi Piha has announced she won’t now run for election, citing an ideological split in the party. In a blog post titled “thank you and goodbye” Piha says that if she was Helsinki mayor she would not be able to represent the wide range of views within her party. “The basic value of the Coalition Party is to create a prosperous and active society where everyone has the opportunity to try, work and live a good life. Everyone. It is not based on prejudiced thinking that discriminates against different groups” she says ..read more

Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin (SDP) has held her first video call with the new Estonian PM Kaja Kallas who took office on Tuesday. The pair spoke on Tuesday evening after Marin sent a letter of congratulations following the swearing-in ceremony which took place in Tallinn. On the agenda was “bilateral relations, EU affairs and health security measures needed to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic in Finland Estonia” according to a statement from the PM’s office. Finland’s tightening border restrictions to slow the spread of a new coronavirus variant mean new restrictions on workers comin ..read more