HS candidate selection engine gives clues on attitudes of new Finnish Parliament
Majority of new MPs oppose expansion of nuclear energy, nearly half oppose NATO membership
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A narrow majority of those elected to the new Parliament are opposed to building more nuclear power plants in Finland.
In the answers that they gave in the Helsingin Sanomat candidate selection engine, 107 of the upcoming MPs – 53.5 per cent – are opposed to granting Fortum a licence to build a new reactor in Loviisa.
Supporting a new nuclear licence as candidates were 76 MP-elects – 38 per cent, while 17 per cent gave no answer.
The government granted two new nuclear licences in the spring of 2010. At that time Fortum was left without a licence, but it still wants to replace the ageing two reactors that it has in Loviisa.
The answers in the candidate selection engine also reveal that 44.5 per cent of the members of the upcoming parliament – 89 in total – would support making the second domestic language (Swedish for Finland’s Finnish-speakers and vice-versa) an elective subject. Slightly more, 94, want to keep mandatory Swedish.
Most eager to make Swedish studies voluntary for Finnish speakers are the True Finns: 33 of the 35 successful candidates who responded to the question in the selection engine were in favour of voluntary Swedish.
The victorious True Finns distinguish themselves in a number of other questions put to them in the selection engine.
Nearly all of the successful True Finns candidates felt that immigration policy is too lax. They are also overwhelmingly opposed to allowing same-sex couples to adopt children.
Immigration policy was seen as too generous by 79 successful candidates who had answered the selection engine.
About half – 99 – felt that the current immigration rules are acceptable. A number of measures were enacted in the past four years which placed new restrictions on immigration policy.
The new Parliament is largely opposed to NATO membership, with 94 of those elected on Sunday – 47 per cent – opposing moves to join the alliance at least during this term.
Just five per cent said that they are in favour of joining NATO quickly and 14 per cent want to join NATO later, while 45 feel that Finland should never join the alliance.
Helsingin Sanomat
