Lahti-based daily Etelä-Suomen Sanomat reports on a recent Lännen Media-commissioned poll from late July that found that close to half (47 percent) of Finnish residents are "somewhat or very satisfied" with the left-leaning cabinet led by Social Democrat Prime Minister Antti Rinne.
About a quarter of survey respondents couldn't say one way or the other how they felt about the coalition, while 28 percent reported feeling somewhat or very unsatisfied with the government team that was formed after general elections in April.
Four years ago as the Centre Party's Juha Sipilä began his centre-right coalition's journey, his government enjoyed 59 percent support in the same poll. There were also far fewer respondents who were uncertain how they felt about Sipilä's cabinet, which ESS says could indicate that the Finnish public finds Rinne's policies more ambiguous.
Who is a real Sámi?
Newspaper Turun Sanomat reports on a decision yesterday by the Finnish Supreme Court to annul a Sámi Parliament decision to remove names from Sámi Parliament election rosters due to questions over their Sámi identity. Finnish constitutional law professor Martin Scheinin tells TS that Finnish authorities run the risk of triggering strong ethnic tensions that have arisen around the principle of the indigenous people's self-determination.
The UN Human Rights Committee ruled in February that Finland's Supreme Administrative Court violated human rights when it ignored the work of the Sámi Parliament Election Committee, which had decided upon individual assessment to not include 93 names.
"We've suddenly got these new identities: the Lapps, the Forest Sámi and people who are calling themselves Inari Sámi. Despite this, those people who have traditionally called themselves Sámi know that these were the very people who spit on them in school yards in the 1950s and 60s," Scheinin says.
Scheinin notes that the very same people who resisted the launch of the Sámi Parliament in the 1990s now want the same rights as the Sámi. He calls for Parliament to postpone the September election until Finnish laws can be changed.
"If the elections take place as scheduled, I predict it will generate a lot of unrest, ethnic tension and international court cases. The situation will continue and it will get worse," he tells TS. The deadline for candidates to register for the election is Friday, 2 August.
Fewer unwanted pregnancies
Joensuu-based daily Karjalainen carries a Finnish news agency STT story on the use of morning-after pills in Finland, an option that was extended to young people under the age of 15 in 2015.
Miila Halonen of Finland's Family Federation tells the paper that the fact that the pill is freely available in pharmacies has lowered the threshold for young people to use it. She says abortion rates are at historic lows in Finland for women under 20, and the 2015 law reform is one of several factors that explain the current situation.
Finnish Medicines Agency researcher Tinna Voipio says about 100,000 pills have been sold annually in Finland since 2010, with no discernible jump in sales after the 2015 amendment.
Halonen tells the paper that steady sales likely indicate that Finns see the morning-after pill as something reserved for emergency situations. She tells the paper that as a rule, young people in Finland are very savvy about contraception and use it regularly.
"More municipalities offering free contraception has improved user numbers and increased the use of long-lasting, reliable means of protection that create little chance of user error," she says.
Finland's most beautiful building?
And the tabloid Ilta-Sanomat has launched a contest asking readers to vote on Finland's most beautiful building. The first round of voting has already narrowed the list of candidates down to 25 from an initial 100.
Among the iconic structures that are still in the running are the striking white Helsinki Cathedral in the capital's Senate Square, the art nouveau State Hotel (Valtionhotelli) in the eastern border city of Imatra, the 15th-century Olavinlinna Castle in Savonlinna, the Bengtskär lighthouse on the south coast island of Kemiösaari, and "the world's largest wooden church" in Kerimäki.
Vote for your favourite here.