In an extensive interview with President Sauli Niinistö published on Wednesday morning, Finland's largest circulation daily Helsingin Sanomat explores three main themes: the president's role in Finland's accession towards Nato, freedom of speech within the confines of the office, and the "person named Sauli Niinistö".
The first topic relates to a question that has been widely debated since Finland's historic decision to apply to join the Nato military alliance in May: Who should represent Finland at Nato meetings — the president or the prime minister?
When Finland and Sweden were officially invited to join the alliance in Madrid in May, HS notes that Niinistö led the Finnish delegation, as he has at other Nato summits to which Finland has been invited as an observer country. However, at the EU level, Prime Minister Sanna Marin (SDP) is Finland's most prominent representative.
It is natural, HS writes, that the PM should lead Finland at the EU, which has an influence on all areas of administration. Nato, as a military alliance, has a more limited brief and therefore Niinistö — as commander-in-chief of the Defence Forces — should take the lead.
"If you want the Prime Minister to be the representative at Nato summits, you have to change the constitution," Niinistö tells HS.
In terms of the president as a person, HS asks how much the burden of the office affects him.
Niinistö notes the "external events that could not have been predicted" at the beginning of his presidency have a huge impact on his day-to-day, as he receives messages and calls late into the night.
"But of course, it's not really appropriate to have all the world's sorrows running around in your head," Niinistö says.
Centre Party support slides
Many newspapers pick up on a poll of voter sentiment commissioned by Helsingin Sanomat, which tabloid Iltalehti notes shows support for the Centre Party has hit a record low.
The result of this survey backs up the findings of Yle's most recent political support poll, which found that just 10.3 percent of respondents would vote for the Annika Saarikko-led party.
Meanwhile, in the HS survey the Centre Party polled at 10.4 percent — a dramatic drop from the 19.3 percent of votes received at the county council elections earlier this year.
This places the party well adrift of the current "top three" — the opposition National Coalition and Finns parties as well as Prime Minister Sanna Marin's Social Democratic Party — even though, as IL writes, "nothing radical has occurred."
Voters in Finland will go to the polls for parliamentary elections next April.
An eclipse on the horizon
Tampere-based Aamulehti writes that a partial solar eclipse should be visible over Finland on Tuesday of next week, according to the Astronomical Society Ursa.
The society predicts that the eclipse will be at its strongest in the north and east of the country — where the moon will be seen to cover nearly 70 percent of the diameter of the sun — and smaller in the west and south, where under 60 percent coverage is expected.
Partial solar eclipses may go unnoticed, according to Ursa spokesperson Anne Liljeström, as the changes in light can be very gradual.
"But if you take a photo of the surrounding landscape with the same settings before the eclipse and at the deepest moment of the eclipse, and then compare the images, the difference is clear," Liljeström says.
The eclipse is forecast to start on Tuesday 25 October at around 12:10pm and end at about 3:30pm, and will be at its strongest at 1:20pm.
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