Helsingin Sanomat was among the papers that reported Friday that a new state budget proposal prepared by Social Democratic Finance Minister Antti Rinne has sparked a political row among government coalition partners.
The matter was the focus of a meeting and what Helsingin Sanomat called a "process discussion" Thursday among key ministers and the leaders of all the government parties.
This paper reports that the atmosphere was tense. The Swedish People's Party chairman Carl Haglund and the Conservative's Jan Vapaavuori in particular were critical of the way in which the finance minister prepared his proposal.
For his part, Rinne criticized Haglund for negative remarks he's aired about the government's municipal reform programme. He also leveled criticism at both the Conservatives and the SPP for their enthusiasm for NATO membership.
Helsingin Sanomat adds that Prime Minister Alexander Stubb stepped in to mediate. Referring to a source who was at the gathering, the paper reports that it was a good thing that the dispute did not go as far as an exchange of personal insults.
Russian sanctions
The business and economic daily Taloussanomat looked at some of the impacts of Russia's ban on food imports, in particular the effects on the Valio dairy products company, which is Finland's biggest supplier of foodstuffs to Russia.
It interviewed Valio CEO Pekka Laaksonen, who does not believe that the ban will affect the number of personnel that the company employs in Finland. Laaksonen further told Taloussanomat that Valio will continue to all the milk available from its suppliers.
Valio directly employs 3,500 people in Finland and around 30,000 in its entire production chain.
In Russia, where the company employs around 100 people, the situation will be more difficult.
According to Laaksonen, it is now high time that Finnish authorities lift minimum price restrictions and allow Valio to sell basic milk products at a lower price. The Finns, Laaksonen told this paper, would probably drink more milk if the price were lower.
Finnair to suffer?
The newsstand tabloid Iltalehti claims that if Russia imposes a ban on flights over its territory by western airlines, Finnair will suffer more than most.
Based on information from the Flightradar24 website, over the past week Finnair had 115 flights cross over Siberia. The highest number was Lufthansa's 160.
Russia has said that it is considering a ban on overflights by US and European airlines as part of its counter-sanctions.
Flights to Asia are very important to FInnair's operations, as the company is seeking growth particularly in the Asian market. Prime Minister Alexander Stubb stated this week that the Finnish government is communicating with Russia concerning Finnair's position.
An analyst quoted by Iltalehti pointed out that Finnair is extremely dependent on overflights of Russian territory and that a ban on these flights would hit the Finnish airline hard.