Main Finnish daily Helsingin Sanomat leads with a story about the rising rate of divorce among couples over 45 who have been married for a long time. This age group is divorcing at a higher rate than other age groups and is more often in need of crisis couples therapy or counselling. Among the many challenges of marriage is retirement: after a lifetime of having separate working lives, the shift to retirement often means spending much more time together and that can present a whole new set of issues for many couples.
The Helsinki-based broadsheet's second major story concerns the EU's dealings with Russia; criticism of the EU's blunders and misinterpretation errors is growing, as is the lack of a unified EU policy. According to Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja and his Social Democratic Party (SDP), there is plenty of room for improvement in how the EU negotiates with Russia.
His SDP colleague, Speaker of Parliament Eero Heinäluoma, wonders why the EU has learned nothing about working with Russia. How the EU responded to the Ukraine crisis and Russian sanctions requires a more serious conversation, he says. “One can only wonder what was discussed in the EU-Russia summit if Russia’s actions came as a surprise,” Heinäluoma told Helsingin Sanomat.
A smaller item on the same page notes that owing to the sanctions against EU agricultural products, Russian-language milk and yogurt cartons will be appearing in Finnish grocery stores in the next couple of days, as they can no longer be sold in Russia.
Tampere's Aamulehti covers the mixed reaction to newly appointed Finance Minister Antti Rinne’s proposed Remontti Oy (Renovation Inc), an idea which he feels municipalities throughout Finland support. The ambitious plan aims to renovate older buildings and sell them off to pension investment funds and rent them back in an effort to turn around the debt situation of many municipalities.
While Rinne says municipalities small and large support the project, municipal unions have expressed concern that the benefits of the costly initiative have been over estimated. “Fixing costs are estimated to be about 30 billion euros for all public buildings and about four billion euros for schools,” according to Rinne. Critics of the proposal include Hämeenkyrö’s mayor Antero Alenius, who believes the proposal will just worsen the financial situation of many municipalities.
On the topic of municipal shifts and renewal programmes, Turun Sanomat leads with the proposed cutting of four Turku area schools – Kähäri, Uittamo, Kohmo, and Kerttuli – and outsourcing administration for one school, the Swedish-language Sirkkalabacken. As well, 500 daycare spots for children would move from the public to the private sector, as Turku would like to shed some daycare spaces that it rents and instead buy the services from the private sector.