Helsingin Sanomat's lead story is a confidential Finance Ministry memo the paper has obtained warning that Greece is perilously close to default and exit from the Eurozone. Not exactly an earth-shattering assessment, given the public struggle Greece has had in making debt payments recently, but the memo does outline likely official responses.
The memo warns of contagion risks in political and economic terms. In political terms the Greek situation could bring into question the credibility of the EU project and institutions. In money markets the contagion risk is in other southern European countries, that could also see capital flight as exit from the euro becomes a real possibility.
The ministry sees two options. The first is that Greece continues with its current programme, meets its obligations and receives new instalments of funding to pay creditors. The second option involves Greece not implementing the current programme and running out of money and the EU having to respond. One option at that point would be to grant extra bailout money anyway, regardless of the incomplete reforms. The Ministry says this could be done, for example, for humanitarian reasons.
On the other hand, the other Eurozone countries could end up 'silently accepting' a switch to a process that would in reality lead to Greece exiting the Euro.
1918 in opera form
Tampere daily Aamulehti carries news of a 'civil war opera' long in the works. The new show has already been in the works for six years and is scheduled to open in February 1918, a century after the civil war itself. After more than half a decade, those behind the project will next Wednesday be able to announce some of the cast members, the conductor, and--perhaps most importantly for one of the most contested and controversial episodes in Finnish history--the work's name.
The opera aims to tell the story from the perspective of two siblings caught on opposite side of the conflict.
Composed by Olli Kortekangas and written by Tuomas Parkkinen, the opera deals specifically with the events that occurred in Tampere. While battles further south frequently involved German troops on the white side and fewer Reds on the other, the battle of Tampere was a brutal set-piece fight largely between Finns, and engendered considerable bitterness on the losing red side for decades afterwards.
Royal residence? Not quite
Now, do you fancy buying a house from royalty? Well now you can, according to Ilta-Sanomat, which trumpets that Queen Elizabeth 2 is selling a house in Helsinki. The story, alas, does not quite match up to the headline promise of seeing the British monarch pack her bags and leave her family home in the Finnish capital.
The house in question is a 328 square metre pile in the Munkkiniemi district, which is currently the Canadian ambassador's residence. As Canada is a constitutional monarchy and part of the British Commonwealth, property owned by its government abroad is held in the name of the reigning monarch. Finland's land register, then, does not quite tell the full story--but does give IS a chance to run a fun headline.