Helsingin Sanomat reckons that 'micro-funding' is the political financing phenomenon of this election campaign. The paper has gathered some of the big-spending candidates and looks at how they have put together their campaign budgets.
The paper says that, on the basis of an admittedly small-scale phone survey, fundraising is more difficult this time than it was in 2011. It uses Yle's election machine to calculate that 0.9 percent of all candidates are planning to spend more than 50,000 euros, and that the money is coming from a variety of sources.
Business groups and trade unions are big funders, but candidates themselves also use their own funds and fundraising activities. 'Election seminars' are one popular method, in which the great and good pay hundreds of euros for a ticket to hear candidates and their friends speak on political themes.
Block list elections on the way?
HBL has an interview with Prime Minister and National Coalition leader Alexander Stubb, who says he's craving an election based on the Swedish model. Over there parties declare their likely partners ahead of time, so voters end up choosing between two ideologically coherent blocks.
Finland famously failed to make a decisive choice in 2011, as the rise of the Finns Party left most permutations of coalition unviable, with government politicians since then bemoaning the lack of ideological glue holding their administration together.
Stubb reckons that his National Coalition party, the Centre party, the Christian Democrats and the Swedish People's party have a common ideological standpoint, and would form a coherent 'block' for the electors to evaluate.
Russian heatwave set for summer
Ilta-Sanomat has yet another of those long-term weather forecasts that purports to tell us how the summer will be. It's happy news for sunworshippers, with the paper stating that warmer-than-usual temperatures are expected up to July. The hot weather is expected to come from Russia, with warmer air influencing the conditions expected in Finland--but according to tabloid rival Iltalehti, that could be terrible news.
That's because Finns are apparently not careful enough to protect themselves from the sun's harmful rays. A questionnaire by Stuk found that large majorities of Finns know about the sun's harmful effects, but bask in the rays anyway.
Uefa buys big screen for Tampere?
Tampere daily Aamulehti uses a picture of the city's main stadium, Ratina, on the front page, to announce the arrival of 500,000 euros from the European football federation Uefa. The money has not yet been allocated for any specific improvement but, according to stadium manager Matti Kaario, could be used to buy a big screen for the stadium. After the current renovation is complete, Ratina will then host plenty of big events this summer, including a speedway evening, a women's fun run, a Nightwish concert, a five-day music festival, and a two-day athletics meet.
Noticeably absent from the list, of course, is any football whatsoever. Local side Ilves don't play at the cavernous, windswept athletics stadium, and their first game of the season has been postponed from this Sunday because the pitch at their home stadium Tammela is still frozen.