Tabloid Ilta-Sanomat covered Finnish President Sauli Niinistö's attendance at a security policy conference hosted by Stanford University. The president's appearance at the San Francisco Bay area event on Tuesday was part of his five-day tour to the US.
Former US National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster opened the panel by saying that Finland brought "clarity" in terms of policy against Russia. McMaster questioned Niinistö how the West can protect their democracies against hybrid attacks from actors like China and Russia.
"We have to have public-private cooperation here [on security]," the Finnish President responded.
The panel also questioned Niinistö on his perception of Russia and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The Finnish President noted that Putin's character has changed since Russia invaded Ukraine a year ago.
"The sense of disappointment in his speeches has turned to frustration and even anger," he responded.
Niinistö went on to point out that while Finland is wary of its neighbour, the country is prepared.
"The Finnish Defence Forces are equivalent in size to Germany, which has 14 times the population of Finland," Niinistö said, illustrating the breadth of Finland's defence.
Despite the gravity of the topics, Niinistö's humour was still on full display, remarking that relations between Finland and Russia were unlikely to improve during his presidency — which ends in 2024.
Hungarians MPs visit Helsinki
A visiting delegation of Hungarian MPs headed to Finland on Wednesday to discuss the fate of Finland and Sweden's Nato membership, Helsingin Sanomat reported.
Hungary and Turkey are the only Nato members which have not yet approved the Nordic countries' bids into the defence alliance. According to HS the visit could expediate Hungary's decision on the matter.
The Nato debate began last week in the Hungarian Parliament with a vote expected at the end of the month.
The delegation's leader is Csaba Hende, Deputy Speaker of the Hungarian Parliament and a member of Prime Minister Viktor Orban's ruling Fidesz party. On Tuesday during a visit to Sweden he said the majority of Hungarian MPs support Sweden's Nato application.
Members of the Hungarian delegation are scheduled to spend Wednesday meeting with Finnish MPs to discuss Finland's Nato application.
Discounted customer service
Tabloid Iltalehti reported that the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency (Traficom) sought to hire workers in Spain to fill customer service jobs.
IL reported that a recently closed job advertisement in Spain requested two vehicle tax customer service representatives, offering a monthly salary of 1,224 euros.
However, with an expected 39-hour workweek, the salary is significantly lower than it would be in Finland, where the service workers' union PAM's collective agreement calls for payment of at least 9.74 euros an hour.
Traficom started using Finland-based staff recruitment firm Barona to help fill customer service jobs in 2019.
Marianne Eliasson, Barona's operations director in Spain, explained that the local collective agreement for the contact centre sector states that the salary paid to employees in Spain is around 50 percent of the salary in Finland.
Eliasson said that in this particular round of applications, around 30 people applied for the post, of whom around 20 percent were Finns already living in Spain. The rest were people living in Finland.
The Head of Traficom's Tax Services Unit, Mikko Helminen, supported the move saying that it was fully in compliance.
"This procurement was put out to tender in accordance with EU rules, and we chose the most economically advantageous option," Helminen said.
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