In what has become an annual ritual, police detained demonstrators representing rival political views in central Helsinki on 6 December, Finnish independence day.
A far-right procession calling itself Suomi herää (“Awaken, Finland”) marched from Railway Square to the Parliament building at 4 pm. Some participants wore jackets with the logo of the right-wing group Soldiers of Odin.
Helsinki police said that they detained 14 people at the train station to prevent them from causing disturbances or crimes. Authorities said they confiscated an array of potentially dangerous items from marchers, including pyrotechnic devices.
Some of the participants proceeded to Töölö Square, where an anti-fascist demonstrators gathered under the rubric “Helsinki without Nazis” – defying a police ban on protesting at that site because it was previously reserved for another far-right demonstration later.
An Yle reporter on the scene said that police cleared the square before 6pm, taking a busload of people into custody following brief scuffles in the crowd.
Around 6.15 pm, people began to gather at Töölö Square ahead of a planned 6.30pm march, the annual 612 torchlight procession, which Yle describes as "extreme right-wing nationalist". They planned to march to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Helsinki's Hietaniemi Cemetery, where President Sauli Niinistö and other laid wreaths earlier in the day.
The fourth demonstration reported to police in advance, called simply "For Peace," was held at the Market Square from 11.30 am to 4 pm. It was organised by a group called Philosophers for Peace.
A traditional university students' torchlight procession began at 5pm from Hietaniemi, heading toward the city centre.
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