An environmental campaign that started in April culminated on Sunday what organisers billed as the biggest climate march of the year, with participants in many parts of Finland.
Demonstrators marched on Sunday afternoon in Helsinki, Joensuu, Jyväskylä, Oulu, Rovaniemi, Tampere, Turku and Vaasa.
The campaign was organised by several NGOs including the Finnish Nature Association and Elokapina (Extinction Rebellion Finland). According to the campaign website, "the campaign aims to mobilise people to vote for the environment and increase turnout," noting that only about 25 percent of young Finnish voters usually cast ballots in European elections.
The campaign is called Lisää ääntä, which could be translated in a variety of ways, meaning roughly "make your voice heard".
According to the organisers' estimate, thousands of people participated in the climate march in Helsinki, a few hundred in Tampere and Turku, with smaller numbers in other towns.
The campaign and marches are aimed at activating young people to vote in next Sunday's European elections and to elect candidates to the European Parliament who are committed to protecting the environment and climate.
"We started this because the EU's role in climate policy is huge," said Ville Laitinen, climate representative of the Finnish Nature Association. He notes that similar demonstrations are being staged during the European elections in other EU countries.
Climate overshadowed by other crises
Anders Brandt, who co-organised the Helsinki march, expressed concerns that climate issues have been somewhat drowned out by other themes in the election campaign.
"Maybe we think that there are bigger crises in the world now, and that we’ll have time to come back to climate issues later, but we can no longer ignore them," he told Yle.
More than 100 people participated in a demonstration in the eastern town of Joensuu in sweltering heat, loudly marching from the train station to the market square.
"These elections are decisive; it's really urgent now"
"With this march, I want to shout to everyone that this is an emergency now; this is urgent. The EU must prioritise solving the climate and environmental crisis," said Rovaniemi march coordinator Sara Jokinen.
Jokinen stressed that the direction of EU climate and environmental policies will be decided in these elections.
The next election is not until 2029, and the EU has already agreed to radically reduce emissions by 2030.
"We’ve known about this situation for decades, and yet we are here. Almost every day there is news from around the world of fires, floods and heat records. People are in dire need," she said.
Jokinen said she hoped that young people’s voting turnout will rise from the previous election, when it was less than 25 percent.
"These elections are decisive; it's really urgent now, I believe that our young people have an even better understanding of climate and environmental issues than the older age groups."
Advance voting continues through Tuesday ahead of next Sunday's election.
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