The Finnish government is now a substantial way through its programme to cut €9 billion of public spending by 2027, including large reductions to social security (including housing, child, and unemployment benefits) healthcare, education, and municipal funding budgets, while it also increasing taxes on average earners. Cuts to healthcare provision have been particularly brutal, including a large reduction in hospital staff numbers, elderly care and disability services while redefining “minimum service obligations” to justify providing patients with lower quality care. The government has also slashed funding for organisations working on peace and initiatives which would address the new cold war-style relations with Russia.

And among the beneficiaries of a new tooled-up and aggressive Finland are the arms dealers of the Israeli apartheid-genocide complex, which in 2024 sold Finland its questionably functional “David’s Sling” air defence system for €316 million. Finland has also bought tank and ship missiles from the Israeli company Rafael which supplied most of the weapons and equipment used to commit the genocide of Gaza. The Finnish government said Israel’s genocide of Gaza would not stop it buying weapons from the country, a position which is par for the course among the morally bankrupt leaders of Europe.

  • Narri N. (they/them)@lemmy.ml
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    1 month ago

    The government here loves to just do things. There was no public referendum before joining NATO, the government just chose to do so and only informed its population afterwards. This is how it has been for as long as I can remember. They mentioned having hosted “Israeli” weapon manufacturers last May, but only after-the-fact, and also they mentioned that they’ve been working with Palantir for the past decade already. They don’t care, they do whatever the fuck they want up there. This country is so cooked bro, and its completely every single politicians’ fault. They should all face firing squads. I hate this fucking place.

  • kuiskaaja@lemmy.ml
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    1 month ago

    ohhh wow this thread is interesting to read as someone from finland

    anyway, as a finn: FUCK NATO.

    i hope russia doesn’t shell us before the population wakes up and forces the government to leave the “alliance”, which is dead anyway. a european only politically neutral non-imperialist defensive alliance would be great though.

    i’m sure there’s people that see this comment and want to debate me on this, but i have to admit i have no interest in debating this with anyone else except for people in my country to change their minds. these are just my opinions and i’m saying them so people don’t get the wrong impression that everyone in this country is pro-nato

    • ghost_laptop@lemmy.ml
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      1 month ago

      please stop spreading cia propaganda and stop trolling. the source uses a lot of valid data but i guess you libs are allergic to numbers and reality

      • EmmiLime@lemmy.ml
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        1 month ago

        Yeah, gotta use trustworthy sources like… CNN… or BBC… or Guardian… or other western media, surely no biases! (Just ignore their selective coverage of “Israel”)

    • axh@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      The entire post is propaganda. It’s enough to analyse the language used to see that. The author tries to show Finland’s conscious decision to, like most European countries, increase spending on defence, as “bad NATO is forcing them to cut children’s health care”

      • Narri N. (they/them)@lemmy.ml
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        1 month ago

        Nobody asked the population if we wanted to join NATO, if we even believed Russia to be a threat, fuckface! This whole shit was an incredible show how undemocratic the whole west has always been. And still there are unthinking fucking dipshits like you, liberal or fascist – which doesn’t even fucking matter cause you’re made of the same fucking cloth anyway, parroting the same fucking talking points that the western puppets in charge are making! Why do you choose to be so fucking blind? You fucking sheep, you absolute fucking infantile fool!