Tuesday, 1 March 2011

True Finns budget

True Finns are going to cut or so they say:

  • €200 million from support to entrepreneurs
  • €200 million from foreign aid
  • €200 million from EU-membership fees with the UK specially singled out to give Finland €70 million
  • An unspecified amount will be saved from rejecting refugees, reducing the YLE's swedish language programming and withdrawing troops from international crisis management
  • A likewise unspecified amount will be cut from political parties' and press allocations
  • An unspecified amount will be cut from "bureaucracy"
Of course Finland can not actually force UK to give 70 million euros, in fact the membership fees are decided on a multinational level and Finland can not unilaterally stop paying them. Finland can also not refuse to take in refugees from impoverished countries because this is decided on a UN level. In fact the Finnish government is not even in charge of the YLE, which has its own leadership board independent from the parliament and certainly outwith their control. So unless the UN, European Union and a multitude of other actors decide to collude willingly with a party that hates them, this is just another example of the unrealistic "solutions" the True Finn party is known for proposing.