Main Finnish daily Helsingin Sanomat (Hesari) leads with an in-depth feature on the implications of Thursday’s announcement by Transport and Communications Minister Anne Berner that Finnish State Railways VR will end its passenger traffic monopoly by spring 2016.
Hesari posits that VR will likely receive many new competitors. For example, bus firm Onnibus (Happy Bus) has previously expressed interest and already registered the name Onnirail (Happy Rail).
Referring to Thursday's announcement, Onnibus director Pekka Möttö told Hesari that “although we don’t have all the details yet, this does sound very promising.”
The government announced earlier that it will discontinue routes in Siuntio and Northern Ostrobothnia by March 2016. Those discontinued lines will be the first ones opened up for competition.
However, Onnibus's Möttö says the idea that only VR's previously unprofitable routes would be opened up to competition does not sound enticing.
“It would be absurd if VR alone took care of all the profitable routes,” said Möttö.
Hefty bill for consecutive CEO resignations
Another story that Hesari picks up is Wednesday's resignation by Keva municipal pension fund director Jukka Männistö – he is the third CEO to leave the company within six years.
Männistö's predecessor Merja Ailus was forced to resign in November 2013 over seemingly excessive second apartment and luxury car perks. Her predecessor Markku Kauppinen was forced to leave in 2009 over an election funding scandal. The cost of the three CEO resignations totals close to one million euros in severance pay.
According to an inside source at Keva, Männistö’s management style was highlighted by micro-managing at the expense of a larger vision of leadership required during a challenging economic time.
Tempest in a porridge pot?
Tabloid Iltalehti leads with a cover story about what asylum seekers in Finland are demanding on their plates following Wednesday's demonstration against the catering at the Hiukkavaara emergency reception centre by a group of asylum seekers who marched to Oulu’s central police station.
According to Iltalehti, of the 330 asylum seekers at the Hiukkavaara centre, the majority have been eating what they are served peacefully. Fifty to 60 asylum seekers protested against the food on Wednesday at the police station.
Previously, local Red Cross director Pertti Saarela told Iltalehti that some of the asylum seekers at Hiukkavaara were annoyed at not being able to cook their own food. A milky fish soup served had caused stomach problems for some of the asylum seekers, according to Saarela.
Now, as a result the menu has been changed reports Iltalehti. “Of course we understand that food cultures are very different,” director of Oulu Serviiisi food services Riitta Lappalainen told the newspaper. “They (the asylum seekers) are not necessarily used to some Finnish foods just as Finns are not used to all exotic foods,” she added.
For example, rice replaces potatoes, and morning porridge -- not a popular option among the asylum seekers -- has also been replaced.
Ilta-Sanomat also covers the food debacle, albeit from a slightly different angle: “Please give us money so that we can make our own food” reads Ilta-Sanomat's cover line. In the article, Finnish Red Cross assistant director Janne Salmivaara tells the newspaper that “the food protest was a result of many issues: foreign food, shortage of money, rugged accommodations and the slowness of the asylum seeking process.” Salmivaara says tensions mounted for several reasons, but the most important one was that before coming to Finland the asylum seekers had received false information and understood that everything would be taken care of very quickly.
