welcome to the alex salmond show and who both of oughta whuffie new year from helsinki in finland but the fans are just happy new year they seem to be happy all year round because they've just been voted the world's most contented country though in last week's show we asked the question whether it's the excellence of philly said this a secret a finnish happiness in this week's show time to the political system and that's one

of the consensus politics of finland of under 10 the social and economic model was exchanges high pass no taxation for the excellence of social services some amount in this just been elected the new funny prime minister at 3040 years old the youngest prime minister in any democracy and i'm furthermore she leads a 5 party coalition all of which are led by women and this out remarkable fact indicates pot should finish politics or rather does underline the continuity of the consensus politics of the us not that country there to examine the prospects for finnish politics in the new year who better than alexis edited in chief of the helsinki times. let's discuss the the coming to power of salam or even must be a great boon for for journalists and helsinki been the whole world is interested

and and this young woman the youngest prime minister on the planet so as a bit a lot of international journalists beating a path to the helsinki times to see how she got to go on yes absolutely it has been in the tremendous interest from the international media and even you know hillary clinton to eat it about the new government of finland that. wrote in finnish that vast war me go to finland and i have also received several e-mails and. from international media who want to know more so i look as good copy for the helsinki times i would imagine yes there are plenty of both the formation of the government has not always 5 parties be led by a young woman but 2 thirds of the new cabinet are women as well yes that's right it's even for finn that this is a new record of female leaders and especially their age is very young tell us

about the finnish politics men for our international audience are you know a 5 party coalition the social democrats who are the lead party the prime minister's spot here they had less than 20 percent of the vote in the elections just passed when that is a quite remarkable range with how do you manage to keep coherent leading 5 parties in a coalition of bust like helping cats well this is this is not uncommon with the finnish finnish politics it has happened several times that there are many different parties and especially these are small parties who get just a fraction of the wards they sometimes even become kingmakers when the big parties they don't want to work with each other so. they just go and collect the small parties together and form a government like like right now but the finish politics is somehow you you could

even say boring a lot doesn't happen in the pali i love the strays a lot doesn't. but a lot has happened well 1st because i think it must be one of the most reported events and to lashley to have this this new capital led by young woman but this is a huge story internationally yes it is that there is like i think finland has never got more attention to its new government than now and mainly because these are women and these are young women most of them then again you know finland is a consensus society there was a research that. researchers examine the variety of opinion within the finnish parties and they came out with the result that if you look at the diversity of opinion in of the finnish parties from the right to the left they will all

fit into one party one swedish parties diversity of opinion and this is why the has been like for a country like finland which is only 5000000 people and basically in my opinion of . a new unity government. we're of the parties could always be part of the government would be much better solution than this majority forming the government because they really don't differ in opinion as much as you know they could they could handle the even if they look different policy opinions of the certainly have fights because they've been the last prime minister fell because of a very fractious industrial dispute which turned into an argument between the social democrats in the center bar that that's you know that's a bit harder in finnish politics you your not a lot would lie knowingly so if a politician if a finnish politician. tells

a lie and he's caught he or she is caught then that's the end of the game for this specifically telling a lie to parliament or is it just word generally this is what is different with the finnish politics because the integrity of the politicians is really important and the previous prime minister he did lie to the to the parliament and so a solace was about the post office it was about the post office and strike and how it was handled so that was the issue not not the strike itself or the you know how it was handled but how do you it dissipate that saddam or even under a new coalition government will tackle for example the the post as a something that she'll be able to settle reasonably quickly over libya thought and her side as well well that is already gone and put it behind and you should also understand that the reason that this became

a big bigger than normal crisis for the government was that the center party was one of the biggest parties in the coalition they had just had a change of leader so catholic woman who became the leader of the center party she also wanted to show some power and reshuffle the government and get a better position for herself and that's why this was basically she was the one who said that we don't trust 3 in there anymore so i'm interested from europe opinion. do you think having the cabinet dominated by women will lead to more consensus or will it just be years as fracture service power struggles between the parties as the previous administration you know interestingly in finland this gender issue has been ever been that important and even today it's not really that important but i think one of the biggest problem of this government and the prime minister is lack

of experience you know it's it has been portrayed as a very positive issue that these are young and these are women and the world is congratulating finland for that and of course it's a positive issue if they did have the competence but unfortunately or naturally you know being young is also means you have less experience and this is going to be a problem so i would be very surprised if this government would still be in place in one year now where you see the prime ministers of experience tens of sexes of the bill is this something you would say for an inexperienced male politician if you're the new male prime minister $34.00 would you be don't full of. a little level of experience that that person had oh absolutely yes. you know we had the the the 2nd youngest before marrying the 2nd youngest prime minister we had

a score in the beginning of the ninety's he was 36 when he became prime minister he also was quite an experienced and he came during a very difficult time it wasn't there was an international financial crisis but he made all the wrong choices you know this spite advice of economists. he devalue it at the finish currency against other currencies it was before the e.u. and before the euro and at the time when a lot of businesses the hard currency loans and people in fear that their their home loans were in dollars or german market. and he devalue it at the finish finish currency and thousands tens of thousands of businesses went bankrupt a lot of people lost everything many people committed suicide and even today this

is very interesting because one of the issues that today in finland is being discussed is the lack of babies you know people are not making babies the production is 1.4 babies per one adult and the research is wondering the research the reasons why. young people are not making babies they realize that many of these people grew up during a school or has time. and they still remember the hardship and sudden change of fortune which has has you know traumatized them for life. codicil blame for many things but the sun usually to be blamed for lack of fertility and a number of births in the column but surely sally molly knowingly the president of experienced real predecessor of 20 years ago will be very careful not to repeat the state i certainly hope so and i want to reiterate and. strongly say that

in finland is really doesn't matter women have had many important roles and for me personally it doesn't matter if a decision maker is female or male but i think there should be a competence for the job and for the responsibility that will of course as a newspaper editor you must congratulate the new prime minister and generating all this wonderful until last all copy and inquiries and interest. has been a positive news for finland i certainly hope it will continue and she will do well and she will become an example for others but time will show of course one in. portent the issue about finland and finland politics is that finland is a country that could function without the government for a very very long time because the civil service would run 30 yes civil servants there is a highly experienced highly reliable on corrupt civil servant layer who

actually they are the ones who are running everything and one of the things they do is when a new minister comes they brief the minister they tell her what you can do what you can't do and of course the ministers want to. you know run their political agenda and program but it's very much the civil servants who will run everything this is an international problem not the finish problem only because the elected officials you know for any other job you need to have a competence for example son a marine would not get the job in any of the ministries based on her c.v. to lead a small section of that ministry what because she's an elected official she's been given their 1st she was a transport minister and now she is the prime minister. it doesn't make sense i

mean there should be even inside the more crossing there should be some sort of competence level requirement when it comes to high responsibility jobs because sometimes the consequences could be really far reaching coming up after the break we continue our discussion on feminist politics will the new year bring new challenges. so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy confrontation let it be an arms race. spear in dramatic development only. i don't see how that strategy will be successful very critical. to sit down and talk. you know

world a big part of the lot and conspiracy it's time to wake up to dig deeper to hit the stories that mainstream media refuses to tell more than ever we need to be smart we need to stop slamming the door. and shouting past each other it's time for critical thinking it's time to fight for the middle for the troops the time is now for watching closely watching the hawks. welcome back to the hotel come one of the get on to a tale so you get up during the. extent grew up.

just as for me society has been built right into consensus and it's political system we continue our discussion of what the new year in office for these politics . things have been rubbing along quite well for london been recently voted as the the happiest country on earth. a united states the city so if the civil service according to yourself is running the happiest country are left to the must be doing a pretty good job job of course there is a lot of debate about those those results when you when they ask talk to people are you really the happiest people and people say i don't know i i don't think of myself as a happy person if you put a camera in the center of which would detect people's emotion happiness would not be the main or number one it's not because or have the mufflers or because you know even for scott it is quite parker. yes but the village people are very

content and they are extremely obedient to art already and interesting enough the other happy countries on the planet tend to be the nordic nabl so little but that of the self is interesting because obviously phil and is not as rich as norway it's called the. but you you've put your neighbors at the post to become the happiest country there's a lack of leads you must use surely well the nordic welfare system has been functioning well and it has been functioning well for a long time and it has been because they have they have taken this model from each other and it has been a semi socialist system government owns a lot of companies and resources instax in people high but then giving them many services for free and so on and equality has been more or less in place so that also comes through the education part of you know because finland

has been many times announced as one of the best education systems in the world but if you look at it is. it comes down very much to the quality of people because all these kids when they go to a school they none of them is hungry none of them are having lack of material problems that health care is free they have been checked since they were born for free and so on and so on so basically that the last layer which is the learning and education that really doesn't differ that much. from other well being countries i saw a comparison recently between finland on the one hand and america on the other by a couple of journalists and writers one of whom was american who was phyllis the molly a little wrote last school pointing out that although they paid much higher tax and phil and they went through the whole range of things that they didn't have to worry

about when they wouldn't fill and because glee anxiety when they were in new york you for example childcare for example the education system for example college fees and what you went through all these things are provided as part of the the finnish welfare system and that of course was a different balance between tax but the point that they made was put it when testing it was the lack of anxiety and fretting about these major the bills that were looming for families and the you york when they were in finland staying in finland little of the worry about that's right that's right you know in finland the population pays taxes to the government and government they scare of all of this and usually everything he's high quality child care schools public schools are very high quality health care public health care is very high quality in general i think one of the problems one coffin that is compared to other countries is that

a small well being a country like finland with 5000000 people which would fully fit in many cities in the world is comp. 2 whole countries like if you compare it like indonesia or china or even the u.s. when in reality if you want to get more accurate comparison results you should compare finland to a city or or the well in part of a city then you would get a better result because here the quality is in this a small population you know it's good but it has its limits if you would add 102150000 people who need social care the system will break it won't work anymore that brings us on to some of the the challenges that. politics will face the new government will face how would you have allies and what are your readers

tell you about the issues immigration for example is. an issue which is growing in importance in finland the question of the new language obligations of terms of sweet this is that something has been resisted by some say as the rise of the the populace rate the challenge the us political offer those in finland yes these are you know finland doesn't have many huge national level problems immigration has always been a topic in politics the swedish language which you mentioned which has always been a 2nd official language of finland but now. one of the coalition parties the swedish people's party who actually runs on the agenda of swedish language they want to make it compulsory part of final exams of high schools. which of course people don't like that but i think the there is not the big reaction

because people know that the next government which most probably will be the right right wing parties will be a right wing coalition to the place to the left side until coalition you have the present moment yes i i think that most probably if nothing happens the next prime minister will be the leader of the finns party which is growing in popularity. the parties in finland really they're the diversity of their opinions is not really far from each other it's they are not really that much against each other there are a few issues that they disagree but on most of other issues out of on the welfare state and. on major issues they agree immigration is one of the issues that you know if you go to the fin spotting which is on the right they disagree they want much less immigration are the rules but the left says no we can't have

more people coming like this i want to ask your question a quick show you can judge as a journalist so i lead a. journalistic factual answer and that is for your readership in the helsinki times if they were asked to put their level of interest was in having the the youngest a prime minister of the planet on the one hand and finland qualifying for the 1st time in ages for the european championships and the other then what would be what would be paid would depict the football or the politics i would have you know if i would answer instinctively i would say football but when i looked at the statistics before i come to this show actually we got the most hits for 4 sun the marines government well there are those very few societies and there which can proclaim that the political system is proving more interesting than the football

league yeah at this moment that least you know in 2 months it could be different it always is because like you so what's no. at all to celebrate the the greed of of interest into lastly the new prime minister this is it could be toasted for all the copy it provides journalists. a quick. scottish tradition as whisky only scottish. whisky scotch whisky only one of these finnish splits or whatever scotch whiskey in the quick and passed laws thank you very much alexis like this of others thank you. i'm no delighted to be joined by one of finland's leading educationalists professor in the still the best longest m m attested in the new prime minister salam alan 34 years old the youngest prime minister in the world but huge amount of international attention leading to a coalition of 5 past is dominated by young women and yet coming in when the

previous coalition the prime minister fell because of arguments fact just nature how do you think it's going to address a key issue late finish education my feeling is that. this young women in the government are the best thing that has happened in finnish politics in a long long time and i expect that they will show a capability of going beyond these fractions and to see that the common good education is something that everybody has access to and which supports everybody's flourishing and i don't think that there is a better chance to build this kind of dialogue and even unanimous the future oriented effort than this government and this situation with education these government faces. tasks it has to actually expand

education it has to mind the fact that it's been underfunded over the past 10 years by previous governments these are challenges but i think that this government should be able to do it and the prime minister's own salamone the 1st member of her family it to go through university education comes through a rainbow family but these going to be strengths as well as see as she tackles the the challenges on what must be the the key subject of education yes absolutely these young women not only son of marion but also at least 2 other party leaders who are in the same age range and female in the green party and the left wing party leaders they all share this experience that this kind of public education system is not only the strength of our country but our personal strength. so i think it's

a it's a very important unifying factor actually but the spite the optimism which understandably this new coalition firmament. will feel under pressure from the populace right. in finland as some else than many countries for example a ghillie against the teaching of swedish i'm in for the schools would you assess that as a danger to break with the consensus on education yeah there is that risk i think partly because they can kind of rely on spontaneous support from many young students themselves who are so immersed in the world of the social media that they think that the only english swedish is obsolete and you know it takes a special effort to make the case and to show that mastering multiple languages is

a great asset and i do believe that because you know that the basic provision of swedish language in the finnish side it's a constitutional issue that it cannot be very easily attacked but there is the will to do that in those political quarters that you mentioned and that's one of the challenges that this government will have to face because at the moment this cold winds around the world. for nationalism and i would say quite the ultra right wing populism. we are not immune to those professing the storm i present you with the liquid this is scott's garlic loving cup whiskey only scotch whisky that isn't liquid but take the staveley your book or you'll run and then toast continuing success for they said thank you so much they said this is

for the new year. ironically for a young woman from the social media age sana modern has come to power the traditional circumstances that is a fractious industrial dispute and beckoning between the coalition partners in the finnish government over the world as a whole looks on in wonder and a country now led by a generation of young women and a cabinet dominated by women that is general approval it looks like a departure from business as usual but in a very real sense surely this new lineup this new political leadership offers the opportunity for continuity in finland to reestablish the social and economic model that served this country well in the past and may well do so in times to come so for myself i'm tired all the show it's good bye for now and have a good new year. on

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