Finland elects Sanna Marin as youngest prime minister on Earth

Marin was sworn in yesterday afternoon by president Sauli Niinisto at a ceremony in Helsinki, replacing as PM her friend and mentor Antti Rinne who resigned last week after a prolonged crisis caused by his handling of a postal strike.

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As minister for transport, Marin was already well known to the Finnish public and won the vote within the Social Democrats which is the largest of the five centre-left parties that form the Finnish government.

Marin thus made it five out of five for women leading parties in the coalition, with four of them under 35. The others are Li Andersson, 32, of the Left Alliance; Maria Ohisalo, 34, of the Green League; Katri Kulmuni, 32, of the Centre party and Anna-Maja Henriksson, 55, of the Swedish People’s party.

Finland’s new premier is known for her strong support of her country’s welfare state, and with a population almost exactly matching that of Scotland, the Finns have long since lost their reputation as the unhealthiest nation in Europe after a decades-long campaign of health education – something which has many Scottish experts looking to Finland for inspiration.

Marin is the third women to be prime minister of Finland but will hope to outlast her two predecessors who were in office for less than a year. She faces a number of challenges, including industrial relations issues, but said yesterday she was to bring stability to the country.

She is also aware of her youth and the interest it has caused globally with many newspapers commenting. At a press conference following the swearing-in ceremony the new prime minister said: “I have been glad to see the international attention towards Finland, this is our opportunity to tell who we Finns are, and what kind of country Finland is.”

Iceland to ban heavy fuel oil in its waters

ICELAND has brought in tough new laws that will effectively ban the use of heavy fuel oil on ships operating in the seas, bays and fjords around the country. Scotland’s near neighbour which has a population less than that of Edinburgh is cracking down on all vessels using heavy fuel oil by stopping sulphur-laden exhaust emissions in its territorial waters.

Iceland’s Minister for the Environment and Natural Resources, Gudmundur Ingi Gudbrandsson, said the move to reduce the sulphur emissions cap from its current level of 3.5% mass-by-mass (m/m) to 0.1% m/m means Iceland will have one of the strictest heavy-fuel regulations in the world.

An Icelandic Government official press release stated: “The Minister for the Environment and Natural Resources has issued a regulation tightening fuel requirements, which effectively bans the use of heavy fuel oil in the territorial sea of Iceland.

“The regulation is intended to promote improved air quality in harbours and coastal areas and conforms with the government’s coalition agreement and climate action plan.”

Gudbrandsson added: “Vessels can use light types of oil fuel until they switch to other energy sources. I hope this will happen in the near future but heavy fuel oil is the filthiest, therefore it is extremely important to stop its use.”

Arni Finnsson, of the Iceland Nature Conservation Association, said the new rules fail “to address emissions of black carbon, which accelerates Arctic sea ice melt and in turn accelerate the effects of human-induced climate change.”

He added: “The only viable step forward is for Iceland to completely ban the use and carriage of heavy fuel oil from its territorial waters, ahead of an International Maritime Organisation ban currently in development to ban its use and carriage in the Arctic.”

Malta crisis deepens as Muscat is still PM

AS the Daphne Caruana Galizia assassination probe continues, Malta’s constitutional crisis has deepened with the continuing refusal of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat to bring forward his departure and President George Vella failing to oust him.

Vella claims he does not have the constitutional power to act against Muscat as the PM has already said he will resign on January 12. There is a growing clamour in the European Union’s smallest country for Muscat to go now, with the opposition Nationalist Party piling pressure on the Labour Government to act.

Though there is no suggestion that Muscat was directly involved in the 2017 murder of Galizia, an investigative journalist who revealed corruption links between business people and politicians, the Prime Minister’s associates came under investigation – his chief of staff Keith Schembri and minister for tourism Konrad Mizzi resigned.

Sophie in ’t Veld, a Dutch MEP from the Democraten 66 party, was head of the European Parliament’s ad hoc mission to Malta earlier this month. She said Muscat should quit and called for the preservation of the rule of law in the country.

She told Politico yesterday: “Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has promised to step down early next year. His chief of staff and two members of his Cabinet have already resigned over the matter.

“In Brussels, however, it’s been business as usual. That needs to change. It’s time to acknowledge that cosy small talk among leaders will never solve problems like what’s going on in Malta.

“The EU must act now.”