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Like in most countries, changing the constitution in Finland takes time. The Finnish constitution can be changed in one of two ways: A) The parliament accepts
by metafunctor 10y ago
Like in most countries, changing the constitution in Finland takes time. The Finnish constitution can be changed in one of two ways:
A) The parliament accepts the change by a simple majority vote, and the change will "rest" until the next election. After the election, the change will pass with a 2/3 majority vote by the new parliament.
B) The parliament deems that the change is urgent by at least a 5/6 majority vote. Then the change will be voted upon and will pass with a 2/3 majority vote.
Finland is not “changing the constitution“. Not yet, at least. Such a change has been _proposed_ by a group appointed by the ministry of justice, and is now being _discussed_ in public. None of the above steps to actually change the constitution has taken place yet. I find it unlikely that a 2/3 majority vote for a change like this can be achieved with the currently elected parliament.
The annoying thing I find about the news coverage about this is that they make it sound like it's already decided. We're seeing headlines to the tune of ”here are the new wiretap rights for Finnish Security Service”. It is not decided yet.
- SNvD7vEJ 10y agoThanks for the more sane perspective on this. I was like "wtf" when I read this article. As a Swedish citizen, the article got me a bit worried.
- ptaipale 10y agoUnfortunately, this "wtf" should cover a large part of the news we read. However, here the thing is that the discussion in Finland is about "following the Swedish model", because in Sweden the FRA (Försvarens Radioanstalt) has permission to do things that the corresponding Finnish authorities would like to get.
- jabl 10y agoYes, if this proposal were to go through (hopefully not), it would give Finnish authorities roughly similar powers that the corresponding Swedish ones already have. One can always hope that the Finns will reject this dumbfounded proposal, giving an example to the Swedes to repeal their corresponding law.
- 551199 10y agoFinnish traffic goes through Sweden so this is already happening
- Zigurd 10y agoThat is all true, but it is also good to have a sense of urgency to find and root out tendencies to a surveillance state: Did this originate in trans-national connections, seeking to normalize mass surveillance? Did this originate with individuals? Who and why? Is there an agenda that's been institutionalized? Otherwise this is guaranteed to come back, over and over, seeking an opening to become established in law and much harder to reverse or thwart.