Helsinki, Finland
Populist surge: A populist party that wants Finland to drop the euro currency made huge gains in Finnish elections this week. The True Finns party took 19 percent of the vote, winning 39 seats in the 200-seat parliament—up from a mere five in the last election. The party’s gains have raised fears that Finland could block the proposed EU bailout for Portugal. The measure can only pass with unanimous EU support, but Finland, unlike other eurozone countries, requires parliamentary approval to take part in bailouts. “We shall renegotiate with the European Union,” said Timo Soini, leader of the True Finns. “These bailouts clearly have not been working.”
Zagreb, Croatia
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Hero branded war criminal: Thousands of Croats protested in Zagreb last week after the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague sentenced retired Gen. Ante Gotovina to 24 years in prison for war crimes. During the wars of the Yugoslav breakup in the 1990s, Gotovina led the recapture of Croatia’s Krajina region, a pocket of Serbian resistance. Several hundred Serbian civilians were killed and some 90,000 driven out in one of the war’s worst examples of ethnic cleansing. Croats call the operation part of their national liberation. “Gotovina is a superhero to us,” said Zvonko Tigar, a war veteran demonstrating against the verdict. “He is a hero above all the other heroes.” The front page of Croatia’s popular Vecernji List newspaper recently carried a photograph of Gotovina with a single-word headline, “Hero.”
Chernobyl, Ukraine
New dome needed: As the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster approaches, more than 25 countries agreed this week to donate $785 million to build a new containment shield. A cement “sarcophagus” was built over the reactor in 1987, a year after the plant’s meltdown spewed radiation across Europe. It is now deteriorating, and officials plan to build a 20,000-ton steel shell over it so that the reactor can eventually be disassembled. But donors have come up with just three fourths of the necessary funds. Japan, a key contributor to Chernobyl’s security in the past, donated nothing this year as it is dealing with its own nuclear woes. The EU, U.S., and Britain were the biggest contributors.
