Finland has long been seen as a haven of progressive values — a perception earned through its strong welfare and education offers since the postwar decades. However, its right-wing coalition government, headed by Prime Minister Petteri Orpo of the center-right National Coalition Party and his deputy premier, Riikka Purra of the right-populist Finns Party, has set about imposing austerity. The plans mean harsh cuts across the country’s public services.

Next in line are cuts to culture, with €18 million to be slashed from arts funding next year, and more to follow in 2026. This is a drop in the ocean in terms of overall spending — but will heavily impact cultural provision, making the proposed cuts appear ideologically targeted. In the short term, the plans threaten theater and music production, although with Purra stating during a leaders’ debate in 2023 that she sees the arts as a “luxury,” it would appear that the government views culture in the widest sense as a target.

This is not an unusually Finnish affair. Cultural practitioners lean left, so they tend to often be an early casualty of right-wing austerity measures. Indeed, we saw this already in the United Kingdom under the Tory/Liberal Democrat coalition in the 2010s and in the United States during Donald Trump’s first term.