The campaigns have taken place, the parliamentary elections are over, and the next step is to see what kind of government Finland will get. The #PoisKöyhyysrajalla campaign against student poverty was visible, and students’ voices were heard loud and clear out in the campaigning field. A big thank you to all the students who spread the message!

Many important issues for students came to the fore in the run-up to the elections. And this is only natural, since so many student issues were at the heart of the elections. Education and training are being harnessed to address skills shortages and create a sustainable future, inflation has highlighted livelihood questions more broadly, and the extent of students’ exhaustion is constantly highlighted in various studies.

So while the importance of education and the difficulties facing students are recognised, a dark cloud of pressure to make funding cuts is hanging over the government programme negotiations. There has been talk all spring in the run-up to the elections of the need for adjustment and cutbacks. So many things in students’ lives depend on political decision-making that we are extremely worried about the impact of cuts on us, too. The message that cutting from students is cutting from the future really needs to get through this spring.

In front of the House of the Estates in Helsinki, where the negotiations to form the next government are taking place, we on the board of SYL will continue the work that students across Finland have been doing throughout the spring. We are there to make sure that students are remembered, whatever parties form the government. We will be on the steps to remind negotiators that we students are creating Finland’s future.

We have received many promises on the election platform that education will not be cut and that improvements will be made that make students’ daily lives easier. Politicians, don’t betray us!

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