by Sven Triloqvist
Wed Apr 20th, 2011 at 09:34:04 AM EST

Apart from the fact that the outgoing PM has gone back on her word to bring the Portugal bailout before a special session of Parliament - thus possibly dooming the EU agreement that has to be settled by middle May (by which time the new government is unlikely to have been formed), there's this (copyright: Martti Leppänen 2011)
THIS is an interactive map that is based on the answers candidates (now elected) gave to the Helsingin Sanomat 'Election Machine'.
There were 31 questions, with the usual 5 gradations of 'strongly agree' to 'strongly disagree'. Additionally, the answer to a particular question could be prioritised. It took me about 20 - 30 minutes - but I assume the candidates spent a lot more time on it. They were straightforward and key questions.
The Election Machine then came up with the 5 candidates closest to one's own views.
The new interactive map reveals some interesting trends: firstly, the True Finns have essentially socialist positions!
The map is in Finnish, but it's fairly easy to understand.
The horizontal axis is political Left to Right, the vertical (top first) is conservative values to liberal values.
At the right top are the election regions (click on the ones you want to view on the map with general choices of deselecting or choosing all)
At the bottom right are the parties (same selections)
Below that are old and new MPs (vanhat or uudet)
Then Male (Miehet) or Female (Naiset)
The Election Machine has always been a very useful tool. This map makes it even more so.