Räsänen: Distribute booklet to prepare Fins for crises

This is to improve the preparedness among Finnish citizens for real crises.

The booklet should go to every household, the website of her party reports. She refers to Sweden, where such a guideline already exists from 2018.

The Swedish variant is available in many languages and describes several crises that could occur. This booklet gives very concrete advices, varying from making sure you have enough food in store, woolen blankets and sleeping mats, and an old-fashioned radio with batteries for FM reception.

Latvia published such a brochure before the Russian invasion in February. That deals explicitly about a military invasion.

Germany published a brochure about “emergency preparedness” in times of disasters. In that booklet from 2018, there is some attention for a virus epidemic.

Increase of resilience

According to Räsänen, society's best resource in crises is a well-prepared population which knows how to act, for example, in a large-scale cyber-attack. "The preparation of households increases society's resilience and makes it easier for the authorities to act in a crisis", her party's website reads.

During the Covid pandemic, the media mainly distributed instructions and information about health measures to the Finnish population. However, the media are unable to reach everyone, Räsänen points out. "Some citizens have prepared quite well, but not all. It would be good to raise and maintain citizens' crisis preparedness now."

Earlier, the Christian Democrats already published a list of measures that could be taken to improve security of supply and crisis preparedness.