ABSTRACT
Green politics in Finland is, on the face of it, the very obverse of the experience of the Irish movement. It has its roots firmly in the new left and, for the most part, in the student radicalism of the late sixties and early seventies. The 'new left' movement, which elsewhere in Europe challenged the 'old' guard Marxists of the official Communist parties, in Finland remained largely under their political domination. Public opinion has moved more in favour of the European Union, with the accession of Finland and Sweden in 1995 and the prospect of a Nordic bloc pursuing mutual sub-regional interests within the Community's decision making councils. In contrast to its near neighbours in Scandinavia, Sweden is a progressive society where both the political elites and public opinion came to regard environmental management as a matter of priority, almost as soon as the issue began to appear on the international agenda from the late 1960s.
