My intent was not to be misleading by posting this.
More context on the political situation would perhaps been relevant, but also very hard to give concisely in an understandable form since different countries work quite differently.
The political situation is such that this was basically the expected "go ahead" for the parliament to formulate the official NATO application, since you have start a formal process at some point.
The only party in the government that had not made it's position public was the prime ministers own party Social Democrats (SDP). It would be quite impossible for them to hold any other position than Prime Minister has. Plus - public opinion was heavily loaded for NATO (76%) already. This was not due to propaganda, but a very grass roots shift simply caused by the Russian attack to Ukraine. There are still people alive who had to abandon their childhood homes to areas ceded to Russia in WW2, and most people have veterans of that war in their family. Previous situation in Ukraine and Georgia were more "obscure" combined with seditionist movements. The attack on 24th February was an all out war.
I am not sure how well versed finns are of the tactical situation, but most of the units formerly positioned on the Finnish border are now tied in Ukraine or already neutralized there, so from a tactical perspective, given Russians rabid empire building stance it has taken recently, this was an excellent window to act due to impossibility of military response.
More context on the political situation would perhaps been relevant, but also very hard to give concisely in an understandable form since different countries work quite differently.
The political situation is such that this was basically the expected "go ahead" for the parliament to formulate the official NATO application, since you have start a formal process at some point.
The only party in the government that had not made it's position public was the prime ministers own party Social Democrats (SDP). It would be quite impossible for them to hold any other position than Prime Minister has. Plus - public opinion was heavily loaded for NATO (76%) already. This was not due to propaganda, but a very grass roots shift simply caused by the Russian attack to Ukraine. There are still people alive who had to abandon their childhood homes to areas ceded to Russia in WW2, and most people have veterans of that war in their family. Previous situation in Ukraine and Georgia were more "obscure" combined with seditionist movements. The attack on 24th February was an all out war.
I am not sure how well versed finns are of the tactical situation, but most of the units formerly positioned on the Finnish border are now tied in Ukraine or already neutralized there, so from a tactical perspective, given Russians rabid empire building stance it has taken recently, this was an excellent window to act due to impossibility of military response.