University of Helsinki
“Deceit, illusion, consumption and strangulation”
Lindstedt took the unusual step of using her acceptance speech to lash out at Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s centre-right government, which is pushing for deep cuts in higher-education funding.
“Finland is very consciously being turned into a class society,” she charged. “My great-grandfather was a peasant. My great-grandmother was an itinerant nurse. My grandmother was a switchboard operator. My own mother was already [able to be] a teacher. Our family believed, and still believes, in education,” said Lindstedt.
“Need I say aloud what our leading politicians have shoved in to replace the ideals of education, erudition, science and truth? Instead we find deceit, illusion, consumption and strangulation – all of these short-term pseudo-solutions, whose impact will be suffered by future generations, unless these decision-makers soon awaken from their innovation dream.”
She also had harsh words for corporations and wealthy Finns – including government ministers – who use overseas tax havens, and for the cabinet’s plan to roll back investors’ transparency”.