Finland is a democratic republic, the capital is Helsinki the Politics takes place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic republic and of a multi-party system based on the constitution of the first March 2000. Therefore the president is at the head of state, leads the foreign policy and he is the commander in chief of the Defense.

The president of the Republic is elected for six years by direct universal suffrage. The actual president is Sauli Niinistö since the first march 2012.

The prime minister is the head of government for the executive power. And the legislative power is vested in the Parliament.

In Finland there are 19 regions, called maakunta un Finnish and landskap in Swedish. The different regions are governed by regional councils. The main tasks of the different regions are regional planning and development of enterprise and education and also the public health.

In Jyvaskyla I leave in the region Central Finland, the Finnish name is Keski-Suomi and the capital is Jyvaskyla.

Internal conflicts or tensions

Ethnic relations: In Finland there is a tension between the Finnish-speaking majority and the Swedish-speaking minority. However, there is also a debate about the status of the Swedish language in the country.

Around 6 percent of the population speak Swedish.

At the beginning the Swedish-speaking leaved in the southwestern part of the country, and it was the language of commerce, the courts and education. At this time Finnish was a peasant language. But with the atuanalist movement of the nineteenth century, Finish became the official written and cultural language of the majority. After that political tension appeared. 

Civil war :

In 1917, with the revolution, Finland took this opportunity to become independent. After that the civil war started. 

The Finnish civil war started on 27 January 1918 until the 15 of May 1918. The conflict formed a part of the national, political and social turmoil caused by World War 1. The war was between the Reds, led by the social Democratic party and the Whites, led by the non-socialist, conservative-led Senate. The Whites won the war. The Whites was close to the German Reich with support from Imperial Germany.  So a German prince arrived at the head of Finland. In 1918 another German prince Frederic-Charles de Hesse-Cassel tried to be at the head of Finland. Germany defeat in November 1918, and Finland became a republic with Kaarlo Juho Stahlberg was the first President in 1919.

External regional conflicts or tensions.

During the Second World War, Finland fought against the Soviet Union twice; during the Winter War (1939-1940) and the Continuation War (1941-1944).

The Winter War started because the Soviet Union wanted Finnish territories. The Winter Was ended on 13 March 1940. Finnish were not able to defend their country they lost 10 percent of the territory on 12 March 1940 for the Soviet Union. The goal of the Soviet Union was to have more territory in order to protect the city of Leningrad (St Petersburg). 

After the Winter War the Finnish army needed help from the other country. Germany offered weapon deals to Finland in 1940; but with this help Finland would allow German troops to travel through Finland in order to occupy Norway. In 1941 when the German troops attacked the Soviet Union, Finland tried to recover the missing part of the country. But they loosed the war.  

At the end Finland became again independent on 10 February 1947, but they never recover all the part of the old Finland.