The Sami Parliament Act in Finland was stopped in the constitutional committee

The new Sami Parliament Act has caused major protests in Finland, where Sami people occasionally demonstrated outside the Riksdag building.

It has taken three terms of office without the law being in place.

The current government had an ambition to push it through before the election this spring.

In November, the law passed to the Riksdag after an internal vote in the government in which the largest government party, the Center, voted against.

The other government parties, the Social Democrats, the Green League, the Left League and the Swedish People's Party, on the other hand, hoped that everything would be resolved in the Riksdag.

- I am concerned about the situation of the Sami young people.

I know that many people find it very heavy and traumatic to have to go through a process like this time after time.

So it is our duty to seek solutions, said Minister of Justice Anna-Maja Henriksson to SVT Sápmi in November.

The Chairman: There was no time to agree

But that did not happen.

When the issue was up in the constitutional committee, it stopped.

The center voted, according to Helsingin Sanomat, with the opposition in the Samlingsparty and True Finns.

They believe that there is no time to deal with the law before the election.

- The committee considered that this matter is very important, but saw that there is no readiness to submit a report within the framework of this schedule, says the chairman of the constitutional committee Johanna Ojala-Niemelä to Helsingin Sanomat.

What now happens with the law is in the hands of the government that is formed after the election.

Suoma Sáminuorat foreword in tears

Suoma Sáminuorat, the youth organization on the Finnish side, has been active in the debate.

Their chairman Petra Laiti was in Oslo and participated in the demonstrations at the Ministry of Oil and Energy when she received the news.

- Non-Sámi people cannot understand how we feel, she says in a live stream on Instagram.

She is now leaving the demonstration in Oslo to go back to Finland to continue fighting for the Sami parliament team.

- I have to choose between staying here or flying back to Finland and fighting for democracy, she says.

She continues with tears in her eyes:

- I am happy that I was here among strong Sami young people when I received this message.