Police in the municipality next to Helsinki – the city of which you are deputy mayor – are currently investigating you over graffiti sprayed in a railway tunnel at the end of last month. What happened?
Paavo Arhinmäki: It was Midsummer, which is a time of the year when nothing much happens in Helsinki. In the early evening, a friend of mine and I drove down to Vuosaari harbour freight tracks just outside of Helsinki.
My friend and I drove past this tunnel that reminded us of an old freight tunnel in Pasila, the neighbourhood where we had grown up. Pasila is really the cradle of graffiti culture in Finland: an area full of freight yards, train tunnels and a massive number of concrete walls. It’s where I learned painting my own pictures after school in the late 80s and early 90s.
