BRUSSELS — Steamy soft power is taking a breather.
EU diplomats looking to network while sweating it out will be disappointed for the next few months, as the famed sauna in Finland’s permanent representation in Brussels is closed for renovations.
Long known as the hottest ticket in town among Finns in Brussels, the perm rep’s sauna has inspired copycats in the Berlaymont and in NATO HQ, and has hosted a bevy of ministers and diplomats, among them Finland’s now-President Alexander Stubb and former Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen.
A spokesperson for the Finnish perm rep confirmed that the sauna is closed for renovations, but they did not have an exact timeline for when it will reopen.
Diplomats who make regular use of the facilities told POLITICO they expect it will be closed for around a year.
“The Finnish Diplomatic Sauna Society is very much alive and well this year,” the spokesperson told POLITICO.
“We’ll be making use of alternative saunas, including the one at the ambassador’s residence,” they said.
For those without diplomatic privileges, the public sauna in the Finnish Seamen’s Mission in nearby Rue Jacques de Lalaing also “offers an excellent sauna experience,” the spokesperson said.
Most Finnish diplomatic buildings have a sauna on the premises.
So important is a good sweat to Finnish politics and diplomacy that the country’s Sauna Society gives an annual award, the Löylynhenki Award, for promoting Finnish sauna culture.
The Finnish foreign ministry picked up the award in 2011 on behalf of “Finnish sauna diplomacy and sauna diplomats.”
The post Sauna diplomacy pauses as top Finnish spot in Brussels closes for now appeared first on Politico.
