The truth about the “True Finns”

Dominic Browne reports on the electoral success of an anti-immigrant, homophobic party in Finland, and the wider rise of nationalist parties in Europe.

A nationalist, anti-immigration and homophobic party won 19 per cent of the Finnish vote last night to secure third place in the national elections and possibly a place in a coalition government. The “True Finns” party, led by Timo Soini, rose from winning 4 per cent at the last election.

The BBC’s Gavin Hewitt cited several factors to their sudden success: resentment at EU bailouts; anxiety about unemployment; fears of a jobless economic recovery; anger at pension reductions; and fears about immigration.

In Finland, parliament has the right to vote on EU bail out requests, meaning the True Finns’ strong showing in the elections may lead to the prospect of a delay to the rescue plan for Portugal. They have committed to vetoing bail-outs including the current deal for Portugal.

Jan Sundberg, Professor of Political Science at Helsinki University, said:

“The True Finns saw political potential among the neglected people in society. Their political message is two-fold: social-democratic welfare combined with nationalism and xenophobia…

“They believe that a low birth rate is not solved by immigration, as that results in problems and foreigners do not fit into Finnish culture. Instead, young women should study less and spend more time giving birth to pure Finnish children.

That is like a faint echo of Nazi ideology.”

A quick look at their manifesto reveals other disturbing aspects to their platform:

“True Finns do not accept same-sex marriage ceremony, because marriage is intended to (be) between man and woman… The right to adoption do not give the same sex couples. True Finns have not accepted either of infertility adoption for single women or female couples…

“When in integration policies should be underpinned by the principle of “when in Rome do as the Romans do”, because it is a migrant and the host society. Primarily to refer to the laws of Finland, but also cultural norms are part of our society.

“State granted cultural aid money must be controlled so that they strengthen the Finnish identity. Artsy post-modern experiments instead should be left to individuals and economically market responsibility…”

This fits in with a worrying pattern across Europe of support leaving mainstream parties and growing for nationalists. Yesterday, Left Foot Forward reported on the rise of UKIP in the UK, while Peter Spiegel writes in the Financial Times of the trend across Europe:

“We are witnessing Europe’s own Tea Party moment… [All the mainstream parties] tread lightly when confronting their populist opponents.”

This should be a wake-up call, and force mainstream parties to change this tactic.

26 Responses to “The truth about the “True Finns””

  1. lucifel

    I’m a National Coalition voter and don’t particularly like Soini, but I really have to point out that BBC has been tricked to publish false information. I don’t know how much you know about Finnish politics, but we have a long, bizarre, entertaining and bitter language debate, which strangely enough has coloured the BBC news. To explain it shortly:
    -We are bilingual nation and have forever argued about the language question, all sides using nazi cards. This debate has a lot of historical baggage
    -The “expert” BBC relays on, Mr Jan Sundberg is from Swedish speaking minority and from Swedish People’s Party. Naturally he is FOR the current system of compulsory Swedish in education, for which “True Finns: party and majority of Finnish population are AGAINST. Note, nobody wants to ban Swedish, the just want to make in VOLUNTARY
    -Jan Sundberg then, has his own agenda. He is only source BBC seems to use in the subject.
    -Therefore, BBC has been sucked, unknowing, into our language debate. If I was them, I would use multiple sources. Also, this makes BBC seem very unreliable
    -Lastly – if this country, with its roots on a rural populist movement from the 70’s, was actually extremist, why would other parties be happy to work together with them? Where are the suspicious origins ?(as all of European extremist parties have) Where is the militant rhetoric? Why are their politicians just like politicians from any other Finnish party?

    So this is what happened: In Finland we have complicated language debate. BBC doesn’t check its sources. Now debate rages on, with some arguments backed by the BBC (who enjoys undeserved reputation as being quality media). We still don’t have nazis or Ku Klux Clan.

  2. 6kle

    Came here to read the “truth” and I stopped after the first sentence because that’s where you started derailing from the truth.

  3. Jack Roberts

    “A nationalist, anti-immigration and homophobic party
    won 19 per cent of the Finnish vote last night….”

    So, the Finns want to rule themselves, don’t want to be race replaced by third worlders, and reject the Frankfurtists shoving faggotry down their throats.

    Good for them.

    Doubtless the True Finns would have done even better if not for the constant brainwashing by the Jewish controlled media.

  4. EU ministers shut the door on North African refugee crisis | Left Foot Forward

    […] the strong performance of the ultra-nationalist True Finns party and the rising power of the far-right Danish People’s party have added to […]

  5. Yet again, Tories fawn over the far right | Left Foot Forward

    […] again, we find the Conservatives fawning over members of the European far-right. This site has previously covered the True Finns party, and why they are such bad company for any UK politician, but in case you need […]

Comments are closed.