Finnish Elections - Nationalist Eurosceptics' Big Win

[Edi]

YLE News (Yleisradio, the Finnish equivalent of the BBC)

NCP Biggest Party, True Finns Make Huge Gains

The populist True Finns saw their vote rise by 15 percentage points compared with the last election in 2007 to become the third biggest party. The biggest party is the centre right National Coalition, with the Social Democrats in second place. Turnout was up on 2007 in what will be seen as a protest vote against the established parties and the Eurozone bailout.

Final Results:
National Coalition Party: 20.4% - 44 seats (down 6)
Social Democratic Party: 19.1% - 42 seats (down 3)
True Finns: 19.0% - 39 seats (up 33, from 4% and 6 seats in 2007)
Centre Party: 15.8% - 35 seats (down 16)
Left Alliance: 8.1% - 14 seats (down 3)
Green League: 7.2% - 10 seats (down 5)
Swedish People’s Party: 4.3% - 9 seats (no change)
Christian Democrats: 4.0% - 6 (down 1)
Pirate Party: 0.4% - 0 seats
Others: 1.6% - 1 seat

The Centre party saw their support drop by nearly seven percentage points compared with the last election. Leader Mari Kiviniemi said that the party will now head for a spell in opposition. The Green League also lost support. Party chair Anni Sinnemäki said that the Greens, too, would begin the new parliamentary term in opposition.

Government formation is expected to be difficult, with True Finns’ leader Timo Soini driving a hard bargain on support for Eurozone economies. Social Democrat chair Jutta Urpilainen, nevertheless, said that the populist True Finns deserved a place in government after their strong showing in the ballot.

YLE pundit Risto Uimonen agreed, stating that there was no way the True Finns could now be left out of the negotiations on forming a new government. He warned, though, that the negotiations would be harder than at any time since the 1970s.

The results mark the first time the National Coalition party have ever won the most support in a Finnish election. The government parties as a whole, however, lost 28 seats altogether.

BBC article

Nationalist True Finns make gains in Finland vote

A nationalist party has taken nearly a fifth of votes in Finland's general election, the electoral commission says.

The True Finns finished just behind the conservative NCP and the Social Democrats on around 19%.

While the Social Democrats have called for changes on EU bail-outs, including the planned Portuguese rescue, True Finns opposes the plans altogether.

A hostile Finnish government could theoretically veto the package.

Unlike other eurozone countries, Finland's parliament can vote on whether to approve the measures.

Correspondents say the increased sway of eurosceptics in Finland's parliament could hold up any further bail-out deals.
'Invitation to talks'

The anti-immigration True Finns won 39 seats in the 200-member parliament, final results showed.


That put it five seats behind the conservative National Coalition Party (NCP) - part of the current centre-right government and a strong advocate for European integration - and just three behind the opposition Social Democrats.

The Centre Party of outgoing Prime Minister Mari Kiviniemi - previously the largest party in parliament - won just 35 seats, down 16 from the last election in 2007.

The strong showing for the True Finns meant the anti-euro party would at least "get an invitation to talks" on a new government, Reuters quoted party leader Timo Soini as saying.

Finland is currently governed by an EU-friendly four-party coalition led by the Centre Party and the NCP.

"The bigger parties have no reason to invite the True Finns into any coalition if they can make up the numbers without them," Olavi Borg, professor emeritus in political sciences, told the Associated Press news agency.
EU 'squanderers'

Polling organisations had suggested the True Finns' support would rise to more than 15%, a leap from the 4% they won in 2007.

With its charismatic leader Mr Soini, the party rejects rescue funds for EU "squanderers", as well as opposing immigration.

Analysts say many Finns have become disenchanted with the big three mainstream parties who have run the country for decades.

"Whether the True Finns will really [emerge] as champions of the elections is still uncertain but I think we will clearly get a more nationalistic, more conservative, less European-oriented government in Finland," ING senior economist Carsten Brzeski told Reuters news agency.

Polling stations in the nation of 5.3 million people opened at 0900 (0600 GMT) and closed at 2000.

Well, that was a whopper. I knew the True Finns were going to gain big, but that was practically a massacre. The negotiations for forming a government and the power dynamics for the next four years are going to be interesting, to say the least...

[LadyTevar]

So........... what is the True Finns? What is the platform they ran on?

[OneEyedTeddyMcGrew]

I'm pretty sure Edi or one of the other Finns here could give you a more detailed answer, but they combine left-wing economic views and highly socially conservative views. They're also generally hostile to the EU and immigration.

There's definitely been a lot of crazy election results in Europe this year, largely down to hostility towards EU bailouts, general economic mismanagement, or both. A similar thing happened in Ireland a couple of months ago. The ruling party, Fianna Fáil, lost FIFTY-ONE seats and 24.2% of their 2007 vote share. They went from the largest party to barely the third largest, and this is the party that has pretty much won every election bar three (and two of their lost elections were the result of grand coalitions of every other party keeping them out) since the founding of the Republic.

All the signs point to Merkel dangling by a thread as well. If she goes, and the True Finns get into a position to block any more EU bailouts (someone may correct me on this, but dosen't Finland effectively hold a veto on any EU bailout as they're the only EU member state where such matters are voted on by parliament, and the EU needs a unanimous decision from all members states for such measures to pass?) things may get very interesting indeed.

[Edi]

So........... what is the True Finns? What is the platform they ran on?

OneEyedTeddyMcGrew did a good job of summarizing them: Left-wing economic views and highly socially conservative. Though they are also for lessening bureaucracy for small entrepreneurs. In essence they are nothing but socially regressive anti-EU populists.

Some of the highlights from the campaign:

• Modern art and other "corrupt" art should not get any funding from the government at all, only "acceptable" art (such as national romanticist style and other classical styles) should.
• No bailouts of EU countries under any circumstances
• No abortion under any circumstances, no exceptions
• No gay marriage under any circumstances. Opposes even the current registered unions

In essence, it's the troglodyte party. They're fuckwits who are not fit to govern at all. They're basically just capitalizing on the frustration with the main parties. In the last elections the Center Party was the biggest one and they lost a lot of voters to the True Finns this time.

[K. A. Pital]

Centrists shifting to the right and becoming nationalists. How predictable. Nationalism is coming back to Europe. What started in the former Soviet states, with nationalist parties, some bordering on neo-fascism, like Hungary's Jobbik, taking over the minds of a large share of the population, now spreads over to West and North European nations. Nationalism will spread, economic crisis is incredibly conducive to their popularity.

[Karza]

I expect 4 years in the ruling coalition will erode their support pretty effectively, as people notice that the EU bailouts happened anyway and them dang queers and foreigners are still around. Also, I doubt their party discipline is going to be very good, what with all the inexperienced halfwit loudmouths around. A lot is going to depend on how well Soini manages to hold that herd of cats together.

[Zed]

Will they want to be in the governing coalition, though? If they manage to strike a deal akin to Wilders' in the Netherlands, they'll probably continue growing.

[Karza]

I doubt that'll happen, they seem pretty keen on getting into the ruling coalition, and at least the Social Democrats seem to be quite welcoming towards them.

[Hamstray]

Some of the highlights from the campaign:

• Modern art and other "corrupt" art should not get any funding from the government at all, only "acceptable" art (such as national romanticist style and other classical styles) should.
• No bailouts of EU countries under any circumstances
• No abortion under any circumstances, no exceptions
• No gay marriage under any circumstances. Opposes even the current registered unions

With all the anti-christian folk metal coming from Finland I didn't realize they had that many conservative christians.

[Tiriol]

I'm not surprised that the True Finns had an enormous success - I am suprised, though, that their success was THIS enormous. For decades Social Democrats, National Coalition and the Finnish Centre Party have been the biggest parties and now the Centre had to make room for the True Finns.

I don't believe that many who voted for True Finns even know what their political goals and aims are. I suspect that most votes that went for the True Finns are protest votes. The political scene of Finland has been stagnated for years now one way or another and people are getting frusfrated. Some blame goes to the EU, or rather its supporters in the current government coalition: nobody has made any serious effort to market the bailouts to the populace at large so they are hugely unpopular. No wonder people would vote for anti-bailout party when the parties in power have "handed out" cash for foreign countries and banks while demanding more strict budget measures back home. That gives a very hypocritical appearance.

We'll see how Timo Soini will manage the True Finns now when they are such a big party. They actually have to take responsibilityif they get into government coalition and I don't know if they are ready for it. Their supporters, anyway, will raise a merry hell over any compromise.

[folti78]

Centrists shifting to the right and becoming nationalists. How predictable. Nationalism is coming back to Europe. What started in the former Soviet states, with nationalist parties, some bordering on neo-fascism, like Hungary's Jobbik, taking over the minds of a large share of the population, now spreads over to West and North European nations. Nationalism will spread, economic crisis is incredibly conducive to their popularity.

Hey, you don't have to single-out the Jobbik. The current ruling coalition (FIDESZ - feudal Viktorian authoritarian and the KDNP - christian fundies democrats) is pretty much to the right themselves. Both has the post-WW1 Hungarian state (the Horthy-Hungary which ended up soo well as the last active lackey of Nazi Germany) for role model and try to do their damnedest to turn back the time to the 1930s-40s (and cement Viktor Orbán's position as the de-facto dictator of the country). Jobbik is currently back at the single issue party stage, thanks to Orbán poaching their moderate base with nationalist rhetoric and passing laws that address most of their saner campaign points.

[Gunhead]

Before preparing for boiling oceans, locusts and cats and dogs living together, I'll adopt the let's wait and see stance. I'm also amazed they won this big, but now they're in the big boys club and all the other players have been there a lot longer so I don't think they'll just keel over and play dead and give the True Finns keys to the state. Once the hard compromises are on the table we'll see what they are made of and my money says compromise they will. Chest thumping and talking big the standard so you get your people to the urns, but now start negotiations for the new government and after that come the really hard decisions about the economy.

-Gunhead

[Karza]

Before preparing for boiling oceans, locusts and cats and dogs living together, I'll adopt the let's wait and see stance. I'm also amazed they won this big, but now they're in the big boys club and all the other players have been there a lot longer so I don't think they'll just keel over and play dead and give the True Finns keys to the state. Once the hard compromises are on the table we'll see what they are made of and my money says compromise they will. Chest thumping and talking big the standard so you get your people to the urns, but now start negotiations for the new government and after that come the really hard decisions about the economy.

QFT. Still, I'm having a blast watching peoples' reactions online. Some people are linking departing flights schedules, and others are going "great, now we'll fix the country in a few months, just you watch" and so on. Also, calling the potential NCP+SD+TF coalition "sinipunaniska" (blueredneck) gets a chuckle out of me .

[Edi]

For an overview of the True Finns, the Wikipedia entry is a good start.

Naturally, their own home page has NOTHING in English.

We'll see how it works out and I suppose they deserve to get a shot at governing, but I'm not expecting much from them.

The sinipunaniska quip is priceless.

[Marcus Aurelius]

. Some people are linking departing flights schedules, and others are going "great, now we'll fix the country in a few months, just you watch" and so on. Also, calling the potential NCP+SD+TF coalition "sinipunaniska" (blueredneck) gets a chuckle out of me .

It will be interesting to see which minister positions True Finns and Soini will want and what they will get. Foreign ministry is pretty much out of the question and Treasury probably as well, but all the rest are much less prestigious. I think they will probably end up with Interior, Defense and perhaps something like Education or Employment with NCP and SD taking the truly important positions. I just don't see Soini being fit to lead the Foreign ministry or Treasury. Their other people are much less experienced now that Vistbacka is no longer available. Or perhaps he will make a comeback as a minister, but I doubt it.

[K. A. Pital]

Education is "less important"? I believe it is dangerous if nationalists get in charge of your education.

[Edi]

Education is "less important"? I believe it is dangerous if nationalists get in charge of your education.

They're not going to be able to change any curriculum to a more nationalist slant. There are pressing issues of a practical nature, the structure and distribution of education over different fields, transitioning from studying to work life etc etc that are enough to run any two education ministers ragged.

Further, most energies in that respect will be spent on a clash with the Swedish Folks' Party, because the True Finns emphatically don't like the status of Swedish as an official language because it is such a drain on education and time resources that could far better be spent on other things. Such as having the option to study Russian instead in eastern Finland where they get a chance to use Swedish once every ten years or so but would need Russian every day because there are a lot of Russian tourists. But noooooooooooooo, can't have that because Finland was a part of Sweden over two hundred years ago. Even if it would be in the interests of Finnish industry, people and even our neighbors to the east.

I don't agree with the True Finns a whole lot, but FUCK the SFP.

[His Divine Shadow]

Evidence for this claim that swedish is such a drain on the education system? I agree people in eastern finland should be able to study russian if they want, but that swedish is some kind of drain on the system sounds like the usual overblown truefinn lies.

The true finns are totally insane about swedish, acting as if it's some kind of great injustice that is ruining the country. It's like they got this minority complex because of once belonging to sweden and now they gotta grind the bootheels on the weak party. Even that part of history is glossed over mostly, it's like Finland didn't really come into its own until 1809 and before that was the dark evil ages of swedish hegemony and now the jewsswedes still control the media and jam swedish down innocent finnish childrens throats. People have even outright stated in the media that we are like vipers.

There was a swedish professor that dared opine on the language issue in Finland he got stalked and mailbombed (as in a lot of hatemail) and threatened for interfering with a domestic finnish issue.

I voted SFP this year and frankly it seems it's needed.

[Edi]

Evidence for this claim that swedish is such a drain on the education system? I agree people in eastern finland should be able to study russian if they want, but that swedish is some kind of drain on the system sounds like the usual overblown truefinn lies.

The true finns are totally insane about swedish, acting as if it's some kind of great injustice that is ruining the country. It's like they got this minority complex because of once belonging to sweden and now they gotta grind the bootheels on the weak party. Even that part of history is glossed over mostly, it's like Finland didn't really come into its own until 1809 and before that was the dark evil ages of swedish hegemony and now the jewsswedes still control the media and jam Swedish down innocent Finnish childrens throats. People have even outright stated in the media that we are like vipers.

There was a swedish professor that dared opine on the language issue in Finland he got stalked and mailbombed (as in a lot of hatemail) and threatened for interfering with a domestic finnish issue.

I voted SFP this year and frankly it seems it's needed.

For you, quite understandable. You live in a Swedish speaking area and you speak Swedish exclusively.

The problem with the one size fits all approach of Swedish is that it's abysmally stupid outside certain areas. We have municipal autonomy in the sense of municipalities deciding a whole lot of things for themselves (the principle of kuntien itsehallinto, not true autonomy from the state). This provides an easy fix for the language issue, because if it is left up to the municipalities to determine when Swedish is taught as mandatory (due to the population makeup or whatever) and elsewhere something else (such as Russian) could be chosen.

Of course, the problem is that ANY fix would require a constitutional change and removal of Swedish as a mandatory official language. Or some change to its universal status. Which is going to raise up a big fucking stink if anyone so much as suggests it. I personally don't have a problem with Swedish because I learn new languages very easily even now, but for people who struggle with learning just one foreign language even when they're young, let alone two or more, it's nothing but a drag. Anyone who does learn the language is privileged in the sense that they have their pick of public sector jobs, where knowing Swedish is a mandatory qualification despite over 90% of the population not speaking the language actively.

It's probably going to take another 30 years or so until enough of the older folks who are so resistant to the change keel over and die, but once that changes, there is going to have to be some change, if not sooner.

The history curriculum thing is different, but I remember reading a whole lot of stuff about the 1100 to 1800 in history classes, even though the 19th century is prominent in terms of the Finnish cultural awakening and the changes that happened under Russian rule. Remember that we still operated under the Swedish system even then.

[His Divine Shadow]

It's probably gonna go eventually as demographics changes, but people are not gonna voluntarily, or happily, accept a reduction in status from equal to minority and people shouldn't be surprised at this. The infected and hateful rethoric that the truefinns and questionable organisations like suomen sisu put out have probably contributed more than anything to this level of discourse and making the swedish-finns dig their heels into the ground.

Though frankly we should move education of all languages downwards in the ages, I think we should teach as many languages as possible, as soon as possible.



I just bought a book, finnish for beginners btw.

[His Divine Shadow]

I wonder about future demographics sometimes though, immigration has increased the number of swedish-finns since swedish areas accept a lot of immigrants and we likely will accept many more, this is likely to bolster the numbers of swe-speakers.

My own fiance is a good example of this, parents came here from vietnam, their 5 children are now swedish-finns. She even voted SFP this election. She doesn't have good experiences with the true finns, there's one horrible TF voting shrew at her work that keeps going "in finland we speak finnish" when she hears her speak swedish, to someone else! She probably hits all the true finn sore spots, an immigrant, that speaks swedish natively.

Ofcourse we're not likely to have more open immigration now with the truefinns in govt.

[Thanas]

Centrists shifting to the right and becoming nationalists. How predictable. Nationalism is coming back to Europe. What started in the former Soviet states, with nationalist parties, some bordering on neo-fascism, like Hungary's Jobbik, taking over the minds of a large share of the population, now spreads over to West and North European nations. Nationalism will spread, economic crisis is incredibly conducive to their popularity.

Not true - the ones in Germany profiting from the current crisis are the Social Democrats (center-left) and the Greens. The conservatives are the ones losing (Merkel).

[Edi]

Yes, well, it's not like I'm too fond of the True Finns myself. As I said, it's the troglodyte party.

Aside from the language issue and ruling even discussion on it out of bounds, I find SFP okay, but on that one single issue, I detest them more than the True Finns.

[K. A. Pital]

Not true - the ones in Germany profiting from the current crisis are the Social Democrats (center-left) and the Greens. The conservatives are the ones losing (Merkel).

Didn't the SDP get the worst results in history?

The big loser of the election was the SPD which received its worst result ever in a federal election, receiving only 23% of the total party vote and suffering the biggest percentage loss of any party in German federal election history in 60 years.

I thought the big winners were the FDP (econ liberals), Linke and Greens.

[Thanas]

Not true - the ones in Germany profiting from the current crisis are the Social Democrats (center-left) and the Greens. The conservatives are the ones losing (Merkel).

Didn't the SDP get the worst results in history?

Yeah, if you go by an election that happened nearly three years ago, when the crisis was not that strong. Recent elections show gains by the SPD, with the Greens profiting massively from the idiocy of the nuclear industry.