Finnish MP: we fight for one, true Finnish nation

[Tiriol]

Sorry that the source is in Finnish, couldn't find any links in English. Translation provided by yours truly.

A Finnish MP from The Finns (formerly True Finns) Party has posted a public Facebook update where he condemns multiculturalism and speaks about need for continued resistance and struggle and fight against multiculturalism and enemies.

An MP's harsh outburst: We fight against the nightmare of multiculturalism

The Finns Party's MP Olli Immonen has published a provocative update on his Facebook page and Suomen Sisu group's Facebook page.

In the update the MP Immonen states that he dreams about "strong and brave nation which will defeat the nightmare called multiculturalism".

The update has been written in English late last evening.

- This loathsome bubble, in which our enemies live, will soon be broken into million little pieces.

- These are the days which will leave a mark on our nation's future. I have strong faith in my fellow fighters. We wll fight to the end for our homeland and one true Finnish nation. Victory will be ours.

Immonen's update has caused confusion in social media. Some consider the text to be racist in nature and something to be condemned.

For example, a guitarist Mikko Kosonen asks whether The Finns define itself as a party that is not racist.

Elsewhere Lauri Lohikoski wonders whether Immonen's activities would be enough to be classified as high treason.

Last month Immonen, acting in his capacity as the Chairman of the group Suomen Sisu, posed in a Facebook picture with several Far Right supporters. The picture was taken during an event held in memory of Eugen Schauman, who murdered General-Governor Bobrikov, and several Neo-Nazis who have been found guilty of crimes were present.

The link contains more information and several twitter and FB links. Someone has also compared Immonen's writings with those of Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik here (an Imgur link, safe for work picture).

So far The Finns Party has declined to comment besides chatter from parliamentary group leader Sampo Terho, who has, once again, stated that he won't comment on The Finns MPs' activities when they are done "off-duty".

So, the usual suspects have voted in a troglodyte Neo-Nazi sympathizer who seems to have a soft spot for 1930s and had the gall to post update like that so close to the sad anniversary of the Norwegian terrorist shooting. I bet that The Finns will try to remain silent and offer no comments in the hopes that people will forget this, since this has been their usual operational style these days. I also hope that they fail in this endeavor and we get to see Foreign Minister Soini's disgusting face sweating in front of the press trying to explain how his Party is not about racism or Far Right.

[madd0ct0r]

[quote=] he dreams about "strong and brave nation which will defeat the nightmare called multiculturalism".
...
The update has been written in English [/quote]

comedy gold.

[Lord Revan]

he dreams about "strong and brave nation which will defeat the nightmare called multiculturalism".
...
The update has been written in English

comedy gold.

sadly that's par to the course for the True Finns party, while I'm sure most of their MPs are decent folk you get nutcases like this one, who make up all the noise that comes from that party.

that said as long as it's single nutcase (or a few nutcases) I'm not too worried about, however when there's a "serious" proposal to expel or inprison those deemed "not finnish enough" then I'll start to get worried (especially since a)I'm not a rasist and b)my Maternal grandparents were part of the swedish speaking minority).

[K. A. Pital]

Their name "True Finns" is itself hilarious. What is not hilarious is the amount of votes they get.

[Tiriol]

Finally, national news service has woken up. YLE News report about Immonen incident in English.

Finnish MP calls for fight against "nightmare of multiculturalism", no comment from party leadership

Facebook post by the prominent Finns Party MP Olli Immonen promises to "fight until the end for our homeland and one true Finnish nation", igniting criticism of party leader Timo Soini for his lack of public condemnation of the comments.

The leader of the populist Finns Party has so far remained silent after a prominent MP called on his followers to "fight until the end" against the “nightmare called multiculturalism".

Olli Immonen, member of parliament for the northern Finnish town of Oulu, posted his remarks in English on Friday night on Facebook and on the website of the nationalist organisation Suomen Sisu, of which he is the chair.

The MP, an outspoken opponent of immigration who on his website describes the need to fight the “Islamification” of Finland, predicted in his post “'The ugly bubble that our enemies live in will soon enough burst into a million little pieces.” He added that “We will fight until the end for our homeland and one true Finnish nation.”

The remarks drew widespread condemnation from other politicians, who accused him of inciting hatred. However the 29-year-old's own party leader, Timo Soini, who is also the country's foreign minister, has so far been unavailable for comment.

Personal views

The leader of the Finns Party parliamentary group, Sampo Terho, also refused to be drawn on Immonen’s remarks. “I won’t comment beyond saying that these are one member’s personal views,” he told the news service STT.

Immonen's post comes a few weeks after the MP was given 'stern words' by his party superiors for posting a photograph of himself posing alongside members of a Neo-Nazi group.

The silence of the party leadership over this latest incident has renewed accusations that party leader Soini is unwilling to tackle the extremist elements of his nationalist, eurosceptic party, which is the second largest in government.

A number of members who have made racist or homophobic comments have in the past been allowed to continue in the party, including the Helsinki councilor Olli Sademies, whose recent call for the forced sterilisation of African immigrants was dismissed by the party’s Helsinki group chair as “nonsense”.

Timo Soini has only ejected one MP, James Hirvisaari, from the party, after he brought a neo Nazi as a guest into parliament and posed for a photo in which the guest performed a Nazi salute.

Responding to Immonen’s latest comments, Åbo Akademi professor of politics Kimmo Grönlund told the news agency STT on Saturday that he finds it unbelievable that a member of parliament belonging to a governing party could be calling for a fight against multiculturalism.

”It’s strange if someone is allowed to remain in the parliamentary Finns Party while expounding these views,” Grönlund said.

Ironic choice

Immonen insisted he stands by his comments, and dismissed Grönlund’s criticism.

“If he’d like limits on free speech and the silencing of political views different from his own, he could move to somewhere like Sweden,” Immonen wrote in a further Facebook post.

Immonen was also recently appointed to sit on the governing council of the Finnish public broadcaster Yle, an organisation of which he has been a prominent critic, accusing it of a pro-multiculturalism bias.

Responding to Immonen’s Facebook post, some respondents pointed out the apparent irony of Immonen choosing to write his anti-multiculturalism comments in the international language of English, despite having repeatedly called for Finnish to become the country’s only national and official language.

Several Swedish newspapers have also picked up the news: Svenska Dagbladet and Aftonbladet.

[Edi]

Their name "True Finns" is itself hilarious. What is not hilarious is the amount of votes they get.

The official name these days is the Finns Party, which is just as well. The old translation really rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. There is no way to translate the party's Finnish name to English contextually intact, because there is no such word that could be used in English to convey the exact meaning.

While here in Finland some people call them Persesuomalaiset instead of Perussuomalaiset, usually whenever some idiocy like this crops up. The difference between these two is that the "perus-" prefix means basic or fundamental or something of that kind while "perse" means arse. They've cleaned up their act some, but it's still an economically populist and socially conservative and more than slightly xenophobic party that appeals to all the goddamn troglodytes who would otherwise stay at home on election days or vote some of the other parties based on single issues.

The Finns Party has stolen quite a number of voters from the Social Democrats because they have managed to paint the Social Democrats as ineffective on labor issues and they've made those gains precisely among the older, less cosmopolitan blue collar males who have been hit the hardest by the structural changes and loss of factory jobs.

[Lord Revan]

Their name "True Finns" is itself hilarious. What is not hilarious is the amount of votes they get.

The official name these days is the Finns Party, which is just as well. The old translation really rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. There is no way to translate the party's Finnish name to English contextually intact, because there is no such word that could be used in English to convey the exact meaning.

While here in Finland some people call them Persesuomalaiset instead of Perussuomalaiset, usually whenever some idiocy like this crops up. The difference between these two is that the "perus-" prefix means basic or fundamental or something of that kind while "perse" means arse. They've cleaned up their act some, but it's still an economically populist and socially conservative and more than slightly xenophobic party that appeals to all the goddamn troglodytes who would otherwise stay at home on election days or vote some of the other parties based on single issues.

The Finns Party has stolen quite a number of voters from the Social Democrats because they have managed to paint the Social Democrats as ineffective on labor issues and they've made those gains precisely among the older, less cosmopolitan blue collar males who have been hit the hardest by the structural changes and loss of factory jobs.

well "true finns" is probably closest you could translate "perussuomalaiset" in that context "perus" in their name would closest to fundamental but with an undercurrent of xenophobia and nationalist chest thumping that's hard to translate.

[Tiriol]

Their name "True Finns" is itself hilarious. What is not hilarious is the amount of votes they get.

The official name these days is the Finns Party, which is just as well. The old translation really rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. There is no way to translate the party's Finnish name to English contextually intact, because there is no such word that could be used in English to convey the exact meaning.

While here in Finland some people call them Persesuomalaiset instead of Perussuomalaiset, usually whenever some idiocy like this crops up. The difference between these two is that the "perus-" prefix means basic or fundamental or something of that kind while "perse" means arse. They've cleaned up their act some, but it's still an economically populist and socially conservative and more than slightly xenophobic party that appeals to all the goddamn troglodytes who would otherwise stay at home on election days or vote some of the other parties based on single issues.

The Finns Party has stolen quite a number of voters from the Social Democrats because they have managed to paint the Social Democrats as ineffective on labor issues and they've made those gains precisely among the older, less cosmopolitan blue collar males who have been hit the hardest by the structural changes and loss of factory jobs.

They also managed to steal voters from Centre Party (several who probably returned to fold last spring) and from National Coalition Party. Now The Finns as a party is in a very hard position: out of the three coalition parties it has turned its back on EVERY election promise it made and angry voters are leaving the party en masse, at least those who voted based on labor and pension issues or as a protest, hoping that the party would actually make a true difference. Instead Soini's morons were led around like cows in a slaughterhouse and Soini keeps hiding and avoiding commenting on anything, knowing that now no funny quip or pompous rhetoric will work: he cannot gain voters any more, he can only hold on to some section of them while alienating others thoroughly. "Nuiva" movement - anti-immigration movement - has taken hold of the party, maybe too strong for Soini to break without shattering party's unity. Immonen has, more or less openly, challenged Soini and taken him up to task about party's stated resistance to multiculturalism and that loathsome reptile Jussi Halla-aho is supporting Immonen.

I do take some mirth, however dark it is, in the fact that those who voted The Finns on the strange notion that they would have same economic ideas as Social Democrats or would take a pro-labor force stand. The party has been shifting to the right for years and their youth movement has just about as much New Right economic thinkers as Coalition Youth. That's what you get when you vote for a populist without paying attention to what his ilk are up to: it will bite you in the ass. Coalition politicians (as in Kokoomus, National Coalition) are pretty straight-forward in their support of New Right and liberal economics, so they are honest about it; The Finns did everything in their power to muddle the issue, knowing that they couldn't get the labor redneck vote otherwise.

[His Divine Shadow]

Perties like these seem to be what happens in countries where there's been an economic rightwards movement in society. Note Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway all have their own versions of the same kind of party.