Soini lied about Sandvik's health, but why?

Turns out Timo Soini actually lied on live TV about True Finn party secretary Ossi Sandvik's health problems, Helsingin Sanomat reports. Instead of doing the honest thing and telling people Sandvik's broken a toe, mr Soini went on live television and told people lies about why his party secretary would not attend. Perhaps it is because a broken toe is not really a major health problem, and wouldn't stop any normal person from attending a TV debate. Perhaps it's because mr Soini has become a habitual liar, and needs to maintain an air of invincibility in even minor things like this?

Timo Soini, holding up the True Finns' economic program during debate

This is a fairly major thing,  because it raises the possibility that the True Finns have an incompetent party secretary. He's been avoiding meetings with other party secretaries, the aim of which was to discuss the inflammatory rhetoric of the True Finns and establish guidelines for behavior during the last weeks of election campaigning. It seems brutally obvious that Soini's gang thinks they can operate outside the boundaries of both the established Finnish political culture and good taste.

Ossi Sandvik was named as the True Finn party secretary in 2007. He's a carpenter by trade, and previously a gas station manager. He's also worked as an assistant for the True Finn MP, Raimo Vistbacka. Hardly a glorious CV, but according to Soini the party "needed a full time party secretary", and this was apparently the only person they could find.