Most of True Finn members racist, study finds

According to an opinion poll published in Helsingin Sanomat, a majority True Finn supporters agree with the following statement:

"People of certain races are unsuited for life in a modern society."

Another opinion poll by Taloustutkimus published in Iltalehti found that 72% of True Finn supporters want Finland to stay in the Eurozone, and a similar percentage want them to remain in the European Union.

Timo Soini, Leader of the True Finns, looking awkward

So what are we to make of this? Clearly the eurosceptic aspect of the True Finn party is greatly exaggerated. It seems to not be the major driving force behind the party. We can certainly draw some conclusions about the motivations of the "Immigration Critical" wing of the party, led by blogger and popular racist Jussi Halla-aho.

The President of Finland, Tarja Halonen commented on the findings of the poll by saying that racist people "seem to be drawn towards voting for the True Finns." MP Jussi Halla-aho was quick to point out on his blog that "Friends of GDR seem to be drawn towards voting for Tarja Halonen." President Halonen, a Social Democrat, has been elected President twice after previously serving in three ministerial posts and consistently gets an approval rating in excess of 80%, while MP Halla-aho has an illustrious two year career in the board of directors for Helsinki Zoo.

Leader of the True Finn party, Timo Soini has thus far declined to comment, saying that opinion polls are not a good gauge of opinion and re-iterating his previous stance of not personally being racist. For someone non-racist he certainly likes to actively seek out the company of racists. He also leads an organisation that plainly caters to racists and does not mind benefiting from racists voting for his party. One can assume that either he is lying about not being racist or (more likely) he is morally corrupt to the point of having no guiding principles in his political life and will seize on to any idea no matter how abhorrent if it gets his party a few extra votes. Does it make him any different from other politicians? Maybe not. Call me an idealist but surely the point of leading a political party vanishes if the program of the party consists only of an attempt to get as many votes as possible.

Timo Soini on Fox News

Timo Soini got interviewed on the fair and balanced Fox News last week. If you want to hear what a thick Finnish accent sounds like you might be a bit interested. Don't get your hopes up for great political genius though.

True Finn MP's assistant in a neo-nazi row

Looks like the parliamentary assistant to True Finn MP Juha Eerola has applied to become a member of the neo-nazi group Finnish National Resistance Front. Assistant and apparently then city council member Ulla Pyysalo's application, leaked by hackers, goes as follows (translation from migrant tales):

I am a city council member of the Perussuomalaiset party and I understand your ideology. You have my support!!!…After you hear what we (Perussuomalaiset?) have planned, (you’ll see that) we are both fighting for the same thing…I sent you my contact information. Please do not distribute it if you are fighting for the fatherland.

Pyysalo has since said, she will resign her membership in the True Finn party, after she finds another job. The True Finn party is currently considering suspending her from the duties of a parliamentary assistant. That's nice.

Ulla Pyysalo, looking like a less classy Johanna Tukiainen

The word neo-nazi is sometimes used rather frivolously, but the National Resistance Front has conveniently declared itself to be a National Socialist revolutionary movement. Pyysalo claims she did not in fact realise that national socialists are the same thing as nazis, was drunk as she applied to join the group, it was a youthful error and she did so because she is quote a patriotic person unquote. Being unaware of recent history, current events and basic politics is basically a requisite of membership for the True Finns, so let's just give her the benefit of doubt for now. Youthful error is a bit amusing since the webpage where she applied has only existed for two years. Pyysalo has previously made herself known by cracking unrepeatable jokes about Jani Toivola (a black, gay finnish MP) and posing with an assault rifle on Facebook.

MP Jussi Halla-aho's racist webforum Homma has of course reacted by thinking this was all perfectly understandable, that Pyysalo was actually an upstanding person and that this was all media's fault for reporting it. In other words, exactly as they react to every other far-right lunatic ever.