Future gov't cabinet to include True Finns, National Coalition, Social Democrats

It was reported in Ilta-Sanomat today that probable future Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen considers a Coalition government including his National Coalition party, the True Finns and the Social Democratic party the "most likely basis for government."

Lord have mercy on us all

 This coalition, billed the 'blue-red-neck' government by the Finnish public is expected to be announced tomorrow as Jyrki Katainen is holding a speech to the National Coalition party leadership. True Finn leader Timo Soini said today that his candidates for ministerial positions would most likely include former MP Raimo Vistbacka, with 24 years of experience from parliament. Other candidates whose names have been floated around include a former bodybuilder Ritva Elomaa, and blogger and popular racist Jussi Halla-Aho.

Election results are in - Suomen Sisu scores landslide victory

The election results are in, and the True Finns got an even larger landslide of a victory than projected, scoring 19% of the votes and gaining 35 seats in parliament. The result is an upset of massive proportions, as well as the largest electoral victory in Finnish political history. Every party other than the True Finns lost support and the True Finn party now ranks above the current prime minister Kiviniemi's Centre party, giving the True Finns a mandate to govern which will be hard to ignore. They were not the only winners last night, however.

Jussi Halla-Aho on the right

 You may recall I blogged before about Suomen Sisu, a neo-nazi organisation which states it is against race mixing and has a rather dubious literary taste. They have always had political aspirations, but previously their loftiest heights attained were from getting a council seat in the greater Åbo area. They now have four MPs. Blogger and popular racist Jussi Halla-Aho made it through as the second highest voted candidate in the Helsinki constituency after the Left Alliance's Arhinmäki. James Hirvisaari, member of Suomen Sisu who stood court for racial incitement also made it through. Olli Immonen and Juha Eerola, who have actually not got a criminal record as far as I can tell, made it through from the Suomen Sisu members list as well.

Soini's Damascene road conversion on immigration, or is it...?

Timo Soini has embraced the status quo on immigration, Helsingin Sanomat reported today. The move sees Soini give his "full and unconditional support" to the prevailing government policy and practices. The shock revelation represents a complete U-turn for the anti-immigration, anti-EU demogogue. That is, if his statements last night to unnamed German media reporters are to be believed.

"I love immigration and the Finnish system is the best"

Soini proceeded to dismiss immigration as a major issue in the elections, and said his party has "very few" anti-immigrationists. He also distanced himself from "right-wing populism" and defined his political position as somewhere between the Social Democrats and the Centre party. Unconcerned by the recent poll numbers, Soini told the Germans to start preparing to deal with a world-embracing, multicultural and European True Finn party in government. Okay he didn't actually say that last bit but hes still sure to ruffle some feathers among the lunatic racist fringe of his supporters.

Blogger and popular racist Jussi Halla-Aho was quick to do some damage control among the more strident voices in the True Finn anti-immigration wing, writing in a forum post that Soini had given him a "personal reassurance" that his statements to the press had been falsified and misinterpreted. Soini has, according to him also said that he credits Halla-Aho for "inventing the immigration debate", "not being a racist"(lol) and "passing several laws for immigration reform." Halla-Aho of course has not been in a position to neither invent immigration nor pass any laws, being a member of Korkeasaari Zoo board of directors. It remains to be seen if Soini's "personal reassurances" are meant to be publicised anywhere or if they are just meant to appease the more virulent racist fringe among the True Finn voters.

In other news, the early voting for the 2011 Finnish parliamentary elections ended, with 31.2% of voters, around 1.3 million people having cast their vote. 29% of Finnish men and 32% of Finnish women voted, bringing the activity on this round of Early voting well above the elections in 2007 and 2003.

Election violence intensifies - True Finns poll rating continues to drop

According to Helsingin Sanomat today, the True Finns' poll ratings have began to drop in every constituency. The anti-immigrant protest party seems to have lost a lot of its votes to the more traditional working class party, the Social Democrats. The True Finns now rank behind three parties, where just last month they seemed to be on their way to becoming the second largest party. There are a still lot of undecided voters, with up to a third still saying they may change the party they're voting for. The poll by TNS Gallup has the True Finns at 16.9%.

Meanwhile, in Finland violent attacks towards politicians continue. Last night in Jyväskylä a Green Coalition campaign office had its windows smashed in a cowardly attack. The Green Coalition is among the most vocal opponents to the True Finn party. Coincidentally, of course.

windows were smashed in the night by an unknown assailant

The middle Finland town of Jyväskylä was in the 90s known for its active skinhead scene, who made the news on a regular basis with racist attacks towards immigrants and perceived liberals. This week has seen unprecedented violence towards politicians, with a National Coalition candidate being attacked by a thug wearing a bulletproof vest, another National Coalition candidate being punched while handing out  fliers and Centre party candidates' posters being systematically vandalised. So far no True Finn candidates have been targeted by the violence. A neo-nazi group called National Resistance with ties to the True Finns' sister party Sweden Democrats has claimed responsibility for at least one of the attacks. Coincidentally, of course.

A Green candidate's fliers among the shards

The most recent poll ratings from Jyväskylä in the Keskisuomi parliamentary constituency, show that it is likely for the True Finns there to get two MPs in parliament. This is a huge and I mean historically huge gain, because the True Finns have gone from no MPs to polling above the Social Democrats in the space of four years. Just to give some perspective, the Finnish Social Democratic party was founded in 1899, a full 18 years before the Finnish independence. The True Finns got their first MP in 1995.

Halla-Aho receives record donations

Helsingin Sanomat reported today blogger and popular racist Jussi Halla-Aho has received a record sum of donations for his parliamentary election campaign. Halla-Aho received over €60,000, overtaking previous record holder Sauli Niinistö(pbuh) who gathered over €57,000 for his 2007 campaign. Halla-Aho as we all know is a highly respected member of the Korkeasaari Zoo board of directors, while Sauli Niinistö is a former minister and a speaker of Parliament.

"spare some change, pal?"

Halla-Aho received 931 separate donations, with the average being €66 and the largest individual donation standing at €2000. Interestingly, Niinistö received fewer, but considerably larger donations in 2007 with sums ranging from €2000 to €12,000.

One should not be too hasty in drawing conclusions from this, since Finland has no real established political donation culture. It is more than likely that these microdonations are an American import, inspired by the United States Ron Paul and Barack Obama campaigns. I say likely, but there has been a publicised attempt to outright copy the Ron Paul "money bomb" campaign in one of the more active forums of the Finnish anti-immigration scene.

Early voting picking up speed

Early voting picked up speed on day #4, with 93600 people casting their votes on Saturday as opposed to the figure of 73000 in the last election. Looks like the True Finn voters might be out en force! Then again the voting activity figures suggest more women used their vote than men, and it's been found that the True Finns mostly appeal to the white working class male demographic. It will be an interesting election, in any case.

Introducing Juhani Mönkkönen and his campaign

This is apparently old news but I've not previously blogged about True Finn candidate Juhani Mönkkönen and his incredible anti-muslim election campaign. His MO is putting up signs at construction yards saying they're about to construct a mosque there, instead of whatever they might be constructing, with an internet link pointing to his web page.

Islamisation of Finland is obviously a huge problem, with Islamic immigration dating back to 1868 and already almost a full 1% of the population being Muslim, we can safely say Finland will be a Muslim-majority country in the year 9011. Terrifying.

The signs are evidently pretty well made, listing an existing architecture office as the designer and even an electrician. (obviously without the companies' permission). The signs have been taken down a long time ago, so this was just a reminder.

But that's not all, mr Mönkkönen has also been spreading posters about "new neighbours" into flats in the Helsinki area, with house numbers and Arabic names.

Won't you be my neighbour...

But wait, there's even more! Mr Mönkkönen has also launched a website in parody of the Finnish Social Insurance scheme, called "Kelä Gold". It states, surprisingly that our social insurance money goes mainly to Muslim immigrants. This website has been reportedly advertised by spamming people's work email with links to the site, without their permission. When asked where he attained his spam list, he refused to comment on it.

 See if you can spot the difference!

That's right, the "Kelä gold" concept is based entirely on a previous election gimmick by the extreme right Sweden Democrats party. The party is entirely anti-immigration, anti-muslim and has been publicly blacklisted by all the major parties in Sweden, who refuse to even consider working with them. Looks like once again Sweden knows best.

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.

True Finns entire party in disarray as popularity in downfall

The True Finns poll ratings continue their downwards death spiral, and at the top of the party chaos reigns. The party secretary Ossi Sandvik has gone AWOL, and stood Timo Soini up at an important election debate last night. Soini claimed this was due to the True Finns wanting to brighten their anti-woman image by having the only True Finn woman in parliament, Pirkko Ruohonen-Lerner appear in the debate instead of mr Sandvik. When asked where Sandvik was, Soini said "Somewhere in Ostrobothnia." The invitation clearly stated however that the debate was for party chairmen and secretaries only, so a very tired-looking Timo Soini was reduced to spout the same familiar slogans for half an hour on live TV, looking very lonely.

Meanwhile "Somewhere in Ostrobothnia"

Timo Soini is reportedly so spooked about the prospect of mr Sandvik or other forces within the True Finn party splitting away from the party that he has made all the True Finn candidates swear a personal oath of loyalty to him. Perhaps the next step is locking himself up into an underground bunker with his truest believers? We can only hope.

The poll ratings keep on falling, despite True Finn candidates continuing to send quasi-illegal campaign material into people's houses. The Early voting activity remained roughly the same compared to previous elections for the second day, still showing no signs of the massive tsunami of new True Finn voters.

Early voting day #1: all quiet on the western front

Day one of early voting failed to bring any change from the previous election. Voting activity remained the same, which would imply that no great tide of non-voters from previous elections is showing up to vote for the True Finns. Early voting started 8am on Wednesday and will end 6pm 12th of April. Early votes will be tallied beginning 3pm on election day, the 17th April.

The Early Voting system has been in place in Finland from 1970. 40% of voters vote early with the remaining 60% choosing to vote on election day. Early voting takes place at designated polling stations.

True Finns' Poll Rating in a Nosedive

The True Finns' poll rating has took a surprising nosedive, down a whole percentage point in one week. This is thought to be due in part of the leader Timo Soini missing several key election debates for reasons unknown. Among one of the several debates that Soini needed to cancel was a debate with foreign minister Alexander Stubb(pbuh) who I previously blogged about completely destroying Soini on live television. Makes you think....

Looks like the election is taking its toll on the 48-year old, hideously overweight man of the people. It stands to reason, then that Soini is ill-equipped to handle the stress of being a candidate, let alone a prime minister. Usually people with Soini's physique take this time of their lives to curl up in a council flat somewhere and drink themselves to death. Something to consider!

True Finn councillor: Holocaust was Soviet Propaganda

Iltalehti reported today that the everyone's favorite anti-immigration immigrant Freddy van Wonterghem thinks "the Holocaust was nothing but Soviet propaganda". You might have correctly guessed from his completely innocent and patriotic opinion there that Belgian-born Wonterghem is, like Jussi Halla-Aho and Teemu Lahtinen, a member of Suomen Sisu, a neo-nazi group based in Helsinki. He is also a True Finn member of the Kotka city council.

Timo Soini of course was quick to deny "any links to any members of Suomen Sisu", despite repeatedly filling his candidate list with their members. Soini says he will only comment on any SS-affiliations of any True Finn members, if one of them is found to be "breaking the law". Previous guilty verdicts for inciting racial hatred that Jussi Halla-Aho and his band of merry men have gathered, evidently notwithstanding.

Iltalehti also reported on the "racist manifesto", signed by some of the more strident voices in the True Finn anti-immigration wing. Teemu Lahtinen and Jussi Halla-Aho are quoted as being 'proud' of inserting the SS-philosophy into the manifesto and getting it signed by a large number of the more mainstream parties' candidates. It is also mentioned that Suomen Sisu used to state on its web page that it is "an organisation committed to anti-miscegenation."

Ridiculous. Just goes to show the True Finns are nothing but a racist group of sexually frustrated men. And that is precisely why they are so dangerous.

True Finn Anti-Women Practices Revealed by MTV3

Former and current female politicians from the True Finn party spoke out about the anti-women atmosphere of a lot of the True Finn party workers. The problems are evident in all electoral constituencies.

Women interviewed say that especially active and outspoken women are in risk of getting into trouble, for disagreeing with the official party line. The party leadership has denied the allegations. You'll remember a previous blog post about Sirkka-Liisa Lamminkoski, a True Finn woman who was pressured into relinquishing her party membership for disagreeing with the True Finn leadership about Modern Art of all things. Five women were interviewed for the MTV3 story.

Haataja: I got made a target of mud slinging

Seija Haataja was a True Finns candidate from the parliamentary election 2007. She thinks she didn't get the support of the Nyland constituency True Finns for her campaign but was instead left to fend for herself. This was mainly due to her positive approach to foreigners.

-In the True Finn party a woman is expected to either submit or be quiet. Otherwise the only way is to rebel and you can guess how that is going to turn out. Troublemakers are either expelled or quit the party themselves, says Haataja.

Haataja, a council member in Vantaa, didn't quit immediately after her failed campaign, but thought about it long and hard. Last spring she joined the Social Democratic party and according to her, got hateful replies from former comrades in internet discussion pages.

-I've let the comments slide because I dislike fighting windmills. I know I'm not the only woman who has faced this treatment in the True Finn party.

Virtala: One is not Allowed to Talk of Problems:

Satu Virtala's decision to quit the True Finn party is a recent one. She quit the party in February, because she was not put up as a candidate from the Kyme constituency. She thinks the decision was unfair.

-There was clearly a good ol' boy network at work behind the decision. A few men have handled themselves in an extremely dubious and calculating way. My family has been threatened, and lies have been told about me behind my back.

According to Virtala, the male members of the True Finns are allowed to  have opinions and do things that would not pass for a female member.

-I don't understand why a woman needs to be a Mother Theresa, or a Virgin Mary, whilst the men are allowed to have any opionions about anything they like. It feels as if the party only allows such women to progress who toe the male party members' line.

Virtala says she has heard of other women who have been expelled from the party due to dissenting opinions.

-One shouldn't really discuss these kind of things before the election. Perhaps later on along the way, things will change, Virtala wishes.

Timonen: I no longer wear my True Finn Armband

Virtala's fellow sister from the Kyme district, Eliisa Timonen is still a party member. She did forfeit her candidacy for the True Finn party not too long ago, though.

-There is no shred of the old True Finn philosophy left in the Kyme district. It feels like the will to power has blinded the eyes of everyone and they are only looking out for number one, Timonen says.

She feels she has been pushed aside several times, when the party has distributed council responsibility.

-It feels as if we're in the dark middle ages. I'm honing my skills as a coffee maker, but have no chance to develop as a political animal. My voters have been left disappointed.

Timonen is not sure if she will run in the next municipal elections. Even though the local constituency has been personally disappointing to her, she still trusts the party leadership.

Lamminkoski: I have never seen such dictatorship

Sirkka-Liisa Lamminkoski, a candidate from the True Finn Vaasa constituency recently criticised the party's cultural political line, and was quickly given a talking to by the party brass.

-It was like an obedience school. I was told I can not have my own opinions, and that I must stop writing for newspapers. I have never heard of such dictatorship in Finnish politics before. I've been a True Finn member for 10 years and the atmosphere has been very free, up to this point, Says Lamminkoski.

Lamminkoski refuses to back down from her opinions, and the dispute has been continued in several newspapers and on the internet, where party members have screamed for Lamminkoski's head, calling for her immediate expulsion from the party.

-Behind the calls for my quitting the party is election tactics and the whole thing smacks of little boys being mad at someone messing with their sandbox games. Truth is though, come at a woman from Ostrobothnia screaming and it's all petrol into the flames, Lamminkoski says.

Lamminkoski and the party brass' argument has caught the attention of other female party members. She has gotten a lot of calls from women who say they've been thrown under the bus. They've sympathised with her and asked how she's handling it all. A lot of them have said they are afraid to take a stand on the issues within the party, if they are actually in an elected office or running for one.

Lamminkoski does not blame the whole of the True Finn party or party leader Timo Soini.

-It is sad, though if we lose out on female talent because of this. We can't afford to lose the female vote, Lamminkoski says.


Puolakka: Straight up male chauvinism

Ritva Puolakka, says the True Finns are 'No different from the old parties they rage against'.

-I thought the party was for freedom of speech. Turns out there is a hierarchy where your opinions only matter in relation to who you kiss up to and how good you are at it.

She left the True Finn party, because she was a target of lies and rumour-mongering in the Oulu constituency.

-It was all straight up male chauvinism in the party. If there's a strong woman who is a member, she is forced out of the party, Puolakka says.

She thinks she was passed up as a parliamentary candidate due to mud-slinging and slander from the male members of the party. There were people listed as candidates instead of her, who were never voted on by the party members, she says.

Nyland election debate: Soini gets destroyed once again

Those watching the Nyland election debate last night to see Soini fail yet again were not disappointed. When the issues of the European financial fund got brought up, Soini overstated the amount of loans from Finland to Greece by €85 million. Too bad for Soini, foreign minister Alexander Stubb(pbuh) and Social Democrat party secretary Mikael Jungner were also present, and proceeded to annihilate their opponent with well-researched facts and statistics.

One of these does not belong (hint: the one in the middle)

"It's so easy for you to shoot from the hip, Timo. Nowhere else in Europe are people forced to endure discussion on this level" said Stubb. And so say we all.

Timo Haapala on Soini's costly slip-up

Another piece of frankly brilliant blogging from Timo Haapala, our man from Arcadia hill. Take a gander:

In three weeks we know where we stand.

Or rather, we know where to begin. Begin to form a new ruling coalition, that is.

Three weeks seem to be the limit of Soini's sense of direction and speed, and accordingly he finally slipped up. Big time. 

Soini has raged everywhere that he and his party will always and everywhere vote against opting into the EU's financial fund and financial instruments, be they temporary or permanent. If Soini is to decide, not a cent will be given as collateral by Finland.

Unless.

Yes, unless we agree that Soini will be in the ruling coalition but will still maintain a right for his party to vote against the bailout funds. Soini has always been at the throat of the Green Coalition, who have remained despite their own program in a coalition that authorised the building permits for two new nuclear plants. The Green Coalition voted freely against their coalition partners, and now Soini said in an interview with YLE (Finnish Broadcast Company) that he wants the same deal for his party.

The difference is huge however; the EU rescue funds are to do with the entire basis of the future coalition's economic policy, as well as their EU-policy. Soini wants to sit both in the government and the opposition at the same time, two chairs at the same time. A normal person would tear themselves apart trying a feat like that.

Soini wants to pick and choose which parts of actually being in the ruling coalition suit him. It does not work that way.

No wonder then that the other parties made a noise about Soini's brainfart. If you are in the ruling coalition, you are part of the ruling coalition. You are sitting in the back of a ministerial automobile, not out and about in the towns and markets, cracking crude jokes about the gov't decisions amongst your prospective voters. Would be nice though, but it just doesn't work that way.

A few have suspected that Soini is aiming to purposely set the bar of cooperation in a coalition so high, he will have another election cycle of cozy shouting from the opposition sidelines and no actual responsibility.

Soini's talk of the EU financial instrument reveal it's not that; it's more that he speaks whatever comes to his mind. Constantly putting his foot in his mouth.

In the same caste are Soini's lesser (depending on your circumstances) stances on issues like abortion and religion. Soini says he doesn't have to justify, or indeed even express his view on abortion because "other politicians are not asked such things". Yes you need to answer those, yes they are asked and indeed have been asked. And are being asked, especially now. "This is just the way it is" is not enough for a politician who seriously considers himself a contender for the next Prime Minister.

Four years ago, before the last election, Soini kept repeating the figure 10 to 12 MPs as a suitable goal for the True Finns. If they got more than that, Soini thought there would be 'too many contesting leaders' in the party. 

Well, remains to be seen if they can handle even one leader.

The True Finns' campaign manifesto and especially the art discussion therein has been criticised. Soini has proceeded to explain that it is in fact a wittily placed joke in their manifesto, expertly designed to provoke the cultural elite. You're having a laugh. A person with less of a sense of humour, such as myself would ask from Soini which exactly are the jokey part in the campaign manifesto and which are the serious ones. Would it be possible for the True Finns to produce a campaign manifesto with the joke bits in italics and the serious bits bolded? 

Or maybe the entire thing is a big joke?

x x x x x x x x

The decisions concerning the EU financial instrument and the bailout funds, which need to be made before next summer's EU summit will definitely affect Finland. A worthy task even for the Social Democrats, if they get into the coalition government and have to be involved in the negotiations. A permanent crisis fund seems to be easier to swallow for each party, as it delegates some of the responsibility to the banks. 

In all likeliness the people will be totally clueless about not only the temporary ERVV and permanent EVM/ESM financial instruments and the collaterals required et cetera. Even then.

Which is no wonder. Politicians are too, MPs and those wanting to be MPs.

This Monday A-Studio asked of the candidates and MPs what they know of the EU financial instruments. Nearly everyone - even current MPs! - were completely baffled by the concept, even though the media has been inundated with information about the subject for months on end and the parliament has used hundreds of hours speaking about them. It is no wonder that the citizenry does not know which parties are in the governing coalition, if the ruling political class is operating at this level.

In Europe it is being debated why Finland of all countries has become an eurosceptic nation just before the elections. 

In Finland the concept of Impivaara is being raised.

Who knows which is right and which is wrong.

One needs to remember though, speaking of Impivaara, that the seven brothers came back from Impivaara through snow and ice, in the biting cold when it caught on fire. This story is related in Seven Brothers by Aleksis Kivi. MPs and those wanting to be MPs would do well to read it after finding out for themselves what the EU financial instruments are all about. Who knows if a citizen might ask it in one of the squares and markets...

True Finn supporters attempt to lynch an Indian immigrant

Iltalehti reports. Social Democratic party candidate Ranbir Sodhi's campaigning in Myyrmäki, Vantaa had an unexpected and unnerving disruption last Saturday, when a group of True Finn supporters engaged in racist heckling.

Ranbir Sodhi says Finland needs new immigrants, due to increasingly elderly population

"It all started when they asked me my opinion of the European Union. I said the EU is a good thing, and that you should not abandon a friend in need," Sodhi says.

The men, displaying True Finn campaign colours said mr Sodhi needs to go back to his country to politicise.

"This is my country. I love Finland," Sodhi said.

Things came to a head when Sodhi, who runs the Stadin Tähti restaurant in Helsinki offered one of the men a job, after the man said he was unemployed and opposed to the Greece bailout.

"I said I need a cleaner in my restaurant. He said not to underestimate him. 'On the contrary', I said. I've lived in Finland for 23 years and started out as a dishwasher, even though I have a masters in Business Administration" Sodhi says. "At that point he started screaming and asked me to step outside to see who is who. I said sure, bring it on, but he left the scene."