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.

James Hirvisaari: No Viet Cong ever called me Persu

True Finn first term MP and a prominent signer of Jussi Halla-aho's racist election manifesto, James Hirvisaari has shocked but not surprised people with his recent blog post. James Hirvisaari says it is equally bad to call someone as "persu" (a name for the True Finn party, derived from the Finnish name PerusSuomalaiset) as it is to call someone a nigger or a yid. He also proceeds to call all reporters vultures and scavengers, and goes on to state that the media is out to get him and all other True Finn speakers of truth. On his blog. Which is hosted on the server of the newspaper Uusi Suomi.

persu party member James "persu" Hirvisaari

MP Hirvisaari's angry blog post comes right after the Finnish broadcaster YLE's "Hate Night Special" where they discussed hate speech. Evidently James Hirvisaari thinks it terribly unfair to only focus on the party which keeps spouting racist crap, when the topic of discussion is racist crap being spouted by politicians. The comments also come after the setting out of internal True Finn party guidelines on banned words. The guidelines contain a list of words to avoid, some of which James Hirvisaari chose to use in his blog post.

The True Finn parliamentary group leader, and one of the few two-term True Finn MPs Pirkko Ruohonen-Lerner was reportedly 'frustrated' over Hirvisaari's remarks. She goes on to state there are vastly more important things to focus on, such as increased regional taxes. There is of course support for James Hirvisaari among fellow MPs. Having recently been expelled from the True Finn parliamentary group for calling for a military coup in Athens, MP Jussi Halla-aho compared the ongoing hate speech discussion to a "rise of a totalitarian, orwellian atmosphere in Finland." The irony remains duly lost on all his followers.

Regardless of what your political outlook might be, comparing someone using a word you don't like for your party to a racial slur is extraordinarily thin-skinned. Even more so when the vast majority of your own supporters think it a neutral term, if somewhat informal. Moreover the timing of the whole thing just shows an amazing degree of political insensitivity, coming just days after MP Halla-aho was temporarily expelled from the party over a Facebook post. It could of course be a part of a brilliant master plan by the Halla-ahonist fringe of the True Finn party, in which case all the co-signers of the racist election manifesto, James Hirvisaari, Olli Immonen and Juha Eerola, take turns to say racist stuff to get expelled. Brilliant is probably the wrong word to use though, it's all degrees of stupidity with these people.

Soini's conversion confirmed - Halla-Aho ready to split party

Helsingin Sanomat published today the actual comments word for word made by the True Finns' supposed anti-immigrationist, anti-euro leader Timo Soini. And here they are. Make your own mind up about how "twisted and misinterpreted" these comments were by people saying he's accepting the current government line. And bring me some popcorn while you're at it!

Question: Finnish values are important for you, which are those?

Soini: Honesty, hard work, Finnish traditions and also friendship. Everbody is welcome here and we like people. I am, if I am not most international chairman of the whole lot, I am in top three, I am the only one who is working abroad. I have been now being a member of the European Union Parliament. I am also catholic by my religion so I know how the catholic world is thinking and by that I know very many foreign peoples so that is not a problem. But this political uprise here is not because of the immigration. It is because of the (...) fundings in the old and tired parties, which has been going on since 2007 and then of course this Euro, pensions, energy, very many other issues. Immigration is not even talked – not in that panel either – downstairs. And also in all TV-panels, nothing!

Q:  Do you think there are too many foreigners in Finland?

Soini: Of course not.

Q: But you have people in your party that have very hard views on immigration.

Soini: There are some. We have thousands and thousands of members and 240 candidates and maybe 10 people who are having this tougher line. That`s true, yes.

Q: What would you like to change in Finnish immigration policy?

Soini: It has been tightened a lot, because of the pressure from the opposition and also by national coalition party. Has been very good in fact that for example now the number of asylum seekers has collapsed, so the legislation correcting the current shortcomings on this issues have been functioning. I am rather pleased that the situation is now very good.

Q: But would you like to strengthen something if you be in the government?

Soini: I will say that we will follow the government line, that if you are OK with --- for example you are coming and seeking asylum here: if you are meeting the criteria, welcome!

And then blogger and popular racist Halla-Aho's reaction, which is a lol all unto itself:

"I've been betrayed from the start!"

I order you to close your eyes and ears, for we are at war and the enemy is trying to tear our forces apart. Verily, it is for the best to stop reading magazines and turn off your television in these final days. That is, unless you have already cast your vote in the early voting. The True Finn party line can be seen in our manifesto, and Soini's line is readily available online. My line is simple and clear to all my followers. This is what is at stake, in this election...

It has been speculated even before this revelation that Halla-Aho's racist fringe (containing some "colorful characters") is going to split away from the party after the election.  This all but confirms it. We will see if that personal oath of loyalty Soini had his troops pledge to him will come in any use. In other good news today the True Finns polled at their lowest this year, 15.4%. Looks like the downfall has finally come, and its just left to see whether it is Soini or Halla-Aho in the bunker.

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.

True Finns announce election platform

The True Finns announced their election platform yesterday. It is quite something else, take a look.

1. Finnishness is Finland's gift to the world.
2. Culture funding must be directed in a way that strenghtens the Finnish identity. Faux-artsy postmodernists can procure their funding from the open market.
3. YLE's (national broadcast company) Swedish-language programming must be reduced.
4. War orphans must be registered.
5. The child benefits to those on higher income (in excess of €5000) can be reduced.
6. True Finns are for traditional family values (against gay marriage/civil union)
7. The portion of immigrant students in schools should be capped, in order to prevent separation of schools.
8. More physical education to schools. Behaviour must be graded for younger children than now, and there should be a behaviour grade in the final diploma.
9. Learning Swedish should be optional.
10. Village schools must be kept.
11. Finland to become a critical collaborator with EU instead of a model student.
12. Finland must prepare for the downfall of the EMU and EU in their current forms.
13. Finland must succesfully defend against NATO-membership and keep its universal conscription system.
14. Un-work-related immigration must be cut down by reducing the economic appeal of Finland and making it more difficult to bring immigrant families together.
15. Citizenship is a reward - residence is not enough, but language must be learned and one must be able to support oneself.
16. Ghettoization must be prevented with sensible housing policy.
17. No to flat tax
18. Green taxes must be succesfully defended against. No to higher energy taxes and congestion charge.
19. VAT must not be raised.
20. Stock dividends must be taxed at a higher rate.
21. Bring back the wealth tax.
22. Finnish work and entrepreneurship to be brought to the fore - economic growth must not be eaten into with domestic policies: adopt the True Finn climate policy.
23. Tougher sentencing for crimes. A foot collar is not the same as doing prison time.
24. Criminal immigrants must be expelled and begging must be criminalized.
25. One may not be punished for defending oneself.