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.

Timo Soini takes a stand against fearmongering

The leader of the anti-European True Finn party Timo Soini has commented on what he calls "unnecessary fearmongering" concerning the Finnish government's plans for demanding collateral for the Greek government loan. Giving his full support to the government policy, the pudgy populist said he sees "no way" for the Greek government to pay off its €110 billion loan. His solution for the European soveireign debt crisis is simple: someone else, hopefully Germany, should take care of it.

Timo Soini

Timo Soini has recently called on the government to abandon the support for Greece entirely, citing German resistance to the Finnish-Greek collateral deal as an "ideal opportunity to say No thank you, we're out." On his uusisuomi blog, Soini also suggested that a permanent bailout mechanism would in fact create a system for supporting French and German banks using taxpayer money from other countries.

This kind of lack of any solution is proof positive that the True Finns did the absolute right thing when they didn't form a coalition government with National Coalition party this year. As an opposition party they can do what they do best: kick up dust and claim you can succesfully ignore problems until they go away. It's no wonder the True Finns are currently the most popular party among the ignorant many. Oh well, they have proven time and again that they are all bark and no bite, and if they manage to topple Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen's government we are in for endless entertainment. This won't be the issue that does it, however.

True Finns changes its official English name

Helsingin Sanomat reported today the True Finn party has now adopted "The Finns" as their official English name. True Finn leader Timo Soini is reportedly tired of having to re-translate his party name for foreign media to avoid being associated with nationalist extremism. Soini also likes "The Finns" because it is short and simple and even ordinary people his supporters will know how to write it.

Timo Soini, leader of the Finns

Ok well, first of all if you want to avoid sounding nationalist "The Finns" is probably not the best idea for a name. I imagine if there was such a thing as "The English Party", it would get lots of skinhead members really fast. Secondly, this would probably cause all manner of difficulty for reporters worldwide as they will presumably have to report the Finnish parliamentary opposition as consisting of "The Finns" and also the Centre party. Yeah, if I was a real journalist I would in all likelihood stick with True Finns. True Finns will do for this blog.

Timo Soini on a 'pilgrimage' to Ireland

After being rejected from the Finnish coalition government, the anti-european leader of the True Finn party Timo Soini decided to make a 'pilgrimage' to Ireland. Tim O'Soini famously converted to Roman Catholicism while taking part in a student exchange program in Ireland.

The Ireland bailout was one of the more pressing issues during the Finnish 2011 parliamentary elections, which saw Timo Soini gain an historic amount of support. Catholics are weird!

True Finns "denounce" racism

According to Helsingin Sanomat, the True Finn party, spurred on by recent developments has publicly denounced racism. The declaration was made after True Finn MP Teuvo Hakkarainen's recent comments. Fun fact: the declaration itself is apparently mostly written by blogger and popular racist Jussi Halla-aho, a True Finn MP. Here is the declaration:

AGAINST RACISM, DISCRIMINATION AND VIOLENCE

In the context of recent violent attacks against Helsinki area bus drivers and other racist aggravation of recent times, the True Finn party has been asked to denounce and distance itself from racism. The True Finn parliamentary group hereby denounces all forms of racism and discrimination, and will have nothing more to do with the aforementioned.

We denounce mud-slinging against any group on ethnic, religious, political or language basis, regardless of whether they're a minority or a majority.

We denounce all violations of the sacred right to physical integrity, regardless of the etnic groups of the assailant and the victim, and regardless of whether or not such acts are motivated by racial motives, other motives or unprovoked.

We denounce all discrimination on the job market and in education based on ethnic background, language, culture, religion or a similar aspect.

We demand that violent acts against persons will be dealt with, with appropriate gravity, regardless of the victim's majority or minority status. All irregularity in reporting news and making snap judgments against persons sends a strong message that their status as a member of a group affects their basic human rights.

We hold the opinion outright, that the powers that be need to treat every person as an individual rather than a representative of his minority or majority group, ethnic, cultural or otherwise. Nobody needs to be punished or indeed rewarded for their background.

The True Finn parliamentary group issues this declaration as a response to allegations of advocating racism, violence and discrimination that have been made against the party in mass media by political parties. We invite all other parliamentary parties to join together and sign this declaration, and issue penalties towards members who by word or deed act against the principles laid forth in this declaration.

Finnish Parliament 25.5.2011,

True Finns parliamentary group

So there you go, a bunch of bullshit with ample references to a supposed persecuted "majority", in an obvious attempt to appease the rabid racist Halla-ahoist fringe of the True Finn party. The last paragraph about "issuing penalties" is probably the most telling, because it was reported today that Teuvo Hakkarainen walked away from the meeting that agreed to this declaration with barely a word said about his atrocious behaviour. It's going to be fun seeing other parties tear into this one the next couple of days. Is the True Finn party in such a state of disarray that their leader Timo Soini needs to issue a "declaration" that basically says "we denounce racism (against whites)", and hope for the best?

The True Finns now the most popular Party in Finland

Helsingin Sanomat reported today that according to a poll by several newspapers, the True Finns are now the most popular party in Finland. Their popularity has risen by 3.3% points since the election, while the Social Democrats and Centre party lost a couple points each. The poll was conducted last week, after True Finn leader Timo Soini announced that the True Finns will remain in opposition from the government Coalition.

This is Timo Soini's happy face

 Interestingly, Jyrki Katainen's National Coalition party increased its popularity by half a point, even though they will be the prime ministerial party for the new coalition. This may be because Jyrki Katainen did literally everything in his power to secure a coalition that would have included the True Finns, even going as far as to make the Portugal bailout a separate issue from the formation of said coalition.

In the absence of the True Finns, the new "coalition of losers" as Timo Soini titled them in his usual eloquent fashion, will include the Left Alliance, Social Democrats, Green party, National Coalition and the Christian Democrats in a rough order from political left to right. If you followed the election at all, all of these parties lost votes to the True Finns. For the Social Democrats it was their worst result in all their history. This is roughly the same type of coalition government as the rainbow coalition of the Social Democratic PM Paavo Lipponen, in the 90s. The Coalition does enjoy a rather comfortable parliamentary majority, but excluding the undisputed winner of the elections, in terms of percentage points gained, will be seen by a lot of people as unfair.

Sorry, Portugal... Soini enters Flipmode

In yet another shocking twist, True Finns' leader Timo Soini retracted his earlier talks about the Portugal bailout being negotiable. His reply this morning to coalition forming headsman and probable future PM, National Coalition's Jyrki Katainen posing a question about Portugal bailouts indicated that the True Finns will refuse to partake in a coalition that is willing to bail out Portugal. Not only that, but they now cannot 'in good conscience' support the creation of a ESM, a permanent rescue fund, nor increasing Finland's share in the temporary bailout mechanism.

Flipmode... Flipmode is the greatest

Then at around 2pm Finnish time, Soini clarified his position and now says the matter is entirely in the hands of Jyrki Katainen, who has been tasked to form a majority coalition. He said he would be willing to negotiate, but that the True Finns would not accept having to vote in favor of bailouts or ESM creation. It is now 17:40 or there abouts, so who knows what might still happen! In any case, Jyrki Katainen will give his interpretation of this typically soini'esque situation tomorrow.

It looks the die has been cast, and either the National Coalition gives in to the anti-Euro party or the True Finns start off the next cabinet watching from the opposition side. Whatever happens, it does not bode well for the longevity of the next governing coalition. You cannot have a coalition that enjoys majority support in parliament with 39 True Finns reserving the right to vote against it. On the other hand it would be unprecedented if the greatest winner of the parliamentary election would be left outside the ruling cabinet, and it would almost certainly be seen by the general public as unjust. Jyrki Katainen is going to have a sleepless night over this one, I'm willing to bet.

Soini ready to accept Portugal bailout

In a surprise announcement on Finnish YLE TV1, the anti-EU, anti-euro True Finn leader Timo Soini stated he is willing to approve support to Portugal, if it means he will get into the governing coalition. Looks like the famous Soini opportunism scores one for the common good for once. Soini had earlier stated that he would "in no circumstances" accept "any kind of bailout for Portugal or any other indebted nation" but hey, this is his only shot at a ministerial post, ever. He's not going to pass that up.

Soini said there is no way to keep the position they had prior to the elections, which unsurprisingly is causing quite a bit of a stir in the rank and file of True Finn members, who are now openly calling their once-infallible leader a turncoat. At least online, that is. I have previously blogged about the challenge facing Soini in keeping control of a party with practically no official party line, and very powerful internal anti-EU, anti-immigrant factions. It remains to be seen if Soini is up to the task, but we are most definitely going to see some unusual political maneuvres in the party's internal politics.

I love the EU and the Portugal bailout is a dream come true!

Soini did not comment on his possible presidential candidacy, saying its a matter to be decided either in the True Finn party general assembly in June or more likely later in autumn. The former speaker of parliament, Sauli Niinistö of the ruling National Coalition party meanwhile seems a shoo-in for president in 2012, with the newspaper Ilta-Sanomat getting a whopping 56% support for him in their poll. If I was to make a prediction, they're going to run a anti-immigrant candidate to satisfy the powerful halla-ahoist racist fringe, not get past the first round of presidential election and support Sauli Niinistö in the second.

Several important parliamentary committees to be chaired by the True Finns

Helsingin Sanomat reported today that several of the more influential committees in the Finnish Parliament is to be chaired by the True Finn party. These include the committee of international relations, defence committee and the governmental committee on police and rescue services. Thus far only confirmed chairperson in the True Finn headed committees is Timo Soini, who will be in charge of the international relations committee.

This development gives the True Finn party a much greater influence in matters of immigration, police services, border control and national defence among others. The parliamentary committees include members from every major party, and the purpose of the parliamentary committees is to prepare the legislation to be passed on to the general assembly for approval. There are 16 permanent committees in the Finnish Parliament.

Halla-Aho's list of recommended candidates, a sign of things to come

In several recent comments about Halla-Aho and his list of candidates, some revelations have been made recently. It seems obvious that the person writing them has had some unusual insight into the inner workings of the True Finn party so I figured why not translate them here. Here goes.

It has been suspected for a long time that angry, far right young men are infiltrating, and indeed have been for several years, the True Finn party through its youth organisation etc. The idea is to capture an old, established party for their own use instead of trying to form one from scratch. They would establish the anti-immigration policies they want, make their way into parliament and finally get rid of the old, Finnish Rural Party veterans. Entryism is a viable tactic proven in history many times over.

I have been calculating that the change of generation would fall on the True Finns after the parliamentary elections as Soini begins to prepare for stepping down as party head, and the newcomers have established secure positions in parliament, preferrably even in cabinet.

It has also been obvious that Soini is worried about the neo-True Finns at his back, and their intentions. Soini has tried to belittle the Hommaforum cadre as a small group of anoraks and boffins, and is obviously uncomfortable when they are brought up in public.

27th March Soini published in his "plok" a list of his favorite parliamentary election candidates, certainly in the hope of leaving the True Finn party into their safe hands, after moving on to other things. The names on Soini's list are Pekka M. Sinisalo, Osmo Kokko, Pirkko Mattila, Ari Jalonen, Anneli Manninen, Ville Vähämäki and Marke Tuominen.

The competing list from our low profile challenger, Jussi Halla-Aho: James Hirvisaari (member of Suomen Sisu, stood court for racial incitement), Juho Eerola (member of Suomen Sisu), Olli Immonen (member of Suomen Sisu), Heikki Luoto ("Multiculturalism is as desirable as shit in a fan"), Ari Jalonen, Teemu Lahtinen (Suomen Sisu's former chairman), Johannes Nieminen (Suomen Sisu's former chairman, famous for re-publishing the Muhammad drawings), Pasi Salonen (opposed to hate crime legislation because thinks its discriminatory towards White Heterosexual Males and too lenient on gays and foreigners), Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo, Maria Lohela and Jarmo Juntunen (filthy rich member of entrepreneurial justice league, convicted of insurance fraud, several traffic violations and wiretapping the police department ; engaged in a massive private war against the Finland justice system on behalf of the Wincapita pyramid scheme). A question arises; if Halla-Aho is not a neo-nazi or not even racist, why does his list contain mostly racist people associated with neo-nazi groups?

summary: this, but somehow even more gay

People on Soini's list are almost completely unknown to people. Not one of them even has an entry on the Finnish language Wikipedia. Halla-Aho's list is more known and wikified. It is obvious to anyone that Halla-Aho's list is going to dominate over the Soini list in the elections.

The internal power struggle in the True Finn party has begun well before the April parliamentary elections. By any reasonable yardstick you would care to use, Halla-Aho has Soini in a choke hold. He has his opportunity, and no matter what you think about him as a person he is not stupid enough to forego taking it.

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 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.

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.

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 Finns' economic wizard indebted, living in an Ice Rink

Markku Uusipaavalniemi, the Olympic curler who also happens to be the True Finns' go-to guy when it comes to economic questions is currently in bad shape. Having divorced his wife in 2009, he has since been forced to move into an incomplete Ice Rink he built in Oulunkylä, Helsinki. He has been unwilling to comment on the move, deciding instead to comment "only on matters of economy". This he usually does with what sound like quotes from the hit conspiracy film Zeitgeist, rambling incoherently against 'fractional reserve bankin' and proposing the EU solve all its money problems by printing more. Seriously.

You wouldn't know any of this by looking at his home page though, since it seems to still state he is happily married and a member of the Centre Party. Bless.

You can't help but be reminded of the twilight years of the Finnish Rural Party, way back in 1995 when Timo Soini was the party secretary and they too went insolvent. The party's finances were a complete mess, and among other irregularities the party was found to have owed its own newspaper around four million euroes.Well, rather than solve any of these financial issues, Soini and other party leaders decided instead to declare bankruptcy, and founded a new party on the ruins, called the True Finns. Problem solved!

A third of True Finn voters are, well, not actually voters

It was revealed today by the newspaper Keskisuomalainen that only two thirds of those identifying asTrue Finn voters bothered to vote in the parliamentary elections of 2006. Additionally, only 14% of the current generation of True Finn voters are those who actually voted TF in 2006.

It is a well known fact in Finnish politics that the working-class voter is a finicky creature, whose turnout is dependent on among other things the weather and if they recently got paid. Those who get paid the same week as the election, tend to vote more conservatively than those who didn't. Add to this the fact the TF candidates are by and large local council members with as little as two years of experience from governance, and next to no name recognition and the True Finn's 18% poll rating may well dip under the 10% mark.