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.

A True Finn member comments on the London Riots

Petri Kivikangas, a True Finn from Espoo Finland posted this thoughtful musing titled "Race riots in Britain" on his Uusisuomi blog.

Lately I've been following the fall of the current economic system with great interest. It has been just as interesting to follow the events unfold in Britain, especially since the Media seeks to avoid reporting certain things. We are seeing a resurgence of terms familiar from their reporting of immigrant-related crimes in Malmö. Such as 'youth', which I assume means the children of a certain immigrant group that is historically unable to integrate into society. You can verify this for yourself by looking at photos from the scene.

It's likely there will be once more people to understand these 'youths' as victims of society. In that case it needs to be asked why disaffected youth from other ethnic groups aren't looting and wrecking places in the same way? 

Actually, I'm just so numbed to this reporting, I can't be bothered to write a more in depth analysis. If people's eyes haven't been opened yet by events in other countries such as France and Sweden, this will not open their eyes either.

http://birminghamriots2011.tumblr.com/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-14450248

This shouldn't really surprise me after all I've posted about the True Finn racists, but it still does. Do I need to remind you this is the same party that said criticising Jussi Halla-aho after the Norway Shootings was distasteful? Here they are, blaming a whole race of people for a riot, in the year 2011. What a class act.

Halla-aho compares own supporters to Jihadists

In a typically peculiar statement to news agency AFP, True Finn MP Jussi Halla-aho has apparently compared his supporters to terrorists engaged in a holy war against the west. Iltalehti reports that Halla-aho thinks there is at present a witch-hunt against his supporters and free speech in general. Let's just quote the statement as reported by Iltalehti.

"In politics, as well as in political grassroots organisations, there have long been voices that try to suppress free speech. The attacks in Norway have given them a new weapon to use. There is no doubt that the terrorists who attacked the World Trade Center in September 2001 got their inspiration from the Koran and Islamist web pages, but nobody is trying to ban the Koran or shut down jihadist web pages."

Jussi Halla-aho then goes on to state that he agrees with Anders Behring Breivik's interpretation of his blog posts. He was quoted in the Norwegian mass murderer's 1500 page manifesto, specifically his post about the supposed leftist collusion with militant Jihadists.

"Yeah, I guess my supporters are kinda like terrorists when you think about it"

What are we to make of this? Well, firstly Jussi Halla-aho seems to live in some strange alternate reality, where there aren't politicians all over Europe trying to ban the Qur'an, and where various government agencies don't routinely try to take suspected terrorist material off the internet. Secondly, he thinks his blog is as relevant of a cultural contribution as the Qur'an. He has always been smug and pretentious, but has not come across as delusional before this. I'm guessing he is more shaken up by one of his internet disciples shooting a bunch of people than he lets on.

Helsingin Sanomat reports on Jussi Halla-aho's connection to Counter-Jihad Movement

In the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat today, True Finn blogger and popular racist, MP Jussi Halla-aho answered to questions concerning his involvement with radical anti-islam "counter-jihad" bloggers and activists. Halla-aho said he is an occasional reader of the racist blog "Gates of Vienna". The blog in question lists MP Halla-aho as a correspondent, the same status awarded to the infamous anonymous blogger "Fjordman", who is also quoted extensively in the Norwegian shooter's manifesto, to the point that Fjordman was actually suspected of being Anders Behring Breivik!

Jussi, 40 "My style icons include the Unabomber and the Michigan Militia Movement"

When asked to clarify what being a correspondent meant, Jussi Halla-aho reportedly screamed at the reporter and hung up. Administrators at the Gates of Vienna blog refused to comment on MP Halla-aho's involvement with the blog. Halla-aho later denied shouting at the reporter in a post in his racist webforum Homma, but Helsingin Sanomat says they have recorded the actual call. Gotta love journalists who actually get their job done! (Murdoch take note)

Halla-aho's flavour of anti-immigrationism has generally been under fire since the Norway attacks, with the popular soap box Uusisuomi closing down a whole bunch of loony right-wing blogs. Halla-aho has been opinionating a lot this past week for people to not judge all hate talk on the basis of one crazy individual. Why, some people are even saying racist lunatics shouldn't even have guns! A very bad week for halla-ahonists all around.

Jussi Halla-aho expresses his condolences for the victims of the Norway attacks

Just kidding, he posted this gem into Facebook:

"Many Finns, whose orgasm was interrupted when members of [Jussi Halla-aho's racist webforum] Homma failed to burn down [an immigrant owned] pizzeria in Tampere, are now making up for lost time. For your information, I regret nothing I've written and refuse to take any kind of responsibility for Breitvik's actions. Furthermore I intend to continue on my chosen path, because multiculturalism sucks ass, no matter what Breitvik did."

What a class act Finland has as chairman of the Immigration Committee!

Jussi Halla-aho's racist webforum closed down after Norway massacre

Looks like True Finn MP Jussi Halla-aho's racist webforum Homma has been shut down for today, following the news about mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik's email to True Finn MPs being picked up by several media sources. It is of course possible that the two things are not related, and that the webforum administrator just wants to quote "have 14 hours of silence in memory of the victims" but it still seems like an odd thing to do. There is also a message about an update on the website for Suomen Sisu, the interesting 'nationalist' group Jussi Halla-aho is a member of.

Meanwhile Halla-aho revealed to tabloid Iltalehti that he has in fact read the manifesto, and critiqued it for containing too much "Christian fundamentalism" and being "very confusing." Maybe he read the whole 1500-page manifesto during the 24 hours it's been available online? He is a doctor after all. In fairness, the manifesto does include in it a lot of text from various anti-islam bloggers, with whom Halla-aho may already be familiar. More entertainingly, in far-out conspiracy world, he might even be one of the far-right individuals who met in London 2002, who included the Utøya killer Anders Behring Breivik? Only time will tell.