Finland’s general election has seen a nationalist party take nearly a fifth of the votes, according to the electoral commission. The True Finns, who have campaigned against EU bail-outs including the proposed Portuguese rescue, finished on around 19 percent, just behind the conservative NCP Party and the Social Democrats.
It is now possible that a hostile Finnish government, including the Social Democrats who have called for changes in the way EU bail-outs are organised, could veto the Portugal package altogether. Votes on whether to approve measures can be taken in the Finnish parliament, unlike in other eurozone countries.
The final results revealed that the True Finns, who oppose immigration, won 39 seats in the 200-seat parliament. The gain put the party just five seats behind the NCP, which is a supporter of European integration, and three seats behind the Social Democrats. The former largest group in parliament, the Centre Party, is down 16 seats from the last election to just 35.
Former Finance Minister Jyrki Katainen is expected to replace the Centre Party’s Mari Kiviniemi as the country’s prime minister. Despite being the biggest party, however, it is likely that the NCP will have to form a coalition with one its rival political groups.
Jyrki Katainen denied that Finland would now make waves in the eurozone.”Finland has always been a responsible problem solver, not causing problems,” he said. “This is about a common European cause. After the elections, the biggest parties will begin to look for common ground. The True Finns’ victory, surpassing every poll and every expectation of a drop on election day, plus the total collapse of the Centre – the whole thing is historic,” he added.
True Finns leader Timo Soini spoke on Finnish TV after the result, saying the terms of the bail-out for Portugal need to be changed. “The package that is there, I do not believe it will remain,” he said.
He also, however, attempted to reassure other EU countries that no threat is posed by the party. “We are not extremists, so you can sleep safely,” he claimed.
” Being against European Union and loose immigration policy is far from concentration camps and Nazism. ”
Yes, nothing wrong with the True Finns — as long as they are for free trade.
Steve Barker wrote :
” >British National Party which most people would agree tends towards Nazism. ”
As you no doubt know the abbreviation Nazi stands for National Socialist. Hitler and his opportunistic scum bags did fuse together nationalism and socialism as the bottom for their jack booted war machine.
The policiies of this BNP is left wing — and they are also rascist+ although not as far away from traditiona British Labour party as media in the UK present them.
This BNP present them selves as far more moderate in some ways than Labour party did during the late New Labour era.
But back to True Finns.. the topic of this post. There is nothing wrong with nationalism as long as it does not exclude free trade.
Free trade ensures that any nonsense about ” foreigners ” is quickly put down because people are trading with those foreigners — and free trade generally means more peace between peoples and nations.
The EU customs union is against this free trade as the EU commission does control the trade — not the member states. EFTA ideas where each country can negotiate they foreign policy including trade deals if they want to is much better.
+http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danielhannan/9612526/New_Statesman_BNP_is_to_the_Left_of_Labour/
I the UK we have the Scottish Nationalist Party, and the Welsh Nationalist Party, both are slightly to the left of centre. No one would ever accuse them of Nazism.
We also have the British National Party which most people would agree tends towards Nazism.
Actions speak louder than words.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/nationalist
“Maybe the author should get his facts straight before writing an article. I think it is pretty harsh to call a political group (True Finns) “a nationalist party”. Being against European Union and loose immigration policy is far from concentration camps and Nazism. ”
In English, Nationalism is NOT Nazi. It simple means putting your own national interest first. The Nazi’s had a whole list of belief and policies besides nationalism. However,a lot of nationalists seem to act like they want to Nazi’s by being racist, but thats racism.
Maybe the author should get his facts straight before writing an article. I think it is pretty harsh to call a political group (True Finns) “a nationalist party”. Being against European Union and loose immigration policy is far from concentration camps and Nazism.
Maybe this is a sensitive subject in Iceland because of the upcoming European Union election? There is nothing wrong to be against EU. My country has been part of it over 10 years and if we could choose again we would never join into it! I think the results of this election in Finland is clear evidence of how unhappy the Finns are about the EU-happy politicians who are throwing hundreds of billions euros to Europe to fund some problems that is not even our business.
Well that is all I’ve got to say here. Go Iceland, join to European Union. Try it, you will “love” it! Oh wait…I forgot, once you are in there is no way out!