True Finns

[DWM]

At Books from Finland - now a WordPress blog - Jyrki Lehtola considers the True Finns, a relatively new political grouping in Finland. The True Finns reflect a populist outlook on the world, with conservative attitudes towards issues that concern things like immigrants, homosexuality, feminism, abortion and Europe. Until recently, Finns on the liberal left did their best to ignore this new movement in Finnish politics, but as time passes and it becomes increasingly clear that the True Finns are not going to go away, it looks as though some kind of new appraisal may be required:

And now the True Finns are suddenly a significant political force – evidence that we have failed to turn a significant portion of our nation into model European citizens; and what’s worse, they seem to be proud of their prejudices and negativity.

But we can’t say that. We can’t admit that we Finns are just that, true Finns. Our whole idealised self-portrait project would fall apart in our hands.

That is why we try to turn the True Finns into an anomaly, an interesting, exotic minority, and we in the media have always taken the side of downtrodden minorities, because minorities are cute like baby kittens.

But now the downtrodden minority is actually that rather large part of the populace who don’t care about any other minorities than themselves. And they don’t resemble kittens at all. They resemble us Finns.

[DWM]

Incidentally, for those who read Finnish, the website of the True Finns (Perussuomalaiset) is here.

[Eric]

If we get the equivalent of fascism or Nazism again in Europe, it will be the fault of all the reasonable parties ranging between social-democracy and conservatism which have not bothered to address the huge problem of economic immigration (not genuine refugees) in all the countries of the EU and a few other well-organised ones.

The whole of North Africa and some of the Middle East is now boiling against the dictators. The West has supported these undemocratic leaders on a "better the devil you know" basis. Now already 5,000 Tunisians, seeing that their revolution might not succeed in the way it has done in Egypt, have made their way to Italian territory.

Europe cannot possibly cope with large numbers of immigrants from countries where the lifestyle and philosophy is totally different to ours. Call it racism or xenophobia, but Europe will become the theatre for endless race riots and mayhem if we take too many immigrants and do not make any attempt to integrate or assimilate these people, simply dump them in dead-end suburbs and hope the problem will go away.

Compared with this gigantic problem of refugees from the revolutions in the Arab countries, the fact that 17% of Finland are said to support a party that is rather near to the ultra-right and doesn't like the Swedish language is a relatively minor occurrence.

I think that there are so many large catastrophes coming from without, that the home-grown ones are not as important. The True Finns may be baby wolves, but given the fact that so many people from distant countries want to live in a mirage called Europe, I feel that civilised nations must address problems by priority rather than what someone writes in a magazine that is supposed to be there to promote literature. There are too many armchair intellectuals around who paint black scenarios but do not want to even think about the unpalatable choices that real-life governments have to make.

[Bjorn]

Well, given the resurgence of far-right neofascists willing to blame everything on the evul furriners elsewhere, hardly a surprise. I'm not sure we need a thread for every kooky extremist cult in Europe, but hey...

[Eric]

P.S., comrades, have you noticed the similarity in appearance between Timo Soini and Taisto Sinisalo (both TS). If you have never heard of these two men, shame on you. You can't discuss Finnish politics in the abstract.

Björn, never mind the "but hey" vagueness. You are a leftie, I a rightie, but while I set out my opinions with great precision, you just mutter something about foreigners. How well do you know neighbouring Finland? My impression from speaking to Swedes is that there is an abysmal ignorance in Sweden about their geographical neighbours, whether in Scandinavia or the Baltics. And the ludicrous slogan "Stockholm, Capital of Scandinavia" says it all.

I bought Aftonbladet a couple of days ago for the first time in a very long time. I was shocked that 2.5 million Swedes are supposed to buy this primitive tabloid every day, and perhaps only supplement their view of the world with the TV news.

[Bjorn]

while I set out my opinions with great precision

You do indeed, and while it's long since established that debating anything with you is utterly pointless, I'd appreciate it if you could dial down on the racist rhetoric.

/Mod

[DWM]

I'm not sure we need a thread for every kooky extremist cult in Europe

I certainly agree. But what drew my attention to this article was that it appeared in a literary periodical (the Books from Finland blog), and was written by a Finnish newspaper columnist earlier known in Finland for his work on such subjects as literary postmodernism.

Now you could argue that perhaps Jyrki Lehtola should have stuck to postmodernism instead of writing satirical columns for Ilta-Sanomat and the like, but what he seems to be saying in the piece that Owen Witesman translated is that the True Finns (no cult, but a major political party which may enter the next coalition) are revealing the real face of the Finnish people. These are the people we are going to be reading about when we pick up a contemporary Finnish novel or short story in the future. That's a disturbing thought, but one that deserves consideration, in my view.

[Eric]

Björn, give me some concrete examples of my racist rhetoric. I have criticised Stockholm for its ludicrous nationalist slogan, which is ten years old, so I understand. And I have called the Swedish daily evening tabloid Aftonbladet "primitive". Hitherto, nothing racist. But I notice that you are using your clout as Moderator to try to get me to "tone down" my opinions. That is hitting below the belt on a website where freedom of speech should hold sway.

[Bjorn]

I certainly agree. But what drew my attention to this article was that it appeared in a literary periodical (the Books from Finland blog), and was written by a Finnish newspaper columnist earlier known in Finland for his work on such subjects as literary postmodernism.

Now you could argue that perhaps Jyrki Lehtola should have stuck to postmodernism instead of writing satirical columns for Ilta-Sanomat and the like, but what he seems to be saying in the piece that Owen Witesman translated is that the True Finns (no cult, but a major political party which may enter the next coalition) are revealing the real face of the Finnish people. These are the people we are going to be reading about when we pick up a contemporary Finnish novel or short story in the future. That's a disturbing thought, but one that deserves consideration, in my view.

That is a good point, of course. Maybe we should have a thread for these sorts of discussions, much like we do for communism, so they don't end up in every single thread?

Eric, asking you to stick to the forum guidelines that you have agreed to is not hitting below the belt. It's also not up for discussion.

[Eric]

Björn, what exactly are the forum guidelines about discussing (not necessarily lambasting or praising) the activities and philosophy of an organisation such as the True Finns who, according to what David has said, enjoy the suppport of some 17% of the population of neighbouring Finland? Are they a downtrodden minority, or a dangerous force for reaction that could begin to get a grip on Finnish politics?

I live in Sweden, and see the country through a foreigner's eyes, as all of us here would be doing were we to discuss what the True Finns are likely to do in future in Finland. I do not believe there has been any debate in the decent Swedish newspapers about these people (e.g. DN, SvD, GP, Sydsvenskan and a few other papers). I avoid reading the Swedish tabloids, as I have explained.

We already have a thread for general discussion (General Chat), i.e. not specifically literary topics. Unfortunately, this particular thread has been created in the Blogosphere section. All the moderators have to do is move this thread to its proper place (General Chat).

When I start a thread, I try to follow the guidelines, so that my comments do not pop up in a random section of this website. We have adopted an unwritten code that, for instance, the sections for continents of the world (The Library of Babel main section) are about specific books by specific authors, not more general things about the literature of countries. Whilst under General Discussion we have more general discussions about the literature of whole countries.

So if you are policing the threads, please move threads if they have appeared in the wrong place.

[Eric]

To get back to the True Finns, which was DWM's reason for starting this thread: they now have a significant number of votes from the recent parliamentary election and will probably be in government.

What does this say about Finland? Have many Finns suddenly become ultra-right, or is this a protest vote against the ways that the what I would call decent parties (conservative, social-democrat, centre) haven't really tackled the thorny issue. So that ordinary people are getting restive.

As with Sweden, which also has the SverigeDemokraterna, i.e. a populist ultra-right-wing party in parliament, I just can't imagine that people just become more right- or left-wing overnight, or thast they suddenly become stupid, but that things come to the boil at some point.

How are parliamentary democracies, such as Finland and Sweden, going to tackle the big issues such as immigration, unemployment, the recession, defence, and a dozen other things? That is the question.

[hdw]

Extremist political parties remind me to some extent of Protestant religious sects in the way that they split and split again and each new division is more self-righteous and fundamentalist than the last one. Here in Scotland we have had the Free Presbyterians, the Free Church of Scotland, the United Presbyterians (a contradiction in terms if there ever was one), the Open Brethren, the Close Brethren, etc. etc.

In Northern Ireland, the IRA have spawned the Provisional IRA, the Real IRA, and now there is a new splinter group which calls itself ... wait for it ... "The IRA".

Martin McGuinness has been laying into them lately, bawling "You are not the IRA!" And he ought to know.

Harry

[Eric]

The ultra-right leader over here in Sweden has the Christian (?) name of Jimmie. No aspersions cast on the Scots, as his surname is Åkesson with the traditional Scandinavian ring through his nose.

But I wonder how long these split splits will last before y'r average normal but disgruntled person realises that these rabble-rousers are not really democrats.

As for the Northern Irish, don't worry it looks as if it's the Prods who're going to start off the fireworks this time. Why are the southern Irish so restful, and those "north" of the border (it isn't entirely true geographically) so restive?