The Norway Oslo Shooting Sent Shockwaves In The Nordic Countries

The Oslo bombing and shooting in Norway has sent the whole world into a state of shock after one of the worst terrorist attacks in the 21^st century. The Nordic countries are in a deep sorrow and united in their peaceful determination to defend the political systems known for their openness and democracy.  At the same time, discussions have started in the Finnish and Swedish media about the parliamentary extreme right-wing parties and their political discourse. In Sweden, the party leaders have kept a low profile but in Finland the Oslo tragedy might get consequences for the domestic politics.

All of the Nordic extreme right-wing parties have reacted in similar way by saying that one should not make politics of the Oslo shooting but respect the dead and their families and friends. Anna-Lena Lodenius, journalist and author and expert on right-wing extremism, wrote in the leading Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter that “even though the Nordic anti-immigration right-wing parties in some sense accept the rules of the parliamentary political system, they do at the same time use a political discourse that can appeal to persons like Breivik.” The second biggest newspaper in Sweden, Svenska Dagbladet, says that it’s cheap to make politics out of the Norwegian tragedy. The Swedish political parties have been more subdued in their discussions about the similarity between the political rhetoric of Sweden democrats.”

It appears if individual Sweden Democrats have been most prone to cover the subject in their blogs, making politics out of the Norwegian tragedy. Among others, a member of the Swedish parliament and the party leaders’ press secretary discussed the role of multicultural society in the Oslo shooting. These persons have already been condemned by leader of the Sweden Democrats, Jimmie Åkesson.

In Finland, the party political discussion has been more open in the media concerning the True Finns political discourse and the extreme groups that have their home in the party. The Green League and Swedish People’s Party of Finland and Social Democrats have been most explicit in their critique towards the True Finns.

Ville Niinistö, the party leader of the Green League, holds Timo Soini responsible for the hatred atmosphere in the country. Tino Singh, active in the Swedish People’s Party, says that the rhetoric of the Finnish politicians and groups Immigration critical rhetoric of politicians and groups is exactly the same as the one of Breiviks. Erkki Tuomioja, the social democratic Finnish foreign minister, has wished that Timo Soini would clearly condemn the extreme groups in the party. Eva Biaudet, the Ombudsman for Minorities of Finland, has said that the Finnish law might need to be changed when it comes to hate speech.

Besides the party leader Timo Soini, Jussi Halla-aho has been in the focal point, partly because of Breivik quoting him in his manifest, partly due to his engagement in several extreme anti-immigration networks. On Saturday Mikael Jungner, party secretary of the Social Democratic Party of Finland, demanded that Jussi Halla-Aho should resign from his post as chairman of the administrative committee in the Finnish parliament.

As Norwegians mourn their dead, they insist that they will not give up the openness of their society

Lipponen: Yokel Uprising Might Even Color the Presidential Election

Finland continues to analyze the results of the parliamentary election that was held last week. The former Finnish Prime Minister and former Speaker of Parliament Paavo Lipponen (Social Democratic Party) called the parliamentary elections for a “yokel uprising” in a newspaper interview. According to Lipponen, the election victory was based on populism and the True Finns offered easy solutions to complex issues. Lipponen stated that there has been a lack of leadership in the last eight years of governments that have been led by the Centre Party. The True Finns and Timo Soini took advantage of this political leadership vacuum and got a grand slam at the election night. Lipponen also believes that populism will reign in the next year’s presidential election. With this in mind, even the municipal elections 2012 should be a piece of cake for the True Finns, if the party has not lost its folksy charm by then.

The leading newspaper Helsingin Sanomat has analyzed its election database and located the MPs into a left-right and the liberal-conservative scale.​ The study stated that in the left-right scale the True Finns are located close to the Social Democratic Party and the Left Alliance. At the same time, the True Finns are clearly more value conservative than the traditional leftist parties. If this study had been available at the election night, it should not have come as a  surprise that the True Finns is a possible government partner together with the conservative National Coalition Party and the leftist Social Democratic Party.

Paavo Lipponen, once called a yokel himself, has also worked as a consultant for the Nord Stream gas pipeline company.

Finnish Parliamentary Election – A Populist Dream Come True

The Finnish political landscape and political reality has changed overnight. The National Coalition Party became the biggest party with 20.4% of the votes. This was a historical moment for the party, but the biggest winner and the biggest sensation was the anti-immigration and the populist party True Finns’ result. From being a minor party with no political power, it is now the third biggest party with 19% of the votes. Compared to the results from the 2007 election, all the other parties but the True Finns were losers this time. The biggest loser of all was the Centre Party, traditionally the ruling party in Finland. Due to corruption scandals and the unpopular party leader, it went down the drain and will now be sitting in the opposition.

How did the True Finns get so successful?

1. The Finnish election system favors strong candidates and voters are keen on supporting voting based on personality. This has favored the populist candidates. Many of the Finnish parliamentary members are sportsmen and –women that have become politicians after their active career. Many artists and even beauty queens and an MTV video-dj are sitting in the Finnish parliament. They’ve even been ministers.
2. The gap between the well-educated and successful Innovation Finland and the scared and the often unemployed Isolation Finland has got wider. The established parties have failed to explain the dynamics of the global economy and to convince the poor and uneducated groups that isolation will not be good for them nor for the country. The Social Democratic Party and True Finns have succeeded in seizing the political power that is built on the fear of being an outsider.
3. Finlandhas a history of being an outsider most of its time as an independent state. There is still some suspiciousness after the WW II when the country fought all alone against the huge enemy USSR and the promised help from west never arrived. The time of Finlandization i.e. adjusting the domestic politics after the Soviet threat did not make this feeling weaker.
4. The Finnish governments have been formed across the political field in spite of political dividing lines and this has lead to a reaction that all the politicians are the same. The True Finns have taken advantage of this dissatisfaction and have established themselves as an opponent to this arrangement and want to represent the “true”Finland.
5. During the campaigning, other parties said more or less yes to co-operation with the True Finns and this legitimated the party and made it more attractive to a broader public.
6. Media did not scrutinize the party and also this legitimated the party and made it more attractive to a broader public.
7. The most discussed issue in the suffrage were the bailouts for Portugal and other cash-strapped members of the eurozone. The True finns are strongly against the bailouts and the voters must have agreed. This will make the 17-member eurozone nervous where bailout funds require unanimous approval.
8. The party is against immigration and according to the polls, half of the Finnish population is negative to ease immigration regulation. It’s strange that this has become such an issue, the biggest non-European migrant group is as small as 6,592 persons.
9. The crisis of the value conservative Center Party made that many disappointed voters went to True Finns instead.
10. Finland does not have a tradition of discussing the democracy and human rights as a political issue. This is a big difference to the neighboring countries Sweden and Norway.
11. The party is a successor of another populist party, namely the Rural Party of Finland that was founded 1959. This makes that the True Finns have been present in the Finnish politics a while and even though the party is against immigration, it does not have a neo-Nazi past.

Right-wing populist parties are common and have governmental status in many of the EU member countries. This makes Finland more similar to other European countries than its neighbor Sweden. One could also see the result from another perspective: it was the first time when EU politics became domestic politics in Finland. The biggest party (National Coalition Party) is the most EU friendly party in Finland and the second biggest national vote magnet after Timo Soini (43 212 votes) was Alexander Stubb (41 766 votes), Foreign Minister and a declared EU friend. Next year there will be a municipality election in Finland. If the True Finns now became a member of the cabinet, it will be interesting to see if they can keep their popularity.