Finnish politics

Problem is, a lot of extremist parties like - well, you know - gain ground at the expense of more entrenched parties that way by seeming more in touch with the man on the street. It's no co-incidence that in Britain most BNP voters are found in poverty-stricken areas whose residents often see the mainstream parties as having given up on them.

And now for something completely different...

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What I meant by the "hissy-fit"- thing is the amount of people who declared that they will emigrate from Finland because of the True Finns victory, the amount of rage and hatred on facebook in the election night was astonishing, and hilarious. It seems like some people thought that their victory means that Finland is going to be a unholy mix of The Turner Diaries and Mordor because of it. The other parties are way more elitist (especially the greens) than the True Finns, who speak and write more clearly and concretely than the other parties (though I have to confess that I do like some of the points that the Left Alliance have made, and their current chairman is a good and charismatic speaker). They ought to change their english name, because the meaning gets lost in translation.

The True Finns are a lot more moderate than the BNP (and do not have a fascist/national socialist past) and are more left economically than the UKIP, though the True Finns are in the same group of the European Parlament with the UKIP.

Hehehehe, here Nigel Farage congratulates the True Finns in this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1rIhRK8i9E

I don't think the Greens, the Left Alliance, the Centre of the SDP are elitist - the correct word is educated. Or well read, if you like. Since the regulations regarding etiquette in Parliament require that representatives must speak in a very official tone (kind of like Received Pronunciation) when the Parliament is in session, and since they're constantly writing official documents including laws, it's to be expected that most MPs and especially Ministers would speak in a way that's very different from how average Finns speak.

But yes, some people overreacted to the True Finns' victory, though plenty of people are more concerned about the power the Coalition Party is going to have.

edited 21st Jan '14 6:25:15 AM by BestOf

Indeed, the government negotiations are going to be very interesting, and frustrating.

That's the reason right there, in bold.

edited 18th Apr '11 5:26:44 PM by Kerrah

Thank you for your insightful post.

Moderator speaking: Let's try not playing the Hitler card, K?

I thought that I'd resurrect this topic.

First off, the Social Democrats now support the bailout of Portugal, despite being very critical of it when election campaign was underway. I suppose they will get some good seats in the new government. The True Finns have said that they will not be a part of the new government because they do not support the bailouts. So, despite the media trying to portray the True Finns as turncoats (their chairman mellowed his rhetoric somewhat after the elections), the Social Democrats ended up changing sides.

Tomorrow the parlament will vote about the bailouts. Now it seems that the only parties that will oppose it are the Left Alliance (I got to respect them for sticking to their principles, even though I dislike most of them) and the True Finns.

I'm a bit sad (though I did expect this) that the True Finns decided to stay out of government, despite being the only party that increased it's number of seats in the parlament. Well, at least they stood by their principles.

The SDP said before the election that they wouldn't accept the bailout of Portugal as it was proposed, not that they wouldn't accept it in any terms. They gave a list of demands that the deal would have to meet before they would vote for the package and Kokoomus added most of those things to the agreement, so the SDP didn't actually break their word or turn their coat, but they did water down their demands, as often needs to happen in negotiations.

Although I don't really know how it would affect Finland, nor do I particularly care, the surge of True Finns was generally considered a very good thing simply because of the effects on the EU bailout.

Damn, haven't noticed this thread before.

I'm a bit torn on the issue of Portugal. I agree on the need to help countries affected by depression, especially as a part of the EU, I just think the solution proposed isn't the best one.

Seems like True Finnns will stay in the opposition. I kinda hoped the new negotiations might have reached out to my party (Left Alliance), in the spirit of the 90's Red-Blue cabinet. Also, the addition of Christian Democrats might spell doom for the campaign for same sex marriage, or maybe the conservative party does what it does best and makes them sell out their ideals for a few minister positions*

As for my thoughts on the True Finns... I certainly don't like them, but they could be worse. But people like Halla-Aho, Oinonen and Hakkarainen *

• In the 90's Left Alliance was in the cabinet with the Conservatives, and helped pass budget cuts on social welfare. The greens were in the previous cabinet and had to vote for nuclear energy. True Finns almost got a taste for this with the Portugal aide. If the conservatives went into cabinet with themselves, Finland would be a socialist country in a week.

Being in the opposition looks like a good thing for True Finns. Looking at a lot of other European nations, the governments that have to preside over this bailout thing are becoming very unpopular, like in Germany. True Finns gets to run as the sole party against the bailout against a rather shaky and divided coalition government. Though a lot of this might be wishful thinking on my part.

edited 12th May '11 7:57:49 AM by Tsukubus

The Left Alliance also opposes the bailout (my personal views aside). And the whole thing will be a non issue by the next elections four years from now.

Also, I'd note that Germany has survived the recession rather well, mostly because it has lots of well-established conventional industry, as opposed to e.g. Ireland and Portugal, where the pre-recession rise stems from new investments.

Today Jyrki Katainen (the leader of the National Coalition party) told the media about the parties that will form the new government. The new government will consist of the National Coalition, the Social Democrats, the Swedish peoples party (they've been in the government for some 40 years in a row now), the Greens, the Christian Democrats and the Left Alliance.

This will be interesting to watch as there are a lot of disagreements (for example, the Greens support gay marriage and the Christian democrats are against it, and have made this a key issue for them. But the Greens have a history of selling out their principles, so this might not be such a big issue) between the parties that will form the government. Another big issue was the Portugal bailout, which the Left Alliance and the Christian Democrats opposed during the election campaign, but now are willing to go into a government that will supports it, but that's politics for you.

Looks like someone forgot to read the paper again. (Links are to Helsingin Sanomat, the largest newspaper in Finland; so the news are in Finnish.)

There is no new government yet, nor is there any certainty who's going to be in it. Katainen announced that he's including the Greens and the Left Alliance in the negotiations. That's all. The Greens and the Left Alliance have both published a list of demands that everyone in the new government would have to accept before they'd join the government. Both lists include things that make it very unlikely that the Left or the Greens would get in unless the Coalition Party becomes the greatest compromiser in recent history.

The Left Alliance isn't going to vote for Portugal, even if we're in government. Arhinmäki, our chairperson, recently said that the temporary and long-term programs for financial stability in Europe (in other words, the European bailout funds) are still negotiable. Bailing out Portugal is something we're not negotiating; we're going to vote against it, government or not.

edited 21st Jan '14 6:23:23 AM by BestOf

Well, here (http://www.uusisuomi.fi/kotimaa/112246-hs-mika-muuttui-paavo-arhinmaki) Paavo says that they might vote for the bailout of Portugal. or at least that is the reporters interpretation of his statement. I don't order Helsingin Sanomat or any other newspaper, though I do read their websites daily.

I don't buy or subscribe to Hesari either; it's too big, full of ads and expensive as all hell.

But I read the site daily.

Reading the article you linked. It's weird. First it says that the Left Alliance is sticking to its position regarding Portugal and then it says that Arhinmäki won't explain why his party has changed its mind about the permanent and temporary bailout funds. After saying that Arhinmäki won't point out the time that requirements of investor responsibility were added into the deals proposed, the article immediately points out that these are what the SDP negotiated into the deals.

So the Left Alliance is going to vote against bailing out Portugal, but might vote for the European bailout funds if they are modified to include more restrictions and penalties on irresponsible investing.

Basically, our position to the bailout funds is the same as SDP's position towards Portugal. They managet to get the Coalition party to include their demands in the package proposal, so they're voting in favour. If we get our demands, we'll vote for the permanent funds, too; but we're not voting for Portugal.

edited 21st Jan '14 6:24:01 AM by BestOf

Just remembered to ask, what is Finlands main religion?

edited 23rd May '11 12:35:59 AM by GameChainsaw

Most Finns are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland (78.2%). with approximately 4.2 million members.

The majority of Lutherans attend church only for special occasions like Christmas, weddings and funerals. The Lutheran Church estimates that approximately 2 percent of its members attend church services weekly. The average number of church visits per year by church members is approximately two.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Finland

Ok, found this thread just now, which is why I didn't post earlier

I live in Espoo, Finland and just turned 18 in September so this was my first election. At first I was a bit undecided on wether to vote for the Greens or Leftist Union. Ended up voting for Marissa Varmavuori of the Union.

After the election there was a lot of talk of how True Finns should be in the goverment because otherwise it would be a "losers goverment". I don't see why, only about 1/5 voted for them. It's not about how many more votes a party gets, but the absolute amount of them.

edited 23rd May '11 7:23:27 AM by Qeise

Plus, as Arhinmäki (the head of the Left Alliance) said when the True Finns' chairperson, Soini, accused the other parties of forming a losers' coalition: it's kind of hard to make a government out of winning parties when only one party won and then they stepped out of the government-forming negotiations. If you have some authority and responsibility and then you give it up voluntarily, you don't get to tell everyone off for carrying out the responsibility before they've even made a single mistake.

edited 21st Jan '14 6:24:39 AM by BestOf

That, and there is no law stating a party that gained seats must be in the cabinet. Hell, they're only the third largest one, anyway. SDPP was the third largest last time aorund and wasn't included.

Exited to see how this turns out, but it's been a rather long processs, I think you all can agree.

Also, man, some motherfuckers just never learn. Hint, if you're a politician people will write down waht you say.