Finland's election results (Euro-skeptic True Finns winning)

YLE ^ | 4/17/2011 | YLE

[heiss]

Finland's election results (parlamentary elections):
55.9% of votes counted



PS (true finns): 19.2% (+15.2%)
Kesk (Centreparty): 19.0% (-4.1%)
SDP (social dems): 18.9% (-2.5%)
Kokoomus (centre-right): 18.4% (-3.8%)

VAS (communists): 8.1% (-0.7%)
Vihr (greens): 5.7% (-2.7%)
RKP (swedish): 4.3% (-0.2%)
KD (christian dems): 4.3% (-0.6%)


Seats in the new parlament (estimated):
Kokoomus: 42
SDP: 42
PS (true finns): 39
Keskusta: 38

[heiss]

Euro-skeptic and anti EU bailout party (and modestly anti-immigration) True Finns getting historic results. They are increasing their seats by 34 seats, from 5.

Final results can go any way. 4 big parties (1 leftists, 3 centr-right or rightist parties).

Winning party get to try to form the government (and likely premiership).

[ricmc2175]

Great news. Thanks for the link and the update.

[OldDeckHand]

It's so hard to compare political dynamics in one country to another. I know a lot of people have been trying to compare that True Finn movement to the Tea Party, but upon closer inspection, I'm not sure that really holds up.

And, in fact the True Finn movement is closer to the media caricature that is created of the Tea Party. What is going on in Finland is much more of a purity nationalist movement. That couldn't be further from what the Tea Party is about. The Tea Party isn't about race, or ethnicity. It's about SMALL Government.

If I'm not mistaken, True Finn is all about the continuation of the welfare state as it exists in Finland. If anything, it reminds me a bit of Germany, 1938. And, it's absolutely antithetical to what the Tea Party is trying to do.

[rawhide]

64% has the True Finns increasing their winning percentage to 19.4%.

[dfwgator]

I wonder how the True Finns feel about reclaiming Karelia back from Russia.

[dfwgator]

I wonder how the True Finns feel about reclaiming Karelia back from Russia.

[bert]

All most as many parties in Finland as there right wing factions on FRee Republic

[heiss]

Yes, that is largely true.

True Finns are against mass-immigration and losing national values to the political correctness and multicultural nonsense.

They oppose bailing out lazy southern europeans and they are Euro-skeptic or opposed to European union.

They also support higher taxes for the rich (though not as strongly as commies or leftist parties).

So yes, they want to keep the welfare system, but not in the way US public sector parasites want, i.e. they are worried about deficits and are ok with trimming budget.

They are partly conservative (family values, anti gay marriage), partly leftists (higher taxes for the rich).

Now it looks like the biggest party in the parlament is going to be Kokoomus (conservative party ie centre-right). but it is really close. They oppose tax hikes.

[UCFRoadWarrior]

Anyone who supports Globalism, Free Trade, EU, UN, WTO, is not going to be happy with these results

What scares the Global Elite is people rising up and reinstating their national identity.

Telling the EU to go to heck is the best thing any Euro nation can do right now. Globalism and its assorted subspecies cannot continue redistributing wealth from those who have a little money to those with none.

If only Americans would wise up like the Finns. Yet, all day, we have had the Liberal elements attacking the only one who is calling for any sort of Global retrenchment...Donald Trump

[Pining_4_TX]

Yeah, but they won’t get anywhere trying to invade another country on those little horses. ;-)

[muleskinner]

What’s the Swedish party?

[Revolting cat!]

What’s the Swedish party?

[prisoner6]

How do they feel about the Saami? From the little I can comprehend they would be favorable to them but the Saami are/were nomadic and seem to be treated as red headed step children...or worse.

I really don't know. I have some Saami friends and they seem like nice folk although very "earth" centered.

[ScaniaBoy]

A large minority of Swedish speakers in Finland. For several hundred years Sweden and Finland were one nation. In 1809 Russia occupied Finland and Finland remained part of Russia until the revolution 1917/18. After a bloody civil war in 1918 Finland gained its independence, and defended it valiantly until 1994 when the voters voted yes to accession to the EU.

[muawiyah]

The problem with the small Sa'ami minority in Europe is they are a very small minority ~ maybe 100,000 people at most. You do realize that there are many millions of Sa'ami in America, but for the most part they don't know that ~ and there's the other problem ~ lack of knowledge of their origins.

Finns are probably the least offensive group in Fenno-Scandia when it comes to Sa'ami relationships. The absolute worst were the Soviets who tried to collectivize them ~

The Norwegians and Swedes are somewhere in between the Soviets and the Finns, although reading the news I'd say that today's relations with the Russians seem to be almost acceptable.

Historically the Sa'ami occupied the entirity of the Peninsula and isthmus for maybe 10 to 15,000 years but have gradually been encroached on by Southern groups for a few thousand years. Eventually a couple of good Fimbul Winters will crop up and the newcomers will go running to their mommies in Italy or something.

[muawiyah]

A minor but important adjustment ~ in 1810 or thereabouts the Czar took possession of Finland as a personal acquisition, not as part of Russia which was separately administered.

That relationship changed in the 1900s, and eventually Finland achieved what amounts to full independence.

In that period where the Czar was taking over a very large number of Swedes who'd gotten rich in Finland LEFT FOR AMERICA with as much money as they could get out in a short time. Some of their Danish cousins (noble Swedish families always had Danish cousins ~ covering both sides in case of war) actually moved into slots in the new Czarist regime ~ then history really got out of hand as the Russians sought to penetrate to the Far East and Alaska.

Now, worse, the Swedes had not done a lot with their control of Poland, but they did sending mining expeditions into the Carpathians (on the Southern border of Poland, Northern border of Hungary). No idea if they succeeded, but the people they sent were mostly Sa'ami hard rock miners ~ possibly from Norway. The Czar was ALSO given possession of the Carpathians and he sent in Cossack units to run off the residents.

That took a bit of time, but I think the Sa'ami there, as well as Finns and Estonians into Carpathian mining schemes ended up in America digging canals in the Midwest where they were quickly misidentified as Hungarian Canal Diggers.

Fortunately the canal digging was abandoned by the 1850s and these guys moved on to other enterprises throughout the Midwest.

I hope some day to have backtracked on enough of these people to demonstrate movements of almost entire Sa'ami tribes to America in the early part of the 1800s.

[ScaniaBoy]

Thanks for bringing that part of the history to light.

I have never heard about the Sami miners being sent to the Carpathians, but I will try and find out, Sounds like a very interesting (and forgotten) part of the Nordic history.

One thing, though, by the year 1800 Sweden had lost its possessions in Poland. That actually happened during the Great Nordic War in the first two decades of the 18th century.

[Viiksitimali]

Hmm...

[muawiyah]

Losing one's territorial acquisitions is one thing; having your nationals resident in those former acquisitions run off by the enemy is yet another.

The Czar sent in the Cossacks, who became known as Carpatho Rhatians, later. They were all Russian Orthodox.

I still haven't gotten enough feel for the area to figure out if all the Slovakian Orthodox are from the good old days or are later Russian/Cossack move-ins from the Carpathians ~ there having been Orthodox folks living in those mountains!

You realize all this stuff before 1813 was taking place BEFORE the great famines and droughts started in the 1800s. After 1813 it was a whole 'nuther ballgame with vast swaths of Eastern and Western Europe, European Russia and Siberia suffering millions of deaths.

Before 1813 most folks left behind some record of their existence. After 1813 it was a problem to keep records of any kind.

America really got created all over again in that period.

[Amaranth]

True Finns aren’t a purity nationalist movement, sure they have some nationalistic views but they’re a quite moderate party. They don’t oppose immigration, but simply are critical towards our current immigration policy which is a complete failure.

But it’s true that they’re not really similar to Tea Party movement.