True Finns win breakthrough

Timo Soini, leader of True Finns

A populist party called True Finns has won a breakthrough in the recent national elections in Finland. Their share of the vote jumped from 4% to 19%, giving them 39 seats in parliament. They were only 50,000 votes away from being the most popular party.

Although they are by no means a traditionalist party, their stance on national issues is better than what has previously been on offer in Finland. For instance, they are critical of the loss of sovereignty to the European Union and they advocate limits on immigration. They strongly believe in the preservation of distinct national cultures.

They believe that the spiritual should not be neglected in favour of the material:

Finns think that the basic social structures ... should be based primarily on spiritual values. The material is a prerequisite for the achievement of a dignified life, but matter is not an end in itself. The pursuit of truth and spirituality is an integral part of humanity. Truths and perspectives are different, which means that mankind is naturally divided into different cultures. Cultures are mankind's most precious assets. Lasting prosperity can not be built on nothing. True Finns want to be a sovereign nation state and the advocates of Finnish culture.

True Finns are also against the managerial liberal state, criticising "an elitist conception of democracy with an emphasis on bureaucratic expertise as a source of power". They want a more populist conception of democracy, and one that is tied to national culture:

Populism is not a universal ideology, like socialism and capitalism, but it is always bound to culture and national character. Even the name of our party, True Finns, will tell you that our policy is based on the history of Finland and Finnish culture. The True Finns want to defend their own kansansuvereniteettia [?], which means only and exclusively for the people who constitute a separate nation from other nations is a perpetual and unrestricted right to decide freely and independently their own affairs.

I thought they made an interesting point here:

Nationalism is the recognition of the uniqueness of the individual as opposed to the cross-border nature of a policy, in practice, where individuals are forced to move across borders. Supranational policy states do not exist for its own citizens, but for the purpose of the strongest, and ultimately capital.

Individuals gain in uniqueness when they belong to distinct national cultures, as they cannot then be thought of as being readily interchangeable. And a policy of open borders is not, in practice, enacted for the benefit of the ordinary individual, but for powerful vested interest groups.

Whatever faults the True Finns party might have, their emergence does help to open up politics in Europe. Their electoral success is a positive sign, which will hopefully encourage others who wish to preserve a distinctly national existence.