No right wing wave in Finland as Left Alliance take record result in EU elections
No right wing wave in Finland as Left Alliance take record result in EU elections
The European parliament elections were expected to see a surge in support for radical right-wing parties, but in Finland, things turned out differently.
Finland's results in the European election bucked a continent-wide trend of rising support for parties on the outer fringe of right-wing politics, with the Left Alliance and the National Coalition winning big at the expense of the nationalist Finns Party.
Leftist leader Li Andersson received more votes than any other candidate has ever received in a European election.
The Finns are all too aware of what far-right government means, they're living next to it, and it's threatening their very existence.
Congratulations on the Fins voting against barbarism! Here's to hoping the upcoming election here in the USA follows suit, and continues to reject reactionary nationalism.
The Finns are all too aware of what far-right government means, they’re living next to it
They're living in it. The existing Finnish government was already on a hard-right tilt over the last ten years, and this election has resulted in a countercyclical backlash.
This isn't a bunch of Finns saying "We don't want to be like Russia." It's a bunch of Finns saying the National Coalition / True Finns suck fucking ass for cannibalizing their public sector in order to inflate their police sectors in an anti-migrant freak out.
The country has dipped into a recession following a slew of big cuts to social spending and economic lag caused by the war. And people justifiably don't like that shit.
This also gives me hope that after a couple of years of far-right governance, these people will end up losing and more centrist politicians will be in charge again. Making this shit temporary in Europe.
They also have a (lesser than the neighbor) far-right government
I didn't know that, thank you for informing me! Hopefully the new government can succeed in undoing any damage done by the previous government.
Some comments have pointed out that Finland already had a right-wing government going into this election, and I'll admit that I was entirely unaware of this.
Again, I congratulate the Finnish public on rejecting right-wing and authoritarian politics, especially after having to suffer under it at home.
Again, I congratulate the Finnish public on rejecting right-wing and authoritarian politics, especially after having to suffer under it at home.
If only
The USA first needs a serious left wing party for that to be possible.
God I'm sick of explaining this.
If everyone voted for the left-most party, and the right had no votes, the right would move towards the left, pushing the dems along with them.
Not surprisingly, when the country votes left your politics moves left.
Comments like this are the reason why the dems are not the bastion of leftism you so desire.
From the same country that gave us Linux, inspired Middle Earth's Quenya (noble Elvish) language, and showed us how to properly manage prison reform.
My question: why are the Finnish always so awesome?
P.S. Contrary to what one failed former conspiracy-addled political "leader" suggested, the Finnish do not rake their forests.
When all people are cared for, no one turns bigot. This becomes a vertuous circle. "Simple as that". Meanwhile France worked hard to release the kraken
all people are cared for
This. This is the part we need to learn.
Can you send emissaries to train us heathens how to not be dicks? I want to be happy like Finns, and the people who want to be rich instead (temporarily, as the next traffic accident will ruin them) we can help with psychotherapy.
Well, despite all the good work and against common sense, surprisingly many still turn bigot. But much less so, luckily.
Seems like some people just can’t be content and happy, no matter what. And you have to direct that anger or bitterness or whatever to something. Too often it’s hate.
Idk there's lots of talk about how big of an issue racism is in Finland and True Finns did really well in last parliamentary electiond
Soooo you are saying that we should take care of our people by giving them guns, right?
the Finnish do not rake their forests
but they have turned it into a running gag
Seems like it would be a great quip when someone’s being an ass. “Go rake a forest.”
Allow me to gas Finland up a bit more. They're higher than Germany in terms of innovation (triadic patents per capita), they have semi-democratically owned grocery stores with 90% of the country being a member/co-owner, they have 60% union density and a Ghent system (like Sweden, unlike Norway), their housing prices were among the few in Europe falling - after the government started their Housing First initiative and built social housing for the poor, their education system being so good (despite being relaxed unlike e.g. Singapore) and state-funded instead of private... life is pretty good in Finland.
But i did vacuum clean it the other day
I think it really goes back through history. Finland was a possession of Sweden and then Russia. The nobility would have spoken either of those languages depending on who was in charge, and ethnic Finns were essentially pawns for the larger powers, and the finnish language wasn't even written down much.
This changed when Russia started to crack down on Finnish culture, leading to a surge in pro-Finnish sentiment. People even changed their names from Swedish versions to finnish versions, and went from using "Christian" names to names from finnish mythology or culture. Actually, it's somewhat similar to how black Americans changed naming conventions in the Civil rights era. The very concept of finnish-ness was somewhat of a working class concept. This, combined with a similar law of jante type belief meant there was and is much more of a focus on the collective good than in other countries.
During the Russian revolution, a Civil War erupted between left wing and right wing, with the right wing wanting a German aristocratic monarchy over finland. The right wing actually won, but it was very short lived because Germany lost WW1 right aftwards, and a liberal democracy was formed. Finland was super poor, but started to build itself up as it's own country.
When WW2 rolled around, most people are familiar with the Winter War where they held their ground against a Russian invasion. Most people aren't as familiar with the Continuation War against Russia, where they (with the support of germany) continued to fight against Russia, or the Lapland war, where they actually had to fight against Germany to kick them out of the country. The Germans actually used scorched earth on finland as they retreated, knowing they were losing WW2.
After all of that, a huge swath of finland was destroyed by the Germans, or annexed by the Russians, leaving many homeless. Finland had to provide for those people, so homes were rebuilt rapidly throughout the country. Since they were in the soviet sphere of influence, but they weren't a Warsaw pact country, they didn't get any assistance from the eastern bloc (and they actually had to pay reparations as an axis country). They were also not included in the Marshall plan that helped provide recovery to western Europe.
They survived as a people by taking care of each other, and they are very proud of that. If you go to a Finnish museum, next to works of art and science, you'll see things like the baby box, or other displays about the establishment of the welfare state. Many countries have a welfare system, but treat it like a dirty secret, while they celebrate what they were able to accomplish.
One last thing I think is really cool is that they are not afraid to experiment with policies. Many governments will do little trials of policy here and there, but not many go to the point of actually doing scientifically rigorous studies.
I feel extremely informed, thank you!
Don't forget the music! Nightwish, Ensiferum, Finntroll, and many more...
Teräsbetoni
Having a population of 5.6 M probably makes a lot of problems more manageable.
Unfortunately it’s the opposite here in France and I’m devastated.
Congratulations to the Finns!!!
Well hopefully your population is intelligent enough to see through the lies after the populists take in to office. It's usually when their incompetence shines right through as they'll just start making excuses and keep blaming the opposition for their failures. It's also the point where they usually start breaking most of the promises they made during the elections or while they where in the opposition.
The French also have history of not so peaceful protests so the people in the ivory towers need to take that in to account.
Well that didn't work out for Germany. However, maybe the most recent scandals of some German AFD representatives did prevent them from receiving even more votes. Nevertheless, the AFD hasn't received any recognition for its beneficial contributions in the parliament thus far. Typically, it involves strange remarks or overall misconduct. But their overall propaganda seems to be still very effective.
I like Li Andersson's three major goals. Seriously… How could this be wrong for certain people. I don't get it
to end poverty, to make the world more equal and to solve the climate crisis
Fuc*ing leftits with their positive, political goals. Disgusting /s
Thanks for the hopeful message.
I have no doubt the French far-right would fail miserably like every other EU far-right government, and I wouldn’t bother too much in other circumstances but those suckers are Putin’s friends and the last thing I want to see happening is the end of Ukraine’s support.
Macron just dismissed the government, and we’re up for new elections in two weeks. There’s a good chance that for the first time in the French Republic History we don’t have a single leftist voice at the government.
We are famous for our protests indeed, but with a far-right government cops will just feel allowed to do their worst, and we might reach chaotic levels of violence.
Anyway, thanks again for your message. We’re not there yet and I need to blow off some steam.
The French also have history of not so peaceful protests so the people in the ivory towers need to take that in to account.
They do, which is why they've invested so heavily in state police forces and surveillance technologies. France runs tight behind the UK in terms of over-policing of potential dissidents (re: poc, college kids, community activists) and cribs a lot of their techniques from the US and Israel.
"Record result" doesn't even begin to describe how hard they shattered their previous number. They went from 7% last election to 17%. Left Alliance has never seen numbers like this as far as I know.
Yep. From a minor party to second place, with a small campaign and core leftism program. Li has been the straight shooter calling bullshit out for years and suddenly it worked. Absolutely amazing
This warms my hearth.
I'm actual a member of a small leftwing party in my own country and (having lived 2 decades abroad and seen other political realities and even been a member of the Green Party in Britain) have concluded they suffer exactly from the problem that well entrenched leadership are not "straight shooters calling bullshit out", and instead their style of discourse "avoids giving offense", sounding far too much (IMHO) like the mainstream supposedly-left party we have here and leaving an impression about the party (to those who aren't tribalists predisposed to support and believe in anything the party's leadership says) that they're just another group looking to suckle from the tit of the state.
I think the problem in my party is due to the leadership being a very uniform group of 30-something well-off scions of the Middle Class (which, in a country that until the revolution of 74 that overthrew Fascism had very little Middle class, shows that they're hardly coming "from the people") who got to the leadership mainly due to nepotism (often being the sons and daughters of party founders) or by going to the same shcools and being similar to each other and talking the same talk as the rest - i.e. cronysm - and who, from the explanations I got from one of the party's members of parliament for certain anti-Democratic practices inside the party, see themselves as superior to the rest of the members of the party (which probably explains why they listen - if at all - very little to the rest of the party and seem unable to change even after losing between half and two thirds of the vote).
So I hope I can use the example of the Left in Finland to internally push for a kind of change in leadership and discourse, towards one much more broadly representative of people in this country and who is willing to talk about how parts of the machine are broken and need replacing (and do so anchored on a proactivelly tought through vision for the future, rather than the mere reactivelly "complain about things blowing up after they blew up" so common in my country) rather than the current mild-mannered, frustrating reactive discourse that amounts to little more than "the car is fine, it's just some some screws that need tightenning".
Thqnk you Finland!!!
Being next in line to be invaded by Russia helps keep the insane voices down I guess.
Most people I know are afraid of foreigners stealing their peace and property and enslave their daughters and shit like this.
It's people that prosper so long they don't know any real threat and keep imagining one. Queue the far right stoking those fears.
The fins got some real problems and it unifies them.
Maybe two things; people see what the far right is currently messing up in the Finnish government, and Russia (& China) focused on Germany and France so the election was cleaner. Sweden's Left also had a huge jump
I don't think that's it, many countries with neighboring hostilities still suck.
Guys.
Finn here.
42 % turnout.
We still have a massive problem with rising nationalism and general right-wing rhetoric, don't kid yourselves. It's just that those morons don't think EU elections matter.
Always good to have some insider info
ok but can you share the trick to keep the dicks from voting?
We could have a lot of nice things (like you've already got!) if we could, uh, drive the bus....
Obviously you're much better informed about this than me, who has never even been to Europe.
I can't help but wonder why only Finnish morons would avoid voting, and not morons from elsewhere.
As in... why does this dynamic only apply to Finnland?
As in... why does this dynamic only apply to Finnland?
I don't think I even implied it did.
Hey finns, will you take me in again, like you did during Erasmus? Pretty please? I do like saunas, lakes, woods, Salmiakki and metal so I should fit right in, right?
Just one question before we let you in: how do you pronounce "sauna"?
I might have believed you until you went too far claiming you like Salmiakki.
I'm moving to Finland.
I hope you know Finnish already or are really good with languages because it's completely unrecognizable to people who speak most other European languages. My dad went to Helsinki in the 90s and said the only signs he could recognize were ones which had international logos like McDonald's.
This is (according to a search) "I love you" in Finnish: minä rakastan sinua.
But yes, it sounds like a very nice place to live.
I'm familiar with the language, I just don't know it. But Finland is bilingual, as there is also a lot of
NorwegianSwedish spoken and many signs are inNorwegianSwedish too. I have less issues understandingNorwegianSwedish. Myself I'm Dutch, I've been to Finland several times. I'm not even going to try to learn the language, it's really hard. But in major cities they speak English.Edit: I didn't remember correctly the second language
Good for the Left Alliance.
Good to see a country buck the conservative trend going around lately.
Well I don't think we really have, honestly.
It's just that the inbred racists who are all too common don't think these elections mattered.
Yeah. 42% turnout.
What I hear is that some European countries are leaning right on over-immigration and are voting on the basis of that issue.
Countries that aren't going through that, aren't voting right.
France and Germany were, so they went right. Portugal and Finland weren't, so they went left.
Russia was (I don't know the current status) playing games on the border by dumping thousands of migrants at once - https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/finland-says-thousands-migrants-seek-enter-via-russia-2024-02-20/
Putin will be happy, as now Andersson will be replaced in the finnish parliament by a Putin loyalist Johannes Yrttiaho, as Andersson can't sit on both parliaments by law.
If you didn't know, there are many Putin loyalists in the finnish Left Alliance, working as an internal opposition faction against Andersson's faction.
One of the rules is to assume every group is infiltrated by fascists
My god I want to emigrate over there so bad.
be more like norway and finland and less like sweden
Sweden's Left got a new seat as well
I'm quite curious if this was due to leftwing parties changing the way they talk and going back to politics anchored on principles or if it was something else.
In my own country (Portugal) mainstream supposedly-left are soft neolibs, then there are the Communists (sadly mere slogan parroters invariably putting Party above Principle and hence amongst other things supporters of Putin) and the "thinking" Left who are quite out of touch middle class scions of the middle class (well intended-ish but societally ignorant people who were born with a silver spoon on their mouths and live in a very local - in a country were half the population is emigrated, almost none have actually lived abroad - bubble of relative priviledge) whose style of presentation is the same as the politicians from the "supposedly-left mainstream party" and who have copied the liberal take on Equality (from America, a country that pretty much only has hard-right and far-right, so it's hardly a leftwing "equality for all" take) rather than the principled, identity-agnostic take on Equality. Also they obcess about the far-right, in practice helping them grow (it's a well known phenomenon in Propanda that if a Party is constantly talked about by others, even if only to criticise them, they get perceived as important and end up growing). Unsurprisingly the entire mainstream is losing votes just like everywhere else, the alternative Left has recently collapsed to half the size it one was and only the far right is growing (which in my country is one ultra-neolib party and a fascist one).
It would be great if the Left in Finland had found a solution for this that's culturally-agnostic and hence applies all over Europe directly, rather than be dependent on the kind of cultural factors that take the 4 decades or so these things usually take to get to Portugal from Northern Europe.
Finland has two major left parties: SDP (social democratic party), which is the more center leaning party. Then there is left-wing party, which is more to left. The more left one won now big, and it is uncommon for them to be one of the big winners.
We also have communist party here, and liberal party, but those are really small. Communist got 2 828 votes in total.