NEWS ANALYSIS: The True Finns. Not just populists any more

Soini wants to guide party into government

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By Unto Hämäläinen
     
      Timo Soini stumbled into a trap set by the media on Monday last week while walking in the open market in Porvoo. Surprised by journalists, the True Finns chairman started pondering what kinds of ministerial portfolios the True Finns might want after the Parliamentary elections next spring.
      He said that the party would want two portfolios. “Minister of Trade and Industry” would be acceptable, but the party would not want to have the post of Minister of Labour. It also became quite clear that Soini himself wants to be a minister. To hold the second portfolio, he offered any one of the True Finns’ Members of Parliament, including Veltto Virtanen.
      In spite of his ostensibly relaxed manner, Soini is very careful about what he says. He is not one to be caught making factual errors or serious gaffes.
      So why was he speaking incautiously in Porvoo?
     
Soini was certainly sober, but he was speaking as if he were a bit tipsy.
      Anyone who has ever had alcohol knows how the mouth starts running at a certain early phase of intoxication. Teetotallers will not understand the metaphor.
      But it is not alcohol, but rather success that had gone to Soini’s head, and no wonder.
      Last weekend a poll was published, taken by the market research organisation Taloustutkimus, which gave the True Finns an all-time record level of support.
      The numbers included the stunning piece of information that the True Finns have actually managed to eat away at the support of the National Coalition Party.
      Only the sky would seem to be the limit, and the elections are just eight months away.
     
Soini’s slip was a godsend for journalists. There is no longer any need to speculate on what Soini’s party hopes to achieve after the elections.
      The True Finns are no longer a populist party in the accepted sense of the word. A purely populist party offers an alternative in elections, but voters know that it will not join a government after the elections.
      It is possible to vote for such a party as a protest without worrying about any downwind consequences.
     
The last time that Finland had a genuine and strong populist party was in the winter of 1983. It was the Rural Party, or SMP.
      Under the leadership of Pekka Vennamo and Veikko Vennamo the party scored a massive victory - 18 seats in Parliament.
      The SMP was a channel of protest. People were angry over the antics of corruption-prone bigwigs, and many also voted for the Vennamos’ party as a protest against the Paasikivi-Kekkonen foreign policy line.
      The Vennamos dared criticise the Soviet Union in much the same way that Timo Soini is now criticising the European Union.
      Hardly anyone imagined that the SMP might ascend to the government.
     
It was thus a considerable surprise when Social Democratic Party chairman Kalevi Sorsa asked the SMP to join government formation talks.
      And a couple of weeks later, the SMP was part of a “red soil” government, in which the main parties were the Social Democrats and the Centre.
      The ministerial portfolios were distributed at the end of the government formation talks.
      Pekka Vennamo became the Second Minister of Finance, and he was pleased with his portfolio.
      However, the SDP and the Centre arranged things so that the last portfolio to be handed out was the one for the Minister of Labour, which the SMP was forced to take.
      The SMP had promised in the election campaign that it would wipe out unemployment in Finland in six months if the party was given power.
      It was a typically populist promise.
      Nobody in the SMP could imagine that the party would actually have to take responsibility for those words.
      Urpo Leppänen became the Minister of Labour. He was no worse at the job than anyone else, but he was not able to keep the SMP’s election promise, and that was the beginning of the downfall of the SMP.
     
Does Timo Soini still remember the events of the late 1980s? He was an aide to Veikko Vennamo at the time.
      When the SMP went into opposition in 1990, after seven hard years in government, the party was but a shell of its former self.
      It had lost most of its support, and internal conflicts were eating away at it.
      Ultimately only Timo Soini, Raimo Vistbacka, and a few others were left.
      Everything had to start again from scratch.
     
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 5.9.2010


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Left Alliance challenges True Finns (21.6.2010)
  True Finns´ Timo Soini tired of accusations of racism (19.2.2009)
  Poll: True Finns increasing in popularity and approaching Greens, while Centre support continues to wane (9.6.2010)
  True Finns´ chairman Timo Soini does not believe Finland will ever be paid back its loan to Greece (17.5.2010)
  Soini wants background checks on True Finns´ Parliamentary candidates (8.3.2010)

UNTO HÄMÄLÄINEN / Helsingin Sanomat
unto.hamalainen@hs.fi