 | |
| Abbreviation | PS Sannf |
| Chairperson | Riikka Purra |
| Secretary | Harri Vuorenpää [fi] |
| Parliamentary group leader | Jani Mäkelä |
| First deputy chair | Teemu Keskisarja |
| Founders | Timo Soini Raimo Vistbacka Kari Bärlund [fi] Urpo Leppänen [fi] |
| Founded | 11 May 1995 |
| Preceded by | Finnish Rural Party (de facto) |
| Headquarters | Yrjönkatu 8–10B, 00120Helsinki[1] |
| Newspaper | Perussuomalainen (magazine) [fi] Suomen Uutiset [fi] |
| Think tank | Suomen Perusta [fi] |
| Youth wing | Finns Party Youth (2006–2020) The Finns Party Youth [fi] (2020–) |
| Women's wing | Finns Party Women [fi][2] |
| Worker's wing | Peruspuurtajat [fi] |
| Membership(2021) |  15,700[3] |
| Ideology | |
| Political position | Right-wing tofar-right |
| European affiliation | European Conservatives, Patriots & Affiliates |
| European Parliament group | EFD (2009–2014) ECR Group (2014–2019, since 2023) ID Group (2019–2023) |
| Nordic affiliation | Nordic Freedom |
| Colours |
|
| Eduskunta | 46 / 200 |
| European Parliament | 1 / 15 |
| Municipalities | 651 / 8,586 |
| County seats | 105 / 1,379 |
| Website | |
| perussuomalaiset.fi | |
TheFinns Party[4][5][6] (Finnish:Perussuomalaiset[ˈperusˌsuo̯mɑlɑi̯set],PS;Swedish:Sannfinländarna,Sannf), formerly known as theTrue Finns,[10] is aright-wing populistpolitical party inFinland.[11] It was founded in 1995 following the dissolution of theFinnish Rural Party.
The party achieved its electoral breakthrough in the2011 Finnish parliamentary election, when it won 19.1% of votes,[12] becoming the third largest party in theParliament of Finland.[13]
In the2015 election the party got 17.7% of the votes, making it the parliament's second-largest political party.[14] The party was in opposition for the first 20 years of its existence. In 2015, it joined thecoalition government formed by Prime MinisterJuha Sipilä.
Following a 2017 split, over half of the party's MPs left the parliamentary group and were subsequently expelled from their membership in the party. This defector group,Blue Reform, continued to support the government coalition, while the Finns Party went into opposition. The party, having been reduced to 17 seats after the split, increased its representation to 39 seats in the2019 Finnish parliamentary election, while Blue Reform failed to win any seats.
During the2023 Finnish parliamentary election, the Finns Party finished in second place with 46 seats, recording their strongest result since its founding. They then, out ofPetteri Orpo's request, proceeded to form acoalition government with the winningNational Coalition Party, theChristian Democrats andSwedish People's Party of Finland. The party currently holds seven of nineteen ministerial portfolios in theOrpo Cabinet.[15]
The predecessor of the Finns Party was theFinnish Rural Party (SMP), founded by Agrarian League dissidentVeikko Vennamo in 1959. Vennamo ran into serious disagreement with Arvo Korsimo, the Agrarian League'sparty secretary, and was excluded from theparliamentary group. As a result, Vennamo immediately started building his own organization and founded the Finnish Rural Party. Vennamo was apopulist and became a critic of PresidentUrho Kekkonen and of political corruption within the "old parties", particularly theCentre Party (the renamed Agrarian League). The Rural Party achieved two major victories in the elections of1970 and1983, winning 18 and 17 seats, respectively.
In the 1970s, Vennamo's personalized leadership style alienated some in the party, which led to a split in the parliamentary group in 1972. After the Rural Party's new rise in 1983 under Vennamo's son Pekka, the party became a partner in twocoalition governments. However, the party's support declined steadily in the late-1980s and early-1990s. In1995, the party won only one seat in theFinnish parliament and soon filed for bankruptcy.
In the summer of 1995, following the collapse of the Finnish Rural Party, the decision to found the Finns Party was made byTimo Soini,Raimo Vistbacka, Urpo Leppänen and Kari Bärlund. Soini had been the Rural Party's last party secretary and Vistbacka its last chair andMP. The party collected the five thousand signatures needed for registration and was added to the official party register on 13 October 1995.[16] The firstparty congress was held in November. Vistbacka was electedparty chair and Soini the party secretary.[17]
It took some time before the Finns Party gained ground in Finnish elections. At the time of its founding in 1995, the party's sole MP was Vistbacka, who was reelected in the1999 election. In2003, the party won three seats: besides Vistbacka, Soini andTony Halme were elected. In the2007, the party gained two further seats for a total of five. In the2008 municipal election, the Finns Party were most successful in those districts where theSocial Democrats and theLeft Alliance lost most.[18] In the2011 election, the Centre Party suffered the largest blow from the Finns Party's success.
According to a 2008–2009 study, Finns Party supporters viewed themselves ascentrist: on a scale where 1 was extreme left and 10 was extreme right, the average supporter placed themselves at 5.4. According to the same study, the supporters were united by patriotism andsocial conservatism.[19] A 2011 study indicated that the Finns Party was the most popular party among voters with an annual income of 35,000–50,000euros, while over a quarter of the party's voters earn over 50,000 per year.[20][21] The same study also indicated that the party's voters included a higher percentage ofblue-collar workers than those of the Social Democrats.[21]
Timo Soini led the Finns Party for twenty years, from 1997 until 2017. He was first elected to the parliament in 2003. He was the party's candidate in the2006 presidential election, and was elected to theEuropean Parliament in2009 with the highest personal vote share in the country.[22] He served as anMEP for two years, returning to the Finnish parliament in the 2011 election. Soini was the party's presidential candidate for a second time in theelection of 2012.[23]Jussi Halla-aho succeeded Soini as party chair in 2017.
The Finns Party obtained 39 seats in the 2011 election, making them the third largest party, narrowly behind theNational Coalition Party (44) and the Social Democrats (42). Soini received 43,212 personal votes, the highest number of all candidates,[24] leaving behind the Foreign MinisterAlexander Stubb and the Finance MinisterJyrki Katainen in theirUusimaa electoral district.[25] The popularity of the party rose from 4.1% to 19.1% in just four years.Helsingin Sanomat wrote in an editorial that the party and Soini had "rewritten the electoral history books".[26] According to political analystJan Sundberg, Soini had the ability to appeal to common people and make complicated things look easy.[27] The election result was also referred to as "shocking" and "exceptional".[12]
After the election, the National Coalition Party (NCP) began negotiations aiming to form a cabinet between the NCP, the Social Democrats, and the Finns Party. However, when it became clear that the NCP and the Social Democrats would continue to support EU bailouts, which the Finns Party vehemently opposed during the electoral campaign, the party voluntarily broke from the negotiations to become the leading opposition party. Soini said that the party would not compromise its core principles just to enter the government.[28] According to an opinion poll, most of the party's supporters accepted this decision.[29]
The Finns Party's popularity initially continued to rise after the 2011 election: in one opinion poll from June 2011 gave the party a record popularity of 23 percent.[30] The party's membership rose to over 8,000 members by 2013[31] (up from circa 5,500 in 2011[32] and circa 1,000 in 2005[33]). Membership in the party'syouth organisation rose as well, going from 800 before the 2011 election[34] to over 2,200 in 2013.[35]
The party nominated Soini as its candidate for the 2012 presidential election;[23] Soini finished fourth with 9.4 percent.[36] Soini interpreted the result by saying that half of the party's voters wanted him for president, while the other half wanted to him to remain as party chair.[37] Inmunicipal elections later in 2012, the party got 12.3 percent of votes and 1,195 seats in the municipal councils, up more than 750 from the previous municipal election.[38] However, this result saw the votes for the party shrink significantly from the 2011 parliamentary election result. The party got 12.9 percent of votes in the2014 European Parliament election and increased its number of MEPs to two.
In the2015 election, the Finns Party got 17.7% of the votes and 38 seats. This meant that they were the third largest party by votes but the second largest party by seats. The Finns Party subsequently entered into acoalition government with the Centre Party and the NCP, led by Prime MinisterJuha Sipilä. The party's participation in theSipilä Cabinet marked a softening of itsEurosceptic positions. On 22 June 2016, Finns Party MP Maria Tolppanen joined the Social Democrats, after which the Finns Party had 37 seats in the parliament.[39] In March 2017, Soini announced that he would step down as party chair in the next party congress in June.[40]
In June 2017,Jussi Halla-aho andSampo Terho faced off in theleadership election, in which Halla-aho received 949 votes against Terho's 646 votes and thus succeeded Soini as party chair.[41] Sipilä andMinister of FinancePetteri Orpo soon announced that they would not continue their coalition with the Finns Party if it was led by Halla-aho.[42] Subsequently, twenty Finns Party MPs, including Soini and Terho, defected to form a new parliamentary group under the name New Alternative, later renamed toBlue Reform and after that, in 2022, intoFinnish Reform Movement. As all cabinet ministers were among the defectors, the then Blue Reform made an agreement with Sipilä to stay in the government.[43][44]
Following the split, MPsVeera Ruoho andArja Juvonen left the Finns Party parliamentary group to continue asindependents, after which the party's seats were reduced to fifteen.[45][46] All of the defecting MPs were subsequently expelled from the Finns Party.[47] In the following weeks, MPsRitva Elomaa and Arja Juvonen regretted their decision and re-joined the party, raising the amount of MPs to seventeen.[48]
The party nominated MPLaura Huhtasaari as its candidate for the2018 presidential election. In the election, Huhtasaari placed third with 6.9 percent of the votes, while the incumbent presidentSauli Niinistö went on to secure his second term with a majority of votes.[49]
At the2019 Finnish parliamentary election, the Finns Party finished in second place and increased its number of MPs to 39 (with its strongest result being inSatakunta) while the breakawayBlue Reform party lost all of its seats.
On 21 June 2021, Jussi Halla-aho announced that he would retire from his position as a party leader in August 2021.[50] He was succeeded by MPRiikka Purra on 14 August.[51]
Since 2020, further minor splits have emerged within the party, forming thePower Belongs to the People party andBlue-and-Black Movement.
During the2023 Finnish parliamentary election the party finished in second place ahead of the Social Democrats with 20% of the vote and 46 seats, marking the strongest result to date for the party.[52]
In April 2023,National Coalition Party leaderPetteri Orpo announced his attention to form a governing coalition with the Finns Party,Swedish People's Party, and theChristian Democrats.[53]
In theOrpo Cabinet, the Finns have seven ministers out of 19.[54][55] Former party leaderJussi Halla-aho was electedSpeaker of the Parliament of Finland.[56]
When the Finns Party first gained representation in the European Parliament in 2009, it became a founding member of theEurope of Freedom and Democracy Group (EFD) in the Parliament. After the 2014 election, the party chose to leave the EFD to join theEuropean Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR). Commenting on the party's choice of group, party secretary Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo said in 2014 that joining a right-wing parliamentary group would not change the party's characteristic of being a "centre-left workers' party".[57] After the 2019 election, the party joined theIdentity and Democracy Group; however, this decision was reverted after the 2023 parliamentary election, with the Finns Party rejoining the ECR after a four-year break.[58]
Ideologically, the Finns Party has been described asright-wing[59][60] andfar-right.[67] It is anationalist[68] andnational-conservative[69][70] party thatopposes immigration,[59] while on foreign stances it isEurosceptic.[68][59] The party combines right-wing economic policies[71][72] andeconomic nationalism[73] withsocially conservative values,[70] andethnic nationalism.[74] Several scholars have described them as radicallyright-wing populist.[70][75][76] In the parliament seating order, the party was seated in the centre of the plenary until 2019 when it was moved to the right of the plenary despite the party's opposition to the move.[11] Some of the party's supporters have described themselves as centrists.[77] The party has drawn people from left-wing parties but central aspects of their manifesto[78] have gained support from right-wing voters as well.[79][80][note 1] The Finns Party has been compared by international media to the otherNordic populist parties and other similar nationalist and right-wingpopulist movements in Europe.[83] It also calls forausterity policies to curb deficit spending.[84]
 | This section needs to beupdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(January 2023) |
In evaluating the Finns Party's 70-page programme for the 2011 election, Mikko Lahtinen, political scientist in theUniversity of Tampere, and Markku Hyrkkänen, historian of ideas in theUniversity of Turku, note thatnationalism is a theme consistently repeated throughout the programme. According to them, the party presentspopulism as a noble ideology, which seeks to empower the people. Lahtinen describes the rhetoric used in the program as a refreshing change to thepolitically correct "jargon" of mainstream media, and believes that the Finns Party may have succeeded in gaining supporters from the traditional left-wing parties by presenting a more attractive form ofcriticism of neoliberalism than those parties.[85]
Ville Pernaa, political scientist, described the party's 2015 electoral program by stating that the Finns combine elements of both right-wing and left-wing politics along with populist rhetoric.[86]
| This section needs to beupdated. The reason given is: Fiscal policies have moved right since the party split. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(April 2019) |
In the party's 2011 programme, the Finns Party advocated a more progressive taxation system and support for the welfare state.[87][88][89] The party opposed the establishment of a flat tax and called for the raising of thecapital gains tax and the re-institution of thewealth tax. According to the party, the willingness to pay taxes is best guaranteed by a society unified by correct social policies – the electoral program warns against individualist policies, which weaken the solidarity among citizens. "The willingness to pay taxes is guaranteed by having a unified people", the program reads (p. 46).[87]
Some observers compared the Finns Party's fiscal policies to the old national Social Democratic taxation policy, which has given the left-wing brand to the Finns Party. During the electoral campaign in 2011 Soini stated that he preferred theSocial Democrats over the centre-rightNational Coalition Party as a possible coalition partner in a future cabinet. Soini has stated that the Finns are a "workers' party without socialism".[90] A researcher for the opinion polling companyTaloustutkimus agreed, describing the Finns Party as a "non-socialist workers' party".[91]
The party's programme on rural policy also called for state support for rural regions, particularly agriculture, suggesting state subsidies to relieve the effect of structural changes on the rural areas.[87] This policy is shared bythe Centre Party in Finland and originates from the agrarian and rural policies of both parties.
The Finns Party favours increasing state investments in infrastructure and industry as well.[87] A tendency towards favouring old industrial policies have led some political analysts to label the Finns Party as a centre-left party.
The Finns Party aspires to energy self-reliance and supportsnuclear energy.[87][92] The party calls for a pro-industry environmental policy, opposing green tax reform and taxpayers' involvement in emission trading funds.[87]
The party strongly supports thepeat industry, which produces massive amounts ofgreenhouse gases, having even proposed exempting this production from any tax. The party generally scores best in municipalities whose economies are tied to this industry. The party has strongly denounced theParis Agreement, signed in December 2015, saying it was "catastrophic" for the economy, and demanded that the private sector and taxpayers be spared its "disastrous economic consequences".[93]
The Finns Partyrejects the existence of nonbinary genders,[94] and opposessame-sex marriage,[95]same-sex adoption andin vitro fertilisation given tosame-sex couples and single women.[87]
The party supports teaching "healthy national pride" in schools, "because the unity of citizens is the basis of society",[96][97] and wants to promote support for cultural activities that "promote Finnish identity".[87][97]
The party also calls for the removal of theobligatory character of thesecond official language (Swedish in Finnish-language schools and vice versa) in curriculums on all levels of education, freeing up time for the learning of other foreign languages such as English, German, French, Spanish and Russian (especially in the eastern part of the country).[87][98] Allowance regarding the use of the Swedish language and its teaching will have to be made for thosemunicipalities where Swedish-speakers are in the majority or a large percentage of the population – Swedish is one of Finland's national languages.
The cultural program of the Finns Party, which proposed subsidizing traditional art overpostmodern art, prompted criticism from outside the party and generated debate within the party as well.[99] Some critics of the policy called it overtly populist[100] or said that the state should not interfere with the content of art.[101] A poll commissioned byHelsingin Sanomat at the time of the controversy found that a majority of Finns, 51%, agreed with the party's stance on endingsubsidies for postmodern art.[101]
Regardingimmigration policy, the party's 2011 manifesto emphasises welcoming work-based immigration, provided the immigrants pay taxes and abide by Finnishlabour laws; deporting immigrants guilty of serious or recurrent crimes or those that do not meet the Immigration laws; limitingfamily reunification to proven direct relatives only, and requiring means of subsistence from the immigrant; limiting humanitarian immigration strictly to refugee quotas (which should be adapted to correspond with the economic situation); and granting theFinnish nationality after five years of residence in Finland, provided the immigrant masters Finnish, has no criminal record, and has means of subsistence.[87][88]
The party also requires that immigrants accept Finnishsociocultural norms.[88] The only written declaration to the European Parliament made by a True Finns' MEP also concerns immigration matters.[102] The party underlines the role of national sovereignty in immigration issues:
[True] Finnish immigration policy should be based on the fact that the Finns should always be able to decide for themselves the conditions under which a foreigner can come to our country and reside in our country.
In 2015, the party's immigration programme included demands like lowering the refugee quota, tightening the conditions of family unification, endingaffirmative action, outlawingbegging in public places, opposing the use of public funds to advancemulticulturalism, opposition to the planned burden-sharing mechanisms of the Common European Asylum Policy, making sure that immigrants living on welfare benefits are not concentrated in the same areas and only allowing the immigration of workers from outside the EU andEEA if they are found to be necessary in a given field in a means test by the Finnish Labour Office.[104][105]
In their 2019 election manifesto, the party called for a prohibition on wearing theburqa and theniqāb in public.[106]
Timo Soini signed a pan-European charter against racism in 1998.[107] However, in 2009, before the European Parliament election, Soini refused to sign an anti-racism appeal, saying that the appeal was an attempt to influence the party's choice of candidates (the appeal was drawn up by another political party). All other Finnish parties signed this appeal against racism.[108] In May 2011, following controversies surrounding the remarks of the Finns Party's MPTeuvo Hakkarainen, the Finns Party's parliamentary group issued a statement condemning all racism and discrimination, includingaffirmative action.[109] The party invited other parties to sign the statement as well, but no other party did so. In December 2011, an opinion poll revealed 51% of Finns Party voters agreed with the statement,"Joihinkin rotuihin kuuluvat ihmiset eivät kerta kaikkiaan sovi asumaan moderniin yhteiskuntaan;""People of certain races are unable to live within (fit into) a modern society."[110]
The Finns Party is opposed to the integration of theEuropean Union[87][88] and to FinnishEurozone membership.[111] The party also calls for reductions in foreign aid.[87][88]
The party believes innational sovereignty:
[T]he eternal and unlimited right to always decide freely and independently of all of one's affairs lies only and solely with the people, which forms a nation separate of others.
Shortly after the leadership election ofJussi Halla-aho, the party hardened its position towards the European Union. In 2017,Laura Huhtasaari stated that she would support leaving the EU should she win the2018 Finnish presidential election citing the growth of the Union's power at the expense of the member states.[112] Other party members have supported the idea of Finland withdrawing from both theSchengen Agreement and theEurozone.[113][114] In its latest platform, the Finns Party states that it supports a "European policy" based on appreciation for Western and Christian shaped values. The party argues that Finland is needed in the European Parliament to defend Finnish interests in the short-term, but states the "long-term strategic goal" is to take gradual steps to withdraw Finland from the European Union and proposes introducing a parallel currency within Finland to initiate phasing out Finnish membership of theEurozone.[111]
In 2023, Halla-aho reiterated that the party's long-term goal is strategic preparation for a "Fixit" (Finnish exit) from the European Union and Eurozone, highlighting what he described as a "democratic deficit" within the EU while Foreign Trade MinisterVille Tavio stated the party will vote against joint-EU debt policies in government. However, the party leadership stated that it also wished to strengthen European unity and cooperation in the meantime in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.[115]
Timo Soini has been an outspoken critic of both the EU and NATO, but has stated that if a choice had to be made, NATO is a lesser evil than the EU. The Finns Party favors non-alliance or neutrality, as international activities abroad for theDefence Forces would undermine the defence budget's funds for sustaining a large conscript army of war-time personnel (which is 350,000) to guarantee the defence of all of Finland.[87][88] When the Finnish Parliament voted to ratify theOttawa Treaty, banning anti-personnel mines, in November 2011, the Finns Party was the only party unified in opposing the treaty.[116]
Initially, the party was opposed to Finnish admission intoNATO in its 2011 program.[87][88] However, following theRussian invasion of Ukraine, the party signaled a change to this policy and stated it was willing to back NATO membership.[better source needed][117]
During the2011 election, the party's judicial programme included the opposition to any incorporation ofSharia law into Finnish judicial practices,[87] giving more resources for police and prosecutors[87] and imposing tougher punishments forviolent crimes.[118]
| Constituency | Votes (%) | Avg. result +/− (pp) |
|---|---|---|
| Lapland | 26.8 | 9.6 |
| Satakunta | 26.6 | 2.6 |
| Oulu | 25.4 | 5.1 |
| Häme | 24.4 | 3.4 |
| South-Eastern Finland | 22.8 | 3.9 |
| Vaasa | 21.3 | 4.2 |
| Central Finland | 20.5 | 2.4 |
| Pirkanmaa | 20.2 | 2.8 |
| Varsinais-Suomi | 20.0 | 0.8 |
| Savo-Karelia | 20.0 | 2.0 |
| Uusimaa | 18.2 | 2.3 |
| Helsinki | 11.3 | -1.0 |
| Finland (total) | 20.1 | +2.6 |
| Election | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | Government |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | 26,440 | 0.99 | 1 / 200 | Opposition | |
| 2003 | 43,816 | 1.57 | 3 / 200 | 2 | Opposition |
| 2007 | 112,256 | 4.05 | 5 / 200 | 2 | Opposition |
| 2011 | 560,075 | 19.05 | 39 / 200 | 34 | Opposition |
| 2015 | 524,054 | 17.65 | 38 / 200 |  1 | Coalition(2015–2017) |
| Opposition(2017–2019) | |||||
| 2019 | 538,805 | 17.48 | 39 / 200 | 1 | Opposition |
| 2023 | 620,981 | 20.06 | 46 / 200 | 7 | Coalition |
| Election year | Candidate | 1st round | 2nd round | Result | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | Rank | Votes | % | Rank | |||
| 2000 | Ilkka Hakalehto | 31,405 | 1.03 | 6th | — | Lost | ||
| 2006 | Timo Soini | 103,368 | 3.43 | 5th | — | Lost | ||
| 2012 | Timo Soini | 287,571 | 9.40 | 4th | — | Lost | ||
| 2018 | Laura Huhtasaari | 207,337 | 6.93 | 3rd | — | Lost | ||
| 2024 | Jussi Halla-aho | 615,487 | 19.0 | 3rd | — | Lost | ||
| Election | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | EP Group |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | 15,004 | 0.67 (#10) | 0 / 16 | New | – |
| 1999 | 9,854 | 0.79 (#9) | 0 / 16 |  0 | |
| 2004 | 8,900 | 0.54 (#9) | 0 / 14 | 0 | |
| 2009 | 162,930 | 9.79 (#5) | 1 / 13 | 1 | EFD |
| 2014 | 222,457 | 12.87 (#3) | 2 / 13 | 1 | ECR |
| 2019 | 252,990 | 13.83 (#4) | 2 / 13 | 0 | ID |
| 2024 | 139,160 | 7.61 (#6) | 1 / 15 | 1 | ECR |
| Election | Votes | % | Councillors |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | 21,999 | 0.93 | 138 |
| 2000 | 14,712 | 0.66 | 109 |
| 2004 | 21,417 | 0.90 | 106 |
| 2008 | 137,497 | 5.39 | 443 |
| 2012 | 307,797 | 12.34 | 1,195 |
| 2017 | 227,297 | 8.8 | 770 |
| 2021 | 354,236 | 14.5 | 1,351 |
| 2025 | 184,616 | 7.6 | 651 |
The board of the Finns Party has 13 members: the party chairperson, the three deputy chairs, the party secretary, the chair of the parliamentary group and seven other members.[120]
The party chairpersonship is divided between four persons, elected at party congress biannually.Riikka Purra is the party's current chair. The first deputy chair isLeena Meri, the second deputy chair isMauri Peltokangas and the third deputy chair isSebastian Tynkkynen.[121]
The foundationPerussuomalaisten tukisäätiö ("The Finns Party support fund") was founded in 1990. It used the nameSMP:n tukisäätiö until 2006. The fund borrowed 1.7 million euros from the party in 2012 to buy a 450 m2 commercial property in downtown Helsinki on Yrjönkatu for use as the Party's new headquarters. The party rented these premises from the fund.[123] Following the split of 2017, this foundation was left in the control the defector group, Blue Reform.
Another foundation,Suomen Perusta ("The Foundation of Finland"), was set up in 2012. Its role is to function as a think tank for the party.[124]
Jani Mäkelä is the current chair of the parliamentary group.
In 2011, Finns party MPJames Hirvisaari was fined 1,425 euros by theKouvola Court of Appeals for comments he made on his blog about Muslims.[125] In 2011, PresidentTarja Halonen was quoted characterizing some Finns party voters as racist.[126][127] Her comments were broadly condemned by the Finns party.[127] A 2011 book by Swedish journalistLisa Bjurwald made a similar characterization, that the party's leaders support racist positions, while publicly denying that they do so.[128]
In 2011, MPPentti Oinonen declined an invitation to the presidentialIndependence Day ball, citing his aversion to seeing same-sex couples dance.[129]
Jussi Halla-aho, the previous leader of the party, a former MEP and now the Speaker of the House wrote that Somalis were genetically predisposed to rob passersby, wrote that he would be happy if a gang of immigrants raped a Green League MP, and commented "Violence is an underrated problem-solving tool these days," while pondering if he should shoot a gay man. A number of senior Finns Party politicians, including Halla-aho and Immonen, are alsoSuomen Sisu members, an organization thatLänsiväylä describes as aNazi group.[130] The website of Suomen Sisu has promoted books by Nazis and neo-Nazis such asAlfred Rosenberg,George Lincoln Rockwell andDavid Duke.[131][132]
There have also been Finns Party candidates who are members ofBlood & Honour.[133] Finns Party councillor Risto Helin was photographed wearing a Blood & Honour shirt and he donated Adolf Hitler paraphernalia to an affiliated skinhead club inVaasa.[134][135]
In a judgement given on 8 June 2012, MPJussi Halla-aho, then Chairperson of the Administration Committee was found guilty by the Supreme Court of both disturbing religious worship and ethnic agitation for statements he made aboutMuhammad in his blog.[136]
In October 2013, it was reported that MPJames Hirvisaari, had invited far-right activistSeppo Lehto as his guest to the parliament. During his visit, Lehto made severalNazi salutes, including at least one instance where Hirvisaari took a photo of Lehto performing the Nazi salute from the spectator gallery overlooking theParliament House's Session Hall. Photos and videos of Lehto performing the Nazi salute in the Parliament House were then distributed on Lehto's public Facebook page and on YouTube.[137] After newspapers broke news of the incident, Speaker of the ParliamentEero Heinäluoma issued a notice of censure to Hirvisaari for the incident and the Finns Party leadership unanimously decided to expel Hirvisaari from the party, citing multiple cases of acting against the party's interest.[138][139][140]
Hirvisaari then became affiliated with theChange 2011 party as the party's MP, until he was unseated in theparliamentary election of 2015.[141]
The party'sRuovesi municipal chapter's official postal address had Nazi flags hanging in the windows in 2019. The chapter chairperson denied that the flags were his.[142]
In between 2019–2022, Finns party MP and later Minister of Economic AffairsVilhelm Junnila made four budgetary motions in order to support Veljesapu-Perinneyhdistys, a Finnish organization that cherishes the heritage of the Finnish volunteers in the Waffen-SS. Junnila wrote in his motion, that the support would be "for the promotion of balanced historical research".[143] In 2020, a number of members of the Finns party in parliament criticised theResearch Council of Finland for funding the research onthe Holocaust of historian andGreen League candidateOula Silvennoinen at theUniversity of Helsinki.[144] According toDer Spiegel, three Finns party ministers supported a motion to provide funding for SS veterans association for a "counter-study" in response to accusations of Finnish SS men having participated in the Holocaust.[145]
Finns Party politicians have frequently supported anti-Muslim movements such as the Finnish Defense League,Soldiers of Odin,Nordic Resistance Movement (NRM), Rajat Kiinni (Close the Borders), and Suomi Ensin (Finland First). An anti-mosque demonstration was supported by the youth branch of the PS, whose chair, Jarmo Keto, said that, "Islam as an ideology is responsible for many conflicts and terror attacks. Thus such a mosque project is an irresponsible idea".[146]
Members of the Finns Party have attracted criticism from the other parties andantifascists for attending events organized by or with the NRM. Two municipal-level politicians of the Finns Party have taken part in an event where the participants shot and threw knives atshooting targets, using photos of members of theRinne Cabinet.
The Finns Party's parliamentary group's general secretary,Olli Immonen, attended an NRM event commemoratingEugen Schauman, who assassinatedNikolay Bobrikov. Some members of the party have been fired from as a result of contacts with the far-right.[147][148][149] Immonen has also multiple times shared a blog criticizing the "Holocaust-religion".[150]
In 2020, the party sacked the youth wing's vice leader Toni Jalonen for declaring himself a fascist at a conference in Estonia.[151] The party additionally cut financial support to its youth wing, so it was declared bankrupt as a result. A new organization calledPerussuomalainen nuoriso in Finnish was founded with new personnel to replace it.[152]
NRM and other far-right activists attend anannual torch march demonstration in Helsinki on the Finnish independence day which ends at the Hietaniemi cemetery where members visit the tomb ofCarl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim and the monument to theFinnish Volunteer Battalion of the Waffen-SS. According toB'nai B'rith's report, "The main organizers and guests of the event have been drawn from either non-party-affiliated far-right-activists or members of the right-wing populist Finns Party (Perussuomalaiset), its youth organization Finns Party Youth (Perussuomalaiset Nuoret)".[153][154][155]
Finns Party MPVilhelm Junnila spoke at an event organized in memory of victims of a terrorist attack in 2019. His participation in the event was criticised in the media due to the event being organized by the NRM and Soldiers of Odin. The matter was especially brought up in the media after the formation of theOrpo Cabinet in 2023, where he was appointedMinister of Economic Affairs. Junnila survived avote of no-confidence, but announced his resignation from the cabinet afterwards. He was replaced byWille Rydman, who gained attention for his multiplenazi-related controversies after his appointment.[156][157]
Viljam Nyman, a Finns PartyLapland area board member became a leader of theAtomwaffen Division's Finnish chapter and a prominent adherent to the satanicOrder of Nine Angles (ONA). Nyman's associate, a Finns party member born in 1980 and a fellowaccelerationism and ONA adherent had dozens of his writings published by the official Finns party organ, Suomen Uutiset. Both were suspected of planning murders and terrorist attacks, and Nyman has been subsequently convicted of terror offenses. The person born in 1980 is also suspected of sending a string ofletter bombs to theSocial Democratic,Green League andLeft Alliance parties' offices.[158][159][160]
A Finns PartyEspoo city council memberJiri Keronen told that he "avows" the teachings of ONA and that he is republishing their works.[161]
On 9 May 2024, the Finns Party council expelledTimo Vornanen alongsideTeuvo Hakkarainen from the party, because of the police suspecting that Timo Vornanen pointed at a group of people with a gun and then shot the ground after an argument on the 26 April in theKamppi subdivision ofHelsinki, outside a bar. After the shooting incident, Vornanen has been on sick leave from the parliament.[162]
He announced on May 14 that he'd give up his parliamentary committee seats to the rest of the Finns Party to decide on replacements. He also posted onFacebook that he would leave theJoensuu city council's Finns Party council group and create his own city council and parliamentary groups.[163]
FormerMEP Teuvo Hakkarainen, on the other hand, was expelled from the party because he stood as a candidate for theEuropean Parliament on theFreedom Alliance's list. He claims that he did this because the Finns Party's leadership had "left the field" and adopted a mentality of kicking people out if they even slightly questioned the party's leadership or criticised their actions.[162]
Rinne led his party to a razor-thin victory in last month's general election, holding off the far-right Finns Party which surged into second place on an anti-immigration agenda.
Finland's leftist Social Democrats won first place in Sunday's general election with 17.7% of the votes, avoiding a near defeat by the far-right Finns Party, which rose in the ranks with an anti-immigration agenda.
Finland's far-right, anti-immigration Finns Party more than doubled its seats in April national elections, closely tailing the leftist Social Democrats who won only narrowly.
The main organizers and guests of the event have been drawn from either non-party-affiliated far-right-activists or members of the right-wing populist Finns Party (Perussuomalaiset), its youth organization Finns Party Youth (Perussuomalaiset Nuoret)...The 612-march is a torchlight procession from central Helsinki to the Hietaniemi war cemetery, where members visit the tomb of World War II-era President Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim and the monument to the Finnish SS-Battalion. There are speeches at both the assembly point and at the cemetery, eulogizing the Battle for Helsinki, depicted by speakers as the occasion "when Germans and Finns marched side by side and liberated the city from the communists."
612:n perustajiin kuuluva Teemu Lahtinen (ps.) kertoi Ylelle, että myös uusnatsit voivat osallistua marssille, kunhan eivät kanna omia tunnuksiaan.
Helsinki, Finland, 'Towards Freedom' and '612 for freedom march' in memory of the Finnish SS-battalion which fought with Nazi Germany
Media related toFinns Party at Wikimedia Commons