Fighting to the Finnish(A Finland Election Thread)

[Shrillland]

Normally, I do these exactly two months out, but that would be Valentine's Day. Anyway, on April 14, another semi-significant European country is going to the polls. After the attempts at syncing this vote with the EU vote went nowhere, Finland will be going to decide who will sit in the eduskunta/Riksdag. Currently, there's a right coalition between the KOK, Kesk, and the Blue Reform party which splintered from the Finns in 2017 after a leadership change. In general, the polls are currently showing gains for left-leaning parties with the Social Democrats taking first place, but only time will tell. There are 200 members chosen from 13 multi-member PR constituencies via D'Hondt method with no minimum threshold. Now that we know how this will be held, let's meet the parties.

Centre Party(Kesk)-led by current PM Juha Sipilä: Centrist, Nordic Agrarian, Social Liberal, Decentralisation

National Coalition Party(KOK)-led by Petteri Orpo: Centre-right, Pro-European, Liberal Conservative

Social Democratic Party(SDP)-led by Antti Rinne: Centre-left, Social Democratic

Blue Reform(SIN)-led by Sampo Terho: Centre-right to Right Wing, Soft-Eurosceptic, Populist, Economic Liberal, National Conservative

Finns Party(PS)- led by Jussi Halla-aho: Right-populist, Eurosceptic, Finnish Nationalist, Economic Conservative, Social Conservative

Green League(VIHR)-led by Pekka Haavisto: Centre-left, Pro-European, Green

Left Alliance(vas.)-led by Li Andersson: Left Wing, Democratic Socialist, Eco-socialist

Swedish People's Party(RKP) led by Anna-Maja Henriksson: Centrist, Social Liberals, Sverophone(Swedish-speaking) Peoples Interests

Christian Democrats(KD)-led by Sari Essayah: Centre-right, Christian Democratic, Social Conservative

And there are other smaller parties as well like the Seven Star Movement or Liike Nyt to choose from. So, who do you support?

Me personally, I'm a social democrat through and through, so I'm standing with the SDP for now, but we'll see how the campaign goes.

And here's YLE's electoral calculator for all to see who they side with: https://vaalikone.yle.fi/eduskuntavaali2019?lang=fi-FI Available in Finnish, Swedish, Russian, and English

[Major-Tom]

Obviously not Finnish, so this race to me is sort of a spectator sport sorta thing. The Social Democrats and Greens sound like reasonable enough choices, and I have heard that the incumbent government is relatively unpopular, owing to incompetence, inner turmoil, and just general lack of results. But, I'd be happy to hear a Finnish perspective.

[Jetan]

I don't consider myself their supporter, but I will likely be voting for a National Coalition candidate.


Also, Centre is not actually centrist at all, they're agrarian conservative if anything. Centre-right at most.

Obviously not Finnish, so this race to me is sort of a spectator sport sorta thing. The Social Democrats and Greens sound like reasonable enough choices, and I have heard that the incumbent government is relatively unpopular, owing to incompetence, inner turmoil, and just general lack of results. But, I'd be happy to hear a Finnish perspective.

Current government is indeed unpopular (then again, they usually are). Greens could be considered a reasonable party (altough personally I wouldn't vote for them, too many differences to my own views), but SDP is basically a retiree club devoted to furthering union interests.

[Page]

I know very little about Finnish politics, but as always I hope that the nationalists will lose. If I remember right, the party that used to call itself True Finns has gotten a lot bigger in the last decade.

Reactionary, authoritarian, pseudo-populist nationalism is metastasizing in Europe at an alarming rate.

[Page]

I know very little about Finnish politics, but as always I hope that the nationalists will lose. If I remember right, the party that used to call itself True Finns has gotten a lot bigger in the last decade.

Reactionary, authoritarian, pseudo-populist nationalism is metastasizing in Europe at an alarming rate.

[Jetan]

I know very little about Finnish politics, but as always I hope that the nationalists will lose. If I remember right, the party that used to call itself True Finns has gotten a lot bigger in the last decade.

Reactionary, authoritarian, pseudo-populist nationalism is metastasizing in Europe at an alarming rate.

They got a few good wins, yeah. Then they split in two. True Finns will likely stabilize into a minor player, but won't return to their earlier dwarf status in the foreseeable future. Blue Reform will most likely lose all their current seats and cease to exist.

[Shrillland]

I know very little about Finnish politics, but as always I hope that the nationalists will lose. If I remember right, the party that used to call itself True Finns has gotten a lot bigger in the last decade.

Reactionary, authoritarian, pseudo-populist nationalism is metastasizing in Europe at an alarming rate.

Jetan's right, though, the left parties are all on the rise right now, and the True Finns are poised to go down to about 15 seats if the poll numbers hold.

[El-Amin Caliphate]

Not Finnish, but if so I'd vote for the Finnish Islamic Party

[Shrillland]

Not Finnish, but if so I'd vote for the Finnish Islamic Party

Well, they didn't even show up last time on the ballot, so I wouldn't hold out much hope.

[Major-Tom]

I don't consider myself their supporter, but I will likely be voting for a National Coalition candidate.


Also, Centre is not actually centrist at all, they're agrarian conservative if anything. Centre-right at most.

Obviously not Finnish, so this race to me is sort of a spectator sport sorta thing. The Social Democrats and Greens sound like reasonable enough choices, and I have heard that the incumbent government is relatively unpopular, owing to incompetence, inner turmoil, and just general lack of results. But, I'd be happy to hear a Finnish perspective.

Current government is indeed unpopular (then again, they usually are). Greens could be considered a reasonable party (altough personally I wouldn't vote for them, too many differences to my own views), but SDP is basically a retiree club devoted to furthering union interests.

I wonder why Finland sorta has that same concept the French do, wherein the people tend to hate their politicians. Is it just general cynicism, or have successive Finnish governments just been dogshit at governing?

Furthermore, I read just a modicum about the SDP, looks borderline geriatric in membership. Perhaps you're right. Then again, I'm all for Unions, and old folks need someone looking out for them too, I suppose.

[El-Amin Caliphate]

Not Finnish, but if so I'd vote for the Finnish Islamic Party

Well, they didn't even show up last time on the ballot, so I wouldn't hold out much hope.

Well I can literally only vote for them, so >shrug<

[Shrillland]

I don't consider myself their supporter, but I will likely be voting for a National Coalition candidate.


Also, Centre is not actually centrist at all, they're agrarian conservative if anything. Centre-right at most.


Current government is indeed unpopular (then again, they usually are). Greens could be considered a reasonable party (altough personally I wouldn't vote for them, too many differences to my own views), but SDP is basically a retiree club devoted to furthering union interests.

I wonder why Finland sorta has that same concept the French do, wherein the people tend to hate their politicians. Is it just general cynicism, or have successive Finnish governments just been dogshit at governing?

Furthermore, I read just a modicum about the SDP, looks borderline geriatric in membership. Perhaps you're right. Then again, I'm all for Unions, and old folks need someone looking out for them too, I suppose.

Well, the young lefties are divided between vas. and VIHR. They'll both be part of an SDP coalition as I see it.

[Vaxian Imperium]

Either KOK or the nationalists

[Baltenstein]

Not Finnish, but if so I'd vote for the Finnish Islamic Party

The first thing I noticed on their website were the blatant grammar errors, we are clearly looking at some promising stuff here.

[El-Amin Caliphate]

Not Finnish, but if so I'd vote for the Finnish Islamic Party

The first thing I noticed on their website were the blatant grammar errors, we are clearly looking at some promising stuff here.

You said that like they did that on purpose. Read the underlined, especially this part:

"
The Finnish Islamic Party´s "green revolution" program 2009. This party program is still valid in 2013. This translation from Finnish into English is not the best one. But you can read it. I hope that we have here a better translation later on."

Or are you saying that the original Finnish page has typos as well?

[Baltenstein]

The first thing I noticed on their website were the blatant grammar errors, we are clearly looking at some promising stuff here.

You said that like they did that on purpose. Read the underlined, especially this part:

"
The Finnish Islamic Party´s "green revolution" program 2009. This party program is still valid in 2013. This translation from Finnish into English is not the best one. But you can read it. I hope that we have here a better translation later on."

Or are you saying that the original Finnish page has typos as well?

No, I only read the English version. It's not exactly rocket science that one should proofread his official internet presence before uploading it.
On the other hand, when I heard the name "Finnish Islamic party" I already imagined it to be a clue- and meaningless fringe party, and the bad grammar only adds to that impression.

[El-Amin Caliphate]

You said that like they did that on purpose. Read the underlined, especially this part:

"
The Finnish Islamic Party´s "green revolution" program 2009. This party program is still valid in 2013. This translation from Finnish into English is not the best one. But you can read it. I hope that we have here a better translation later on."

Or are you saying that the original Finnish page has typos as well?

No, I only read the English version. It's not exactly rocket science that one should proofread his official internet presence before uploading it.
On the other hand, when I heard the name "Finnish Islamic party" I already imagined it to be a clue- and meaningless fringe party, and the bad grammar only adds to that impression.

Considering that they pointed the bad grammar out beforehand, it doesn't.

[Jetan]

Not Finnish, but if so I'd vote for the Finnish Islamic Party

Donald Duck gets more votes than those guys.

I don't consider myself their supporter, but I will likely be voting for a National Coalition candidate.


Also, Centre is not actually centrist at all, they're agrarian conservative if anything. Centre-right at most.


Current government is indeed unpopular (then again, they usually are). Greens could be considered a reasonable party (altough personally I wouldn't vote for them, too many differences to my own views), but SDP is basically a retiree club devoted to furthering union interests.

I wonder why Finland sorta has that same concept the French do, wherein the people tend to hate their politicians. Is it just general cynicism, or have successive Finnish governments just been dogshit at governing?

Furthermore, I read just a modicum about the SDP, looks borderline geriatric in membership. Perhaps you're right. Then again, I'm all for Unions, and old folks need someone looking out for them too, I suppose.

The comment about hating our politicians is broadly correct, yeah. It's likely a mix of cynicism, shitty governance and national character. Finns are traditionally both amenable to and suspicious of authority and authority figures. Meaning even shitty authority is respected, to a degree, and even good ones are not fully trusted.

If I recall correctly the average age of SDP membership is over 60.

No, I only read the English version. It's not exactly rocket science that one should proofread his official internet presence before uploading it.
On the other hand, when I heard the name "Finnish Islamic party" I already imagined it to be a clue- and meaningless fringe party, and the bad grammar only adds to that impression.

Considering that they pointed the bad grammar out beforehand, it doesn't.

It does. If you want to be taken seriously (especially as a political party) the answer to poorly written/translated program is to get someone to fix it, not to add a disclaimer amounting to "we know it sucks".

[Shrillland]

In election news, the Finns have released their election platform: https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-10658315

Their biggest plan is, of course, to reduce low-skilled immigration to Finland while making it more attractive for companies to want to come in by lowering Finland's electricity tax. They would also ease taxes on fuel and vehicles with internal combusion engines and let people know "the true cost" of climate change legislation.

[Jetan]

In election news, the Finns have released their election platform: https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-10658315

Their biggest plan is, of course, to reduce low-skilled immigration to Finland while making it more attractive for companies to want to come in by lowering Finland's electricity tax. They would also ease taxes on fuel and vehicles with internal combusion engines and let people know "the true cost" of climate change legislation.

As a side note, it really grinds my gears when people refer to the True Finns just as "Finns". I know that's what they want to be called these days but it makes it seem like they actually had mainstream support for their bullshit (which, of course, is the whole reason why they want to be called that).

[Shrillland]

In election news, the Finns have released their election platform: https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-10658315

Their biggest plan is, of course, to reduce low-skilled immigration to Finland while making it more attractive for companies to want to come in by lowering Finland's electricity tax. They would also ease taxes on fuel and vehicles with internal combusion engines and let people know "the true cost" of climate change legislation.

As a side note, it really grinds my gears when people refer to the True Finns just as "Finns". I know that's what they want to be called these days but it makes it seem like they actually had mainstream support for their bullshit (which, of course, is the whole reason why they want to be called that).

My apologies, I meant no offence by it.

[Jetan]

As a side note, it really grinds my gears when people refer to the True Finns just as "Finns". I know that's what they want to be called these days but it makes it seem like they actually had mainstream support for their bullshit (which, of course, is the whole reason why they want to be called that).

My apologies, I meant no offence by it.

Oh, I was just grumbling. It's a pet peeve.

[Western Vale Confederacy]

Jesus Christ, even the Finns have their own national-populist party?

[Shrillland]

Jesus Christ, even the Finns have their own national-populist party?

Oh, absolutely. Theirs is actually one of Europe's older ones.

[Western Vale Confederacy]

Jesus Christ, even the Finns have their own national-populist party?

Oh, absolutely. Theirs is actually one of Europe's older ones.

Y’know, considering this is the country that managed to withstand the titan that was the Soviet Union and stab them in the eye with a metaphorical fork out of sheer nationalistic defense, I’d make a lotta sense lol

That said, Finland’s concerns have shifted to immigrants, just like the rest of Europe.