The Resistible Rise of the Finns Party
Finland’s extreme right came a close second at the last election, and they’re baying for power next time around. Increasingly brash in their theatrics and dominating debates, they’re the dark and very real threat to Finland’s celebrated social democracy.
Jussi Halla-aho in Brussels, November 20, 2019.Matti Matikainen / Wikimedia
When Sanna Marin became the prime minister of Finland at the end of 2019, the international media went wild. A thirty-four-year-old woman, Marin now heads a coalition government whose four other parties also have women leaders, three of them in their thirties. The fact of so many young women at the top level of Finnish politics has been roundly celebrated; it’s been splashed across newspaper spreads, turned into inspirational memes, and touted as a rare sign of progress in an increasingly hostile, far-right, nationalist world.
Obscured by this celebration of women in government are the darker dynamics lurking in the background of contemporary Finnish politics. While the broad coalition government struggles for any meaningful consensus across left-wing and center-right positions, the extreme far-right is gathering steam, taking every opportunity to make life difficult for Marin’s fragile coalition.
An Uncertain Coalition
Finland went to the polls in April last year. The incumbent government’s punitive austerity policies were widely disliked, and most opposition parties campaigned on reversing some or all of them. On election day, however, no party received more than 20 percent of the vote. Out of that far-from-ringing endorsement of the options, the current coalition was formed. It includes the Social Democratic Party (SDP), the Center Party, the Green League, the Left Alliance, and the Swedish People’s Party.
This article is for subscribers only. Please login or subscribe to access our full archives and beautiful print and digital magazine starting at just $3 a month.