President Niinistö hit the nail on the head when he spoke of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine by saying: “Putin’s mask comes off, showing “cold face of war”
Now the same can be said of the True Finns (c. 20% of votes) who are currently engaged in building a coalition government with the Conservatives (c. 20% of votes) and another two minority parties the Christian Democrats and the Swedish Folks’ Party (both c. 5 % of votes). The True Finns are not only negotiating in a closed room with the other three parties but they are actively “raging” publicly against the other two parties over social media to achieve their own narrow objectives in these negotiations.
Here is a free translation from their social media accounts:
“I’m asking your opinion; is it really the will of the people that the minority of a party with a few percent of support gets to screw up in government negotiations and mix things up when a government is assembled in Finland!” claimed Mr. Peltokangas, a MP from the True Finns, and he continued: “I am deeply disturbed by the fact that in Finland the election winners do not negotiate the government program, but as you have noticed from the public, the loudest green-left-leaning world huggers of a party that has always been a marginal party in Finland mix things up!
Another True Finn, Mr. Tynkkynen, stated categorially the following:
“Orpo (the Conservative Party Leader) made a big mistake by ruling with his own authority that YLE’s (The Finnish Public Broadcaster) content production would not be touched…
… This may be the line of the coalition, but in government negotiations, no one dictates, especially in public, but we negotiate with the parties and meet with whom we want to join the government,” he continued.
Things look grim for any new coalition government if they are trying to negotiate in good faith, while MPs from one party are already going at potential government partners’ throats…
This does not bode well for the Conservatives or for Finland because none of the above parties have a clear majority in Parliament. They are all minority parties who must form a working coalition to rule the country for the next four years.
We already have too much at stake from our neighbour to tolerate such behaviour!
The Conservatives need to pull up their socks and really consider if they really do believe they can run any government with such a difficult party! Copying Swedish political thinking that Right-Wing blocks are the best solution since sliced bread could be very short-sighted.
