Finland’s results in the European election bucked a continent-wide trend of rising support for parties on the outer fringe of right-wing politics, with the Left Alliance and the National Coalition winning big at the expense of the nationalist Finns Party.
Leftist leader Li Andersson received more votes than any other candidate has ever received in a European election.
The Finns are all too aware of what far-right government means, they’re living next to it, and it’s threatening their very existence.
Congratulations on the Fins voting against barbarism! Here’s to hoping the upcoming election here in the USA follows suit, and continues to reject reactionary nationalism.
The Finns are all too aware of what far-right government means, they’re living next to it
They’re living in it. The existing Finnish government was already on a hard-right tilt over the last ten years, and this election has resulted in a countercyclical backlash.
This isn’t a bunch of Finns saying “We don’t want to be like Russia.” It’s a bunch of Finns saying the National Coalition / True Finns suck fucking ass for cannibalizing their public sector in order to inflate their police sectors in an anti-migrant freak out.
The country has dipped into a recession following a slew of big cuts to social spending and economic lag caused by the war. And people justifiably don’t like that shit.
Oh, I didn’t know this! Thank you for that information. I hope the new government can materiality improve the lives of the public.
Some comments have pointed out that Finland already had a right-wing government going into this election, and I’ll admit that I was entirely unaware of this.
Again, I congratulate the Finnish public on rejecting right-wing and authoritarian politics, especially after having to suffer under it at home.
God I’m sick of explaining this.
If everyone voted for the left-most party, and the right had no votes, the right would move towards the left, pushing the dems along with them.
Not surprisingly, when the country votes left your politics moves left.
Comments like this are the reason why the dems are not the bastion of leftism you so desire.
Mind if I ask what you are basing this on? Because the experience I’m having in my country tells me that would probably just reinforce the status quo, and then the far-right would have a huge increase.
In my country the center-“left” soc-dems (who have been leaning more and more liberal) were in power since 2014, with a majority on the left; in 2022 that party got a majority of votes, and the rest of the left loss a lot of votes, but the right was still in minority. This has essentially resulted in them being able to keep doing whatever they want and what they’ve always done and not keep their promises because they know a bunch of people always vote for them anyway because “it’s them or the right wins!”. Then in late 2023 there was a corruption scandal that resulted in us having new elections early this year where the far right saw unprecedented growth, the “center”-right party won the elections, and there is now a majority right in parliament. At no point during these 10 years did our country turn further left; the right certainly didn’t.
My point is, based on that, I would guess that having liberals (who are the ones in charge of the Dems) in power so long with a majority would just result in them consolidating power, the rest of the left to be pushed out, and eventually for the far right to see a renewed growth.
The real solution would either be for everyone to vote for a new different left-wing party (if we’re already talking about convincing “everyone” to vote for Dems, why not dream a little higher?), or turn to mutual aid and grassroots movements. And a party that wins elections will almost certainly never want to change the electoral system because they benefit from it the most; again, the best hope for that might be getting behind one party whose mission purpose is exactly to turn away from a 2 party system.
From the same country that gave us Linux, inspired Middle Earth’s Quenya (noble Elvish) language, and showed us how to properly manage prison reform.
My question: why are the Finnish always so awesome?
P.S. Contrary to what one failed former conspiracy-addled political “leader” suggested, the Finnish do not rake their forests.
When all people are cared for, no one turns bigot. This becomes a vertuous circle. “Simple as that”. Meanwhile France worked hard to release the kraken
all people are cared for
This. This is the part we need to learn.
Can you send emissaries to train us heathens how to not be dicks? I want to be happy like Finns, and the people who want to be rich instead (temporarily, as the next traffic accident will ruin them) we can help with psychotherapy.
Well, despite all the good work and against common sense, surprisingly many still turn bigot. But much less so, luckily.
Seems like some people just can’t be content and happy, no matter what. And you have to direct that anger or bitterness or whatever to something. Too often it’s hate.
the Finnish do not rake their forests
but they have turned it into a running gag
Allow me to gas Finland up a bit more. They’re higher than Germany in terms of innovation (triadic patents per capita), they have semi-democratically owned grocery stores with 90% of the country being a member/co-owner, they have 60% union density and a Ghent system (like Sweden, unlike Norway), their housing prices were among the few in Europe falling - after the government started their Housing First initiative and built social housing for the poor, their education system being so good (despite being relaxed unlike e.g. Singapore) and state-funded instead of private… life is pretty good in Finland.
I think it really goes back through history. Finland was a possession of Sweden and then Russia. The nobility would have spoken either of those languages depending on who was in charge, and ethnic Finns were essentially pawns for the larger powers, and the finnish language wasn’t even written down much.
This changed when Russia started to crack down on Finnish culture, leading to a surge in pro-Finnish sentiment. People even changed their names from Swedish versions to finnish versions, and went from using “Christian” names to names from finnish mythology or culture. Actually, it’s somewhat similar to how black Americans changed naming conventions in the Civil rights era. The very concept of finnish-ness was somewhat of a working class concept. This, combined with a similar law of jante type belief meant there was and is much more of a focus on the collective good than in other countries.
During the Russian revolution, a Civil War erupted between left wing and right wing, with the right wing wanting a German aristocratic monarchy over finland. The right wing actually won, but it was very short lived because Germany lost WW1 right aftwards, and a liberal democracy was formed. Finland was super poor, but started to build itself up as it’s own country.
When WW2 rolled around, most people are familiar with the Winter War where they held their ground against a Russian invasion. Most people aren’t as familiar with the Continuation War against Russia, where they (with the support of germany) continued to fight against Russia, or the Lapland war, where they actually had to fight against Germany to kick them out of the country. The Germans actually used scorched earth on finland as they retreated, knowing they were losing WW2.
After all of that, a huge swath of finland was destroyed by the Germans, or annexed by the Russians, leaving many homeless. Finland had to provide for those people, so homes were rebuilt rapidly throughout the country. Since they were in the soviet sphere of influence, but they weren’t a Warsaw pact country, they didn’t get any assistance from the eastern bloc (and they actually had to pay reparations as an axis country). They were also not included in the Marshall plan that helped provide recovery to western Europe.
They survived as a people by taking care of each other, and they are very proud of that. If you go to a Finnish museum, next to works of art and science, you’ll see things like the baby box, or other displays about the establishment of the welfare state. Many countries have a welfare system, but treat it like a dirty secret, while they celebrate what they were able to accomplish.
One last thing I think is really cool is that they are not afraid to experiment with policies. Many governments will do little trials of policy here and there, but not many go to the point of actually doing scientifically rigorous studies.
Unfortunately it’s the opposite here in France and I’m devastated.
Congratulations to the Finns!!!
Well hopefully your population is intelligent enough to see through the lies after the populists take in to office. It’s usually when their incompetence shines right through as they’ll just start making excuses and keep blaming the opposition for their failures. It’s also the point where they usually start breaking most of the promises they made during the elections or while they where in the opposition.
The French also have history of not so peaceful protests so the people in the ivory towers need to take that in to account.
Well that didn’t work out for Germany. However, maybe the most recent scandals of some German AFD representatives did prevent them from receiving even more votes. Nevertheless, the AFD hasn’t received any recognition for its beneficial contributions in the parliament thus far. Typically, it involves strange remarks or overall misconduct. But their overall propaganda seems to be still very effective.
I like Li Andersson’s three major goals. Seriously… How could this be wrong for certain people. I don’t get it
to end poverty, to make the world more equal and to solve the climate crisis
Fuc*ing leftits with their positive, political goals. Disgusting /s
Thanks for the hopeful message.
I have no doubt the French far-right would fail miserably like every other EU far-right government, and I wouldn’t bother too much in other circumstances but those suckers are Putin’s friends and the last thing I want to see happening is the end of Ukraine’s support.
Macron just dismissed the government, and we’re up for new elections in two weeks. There’s a good chance that for the first time in the French Republic History we don’t have a single leftist voice at the government.
We are famous for our protests indeed, but with a far-right government cops will just feel allowed to do their worst, and we might reach chaotic levels of violence.
Anyway, thanks again for your message. We’re not there yet and I need to blow off some steam.
The French also have history of not so peaceful protests so the people in the ivory towers need to take that in to account.
They do, which is why they’ve invested so heavily in state police forces and surveillance technologies. France runs tight behind the UK in terms of over-policing of potential dissidents (re: poc, college kids, community activists) and cribs a lot of their techniques from the US and Israel.
Oh no they didn’t copy from the UK, it’s a thing going back straight to Vichy France. Have a look at the biography of this character.
“Record result” doesn’t even begin to describe how hard they shattered their previous number. They went from 7% last election to 17%. Left Alliance has never seen numbers like this as far as I know.
Yep. From a minor party to second place, with a small campaign and core leftism program. Li has been the straight shooter calling bullshit out for years and suddenly it worked. Absolutely amazing
The Swedish green party also kicked down our far right party down the ranks.
This warms my hearth.
I’m actual a member of a small leftwing party in my own country and (having lived 2 decades abroad and seen other political realities and even been a member of the Green Party in Britain) have concluded they suffer exactly from the problem that well entrenched leadership are not “straight shooters calling bullshit out”, and instead their style of discourse “avoids giving offense”, sounding far too much (IMHO) like the mainstream supposedly-left party we have here and leaving an impression about the party (to those who aren’t tribalists predisposed to support and believe in anything the party’s leadership says) that they’re just another group looking to suckle from the tit of the state.
I think the problem in my party is due to the leadership being a very uniform group of 30-something well-off scions of the Middle Class (which, in a country that until the revolution of 74 that overthrew Fascism had very little Middle class, shows that they’re hardly coming “from the people”) who got to the leadership mainly due to nepotism (often being the sons and daughters of party founders) or by going to the same shcools and being similar to each other and talking the same talk as the rest - i.e. cronysm - and who, from the explanations I got from one of the party’s members of parliament for certain anti-Democratic practices inside the party, see themselves as superior to the rest of the members of the party (which probably explains why they listen - if at all - very little to the rest of the party and seem unable to change even after losing between half and two thirds of the vote).
So I hope I can use the example of the Left in Finland to internally push for a kind of change in leadership and discourse, towards one much more broadly representative of people in this country and who is willing to talk about how parts of the machine are broken and need replacing (and do so anchored on a proactivelly tought through vision for the future, rather than the mere reactivelly “complain about things blowing up after they blew up” so common in my country) rather than the current mild-mannered, frustrating reactive discourse that amounts to little more than “the car is fine, it’s just some some screws that need tightenning”.
“straight shooters calling bullshit out”, and instead their style of discourse “avoids giving offense”,
I want to highlight that Andersson is still respectful and not offensive. The callouts are done honestly
Totally agree that leftism in a global sense needs to shift communication towards a more active and hopeful future. Everyone else is just sticking to the status quo or worse.
