Since then, however, the pragmatism required of a governing party has toned down their strident Euroskeptic, anti-immigrant rhetoric. From 15 percent in the 2011 elections, a repeat performance in 2015 that showed they were not just a flash in the pan, and a peak of 20 percent support in opinion polls, the party has sagged to 8 percent. Now they are wondering how to get their mojo back.
“In opposition, it’s easier to be a populist as you don’t have to make compromises. Some supporters had unrealistic expectations of just how much the True Finns would be able to shape the government’s immigration policy,” said Tommi Kotonen, a researcher specializing in right-wing extremism at the University of Jyväskylä. [...]
Such divisions are nothing new to a party founded 20 years ago from the remains of the Finnish Rural Party, which mostly represented unemployed rural workers until it was rebranded by Soini. The party opposed globalization, free-market capitalism and elites in general, and its Finnish name — Perussuomalaiset — is closer to “ordinary Finns” than “true Finns,” prompting the party to argue that it should be translated into English as “The Finns party.” While firmly to the right on immigration and social issues, its economic policy has traditionally been more to the left, with insiders jokingly referring to themselves as a worker’s party without socialism.
No comments:
Post a Comment