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Finland should aim to leave the European Union in the long term, the far-right Perussuomalaiset's Jussi Halla-aho said ahead of his party congress
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- Title
- Finns Party mastermind defends long-term goal to exit EU
- Authors
- Anne Kauranen
- Published
- Aug 12 2023
- Word count
- 509 words
Oh jesus not this again. Have these people not learned anything from brexit? A financial powerhouse brought to its knees after leaving and they think our little Finland will do better? I personally think they are being dishonest to gain grumpy old man yells at cloud people to vote for them.
Perussuomalaiset are in deep shit with all the racism controversies so they're throwing shit at the wall for distraction. I doubt it'll stick.
As a Scottish person planning to move to live closer to Finnish relatives it's still a deeply concerning headline. We were laughing about Brexit until it actually happened, and all that took was a campaign of lies leveraging people's fears/beliefs against them.
Finland has a long history with fascism and this latest chapter doesn't look to be heading in the best direction. Combine that with the neighbouring war, I don't think it would take much to convince a majority of the population to vote for something drastic like leaving the EU.
Obviously I hope that doesn't come to pass, and ultimately these sort of articles can make a mountain out of an off the cuff comment. Not least as from the article, the full quote from Hallo-aho is,
"It is justified that we aim to leave the EU in the long term,"... "But at the same time, of course, we recognize that in the prevailing world situation, a fragmented Western Europe would be much weaker against the threat of totalitarian countries".
Finnish support for EU membership is somewhere in mid-60%, if thats of any consolation for you. Its also gone up after the war in Ukraine escalated.
A bit of off-topic but I would like if you could expand on "Finland has a long history with fascism" a bit, if you dont mind
Not OP but I imagine what they meant was allying with Nazi Germany in WW2, though that honestly was more of a self-preservation call than anything else, considering the USSR really, really, wanted dat land.
It is of great consolation, most Finns who I speak to are totally reasonable people. I think my experience with Brexit has soured my trust of the general public even more than I would care to admit!
My comment on Finland's experience with fascism was possibly a little unfair. As Grzmot pointed out, Finland's allegiance during the second world war was obviously very tactical and in the end they did survive, although at great cost. My knowledge on much of this is very limited so please feel free to correct me.
Before WW2, during the early 1900s, Finland's anti-communism movement surged to become very far right and huddled around the idea of what makes a "pure" Finn. Turns out a lot of that came down to skin colour. Throughout the last century there are many examples that mirror a similar sentiment, such as the Lapua movement (apologies for not listing more, I am currently on mobile and this has become a very long comment, wiki has a lot of good examples with some good links to check out).
Bringing the lens to a more modern era, Finland was unable to avoid the rise of the skinhead during the 80s/90s, and just over the last few years there have been multiple thwarted bombings by right wing groups.
Now this all sounds very damning, and I am not trying to paint Finland as some horrible right wing haven. If anyone is reading this and considering visiting I can only encourage you to go! I think a lot of Finland's history with extreme right wing politics is very reactionary. Like Scotland, Finland is not a big country and it has every right to preserve its deep, interesting culture from oppressors who would see it buried. Also I'd like to note that Finland is not some isolated case, I've seen nazi flags and unfortunate salutes on the streets of Glasgow.
No worries mate, I was just interested in what people outside know or think about these things :)
The Brits haven't learned anything from Brexit. Theyre still blaming foreigners and even the opposition still supports Brexit, claiming it can be "fixed".
I think their position is subtlely different and quite correct:
The EU has stated they will not consider accepting the UK back into the EU for the foreseeable future, so Labor can't support reversing Brexit, only minimizing the damage.
The EU's position is driven mainly by the desire to avoid another Brexit - they don't want the UK until the majority of the UK public firmly and unambiguously support being in the EU, and they don't want any member states constantly hopping in and out of EU member states, besides.
I know nothing of history, so this is uneducated completely, but I feel like this and the Taiwan situation both emphasize how dumb it is to let groups leave the mother ship. The us fought and killed a bunch of it's own people to stop it, and... It's a mess too I guess. I still feel like the civil war solution had a better long term outcome than splitting up groups has had though.
Taiwan didn't leave the mother ship, they're independent from China in all but name - Taiwan technically declares that they want to conquer China, but only because China has declared that if Taiwan ever revokes their desire to conquer China then China will invade Taiwan, which is insane. "If you don't threaten to invade me, then I will invade you!"
Unless you meant Hong Kong, with the end of the 99 year lease and China's subsequent undermining of Hong Kong's democracy.
I think its more that right now, they at least agree on the fact that there is one china, just not who the legitimate government is. If they revoke their claims of mainland China, they are practically saying that they are a state independent of mainland China, and that's something the CCP is making threats about
Right, that's the CCP's reasons for this farcical state of affairs. And in areas where the USA refuses to back Taiwan, Taiwan begrudgingly says whatever dumb shit will make the CCP happy as long as it doesn't actually hurt Taiwan.
Also, Taiwan literally has declared their independence, and their current official position is that they don't need to declare independence because they've already declared it.