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Far-right politics in Finland

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Far-right politics in Finland

In Finland, the far-right (Finnish: Äärioikeisto) was strongest in 1920–1940 when the Academic Karelia Society, Lapua Movement, Patriotic People's Movement (IKL) and Vientirauha operated in the country and had hundreds of thousands of members. In addition to these dominant far-right and fascist organizations, smaller Nazi parties operated as well.

Nazi parties failed to attain seats in the parliament, although former and future MPs and ministers were active in the Nazi movement. The fascist IKL achieved success in the parliamentary elections of 1933, 1936 and 1939. Fascist IKL and the conservative National Coalition Party had an electoral alliance in the 1933 parliamentary election after the radical anti-communist "Lapua wing" led by Eino Suolahti and Edwin Linkomies took over party leadership. The National Coalition Party distanced itself from IKL and the far right after the alliance suffered a major election loss. The far-right groups exercised considerable political power, pressuring the government to outlaw communist parties and newspapers and expel Freemasons from the armed forces. Conservative and White Guard authorities supported the far right to a large extent, National Coalition Party and the right wing of Agrarian League supporting the Lapua movement. The government chose to appease the far-right and acquiesced to their demands following the show of power during the Peasant March and Vaasa riot. In 1922 Conservative MP and chairman of the parliamentary military committee Oskari Heikinheimo stated that "We White Guardists are not at all ashamed by the comparison [to fascists], on the contrary we confess with joy and pride we are congenial spirits with the Italian fascists."

Especially the criminal justice system was sympathetic to the far right: According to author Sirpa Kähkönen, fascists were overrepresented among prison officers and sometimes outright controlled certain correctional institutions. For example, the leadership of the Tammisaari forced labor camp belonged to the IKL and new officers were pressured to join the blackshirts. In 1932, the warden of Tammisaari labor camp Kiianlinna, his deputy Torsten Palenius and 50 officers sent greetings to Vihtori Kosola in the local IKL newspaper. The State Police had copies of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and the International Jew in its libraries available to those wishing to read them and the chief of the State Police Ossi Holmström subscribed to the Judeo-Bolshevik conspiracy theory. The social-democratic politician Onni Happonen was arrested by police who then turned him over to a fascist lynch mob to be killed.

According to a study that was awarded by Finnish Ministry of Culture, Finland never experienced a total fascist takeover because Finland already had institutionalized anti-communism and oppressing the already paralyzed left was generally viewed as acceptable. Actors on the far-right could not challenge it from the right and articulate a credible alternative.

During the Cold War, all partied deemed fascist were banned according to the Paris Peace Treaties and all former fascist activists had to find new political homes. Despite Finlandization, many continued in public life. Yrjö Ruutu, the leader of the National Socialist Union of Finland became the head of the National Board of Education. Juhani Konkka, the party secretary and editor-in-chief of the party newspaper National Socialist, abandoned politics and became an accomplished translator, receiving a cultural award of the Soviet Union. Three former members of the Waffen SS served as ministers of defense; the Finnish SS Battalion officers Sulo Suorttanen and Pekka Malinen as well as Mikko Laaksonen, a soldier in the Finnish SS-Company, formed of pro-Nazi defectors. Chairman of the Constitutional Right Party Ilpo Järvinen was likewise SS-Company veteran. In the 1960s the president, speaker of the parliament, minister of defense and seven out of nine bishops of the Finnish Lutheran Church were former members of the Academic Karelia Society.

The current second biggest Finnish party, the Finns Party, has been described as far right. The former leader of the Finns party and current speaker of the Parliament Jussi Halla-aho, has been convicted of hate speech due to his comments stating that, "Prophet Muhammad was a pedophile and Islam justifies pedophilia and Pedophilia was Allah's will." Finns Party members have frequently supported far-right and neo-Nazi movements such as the Finnish Defense League, Atomwaffen, Soldiers of Odin, Nordic Resistance Movement, Rajat Kiinni (Close the Borders), and Suomi Ensin (Finland First). Finns Party members have been criticized for supporting the White Genocide conspiracy theory. In a survey conducted by Iltalehti, one-third of the voters of the far-right Finns Party thought that "the European race must be prevented from mixing with darker races, otherwise the European native population will eventually become extinct". Finns Party Minister of the Interior Mari Rantanen wrote that if Finns remain naive on immigration, Finns "will not remain blue-eyed" and shared writings referring to refugees as "parasites". Toni Jalonen, at the time deputy-chair of the Finns Party Youth, posted a picture of a black family with the text "Vote for the Finns, so that Finland's future doesn't look like this".

In the 1990s and 2000s, before the breakthrough of the Finns Party, a few neo-Nazi candidates enjoyed success, like Janne Kujala of Finland - Fatherland (founded as Aryan Germanic Brotherhood) and Jouni Lanamäki who was previously associated with the Nordic Reich Party. Pekka Siitoin of the National Democratic Party was the fifth most popular candidate in Naantali city council elections.

According to Oula Silvennoinen, a historian known for his work on Finnish co-operation with the Germans during World War Two, the Blue-and-Black Movement-party is neo-fascist. The far-right Power Belongs to the People and Freedom Alliance were founded in 2021 and 2022 respectively. Both are openly pro-Russian and have prominent Russian propagandists as candidates such as Juha Korhonen, Janus Putkonen and Johan Bäckman. They have recruited Finns to fight in the war in Ukraine and the Russian Imperial Movement has organized military training for Finnish neo-Nazis. Rusich Group has also built a relationship with the Finnish far-right.

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