An MP from the populist right-wing Finns Party, James Hirvisaari, has been convicted for inciting hatred against an ethnic group by the Kouvola Court of Appeal.

The court ruled that Hirvisaari had published a text in his blog on the Uusi Suomi website that incited hatred against a religious, ethnic or similar group. The court said that Hirvisaari understood that the text was slanderous and likely to cause contempt and hatred towards Muslims. Hirvisaari will now have to pay 25 day-fines, which according to his income amounts to 1,425 euros.

Päijät-Häme district court threw out the charges around a year ago, saying that the text Hirvisaari published simply exercised his freedom of speech.

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True Finns party chairman Timo Soini had a stern discussion with the newly elected MP Teuvo Hakkarainen on Thursday.

Hakkarainen had raised eyebrows with comments on immigration that he made in a video clip put up on the Helsingin Sanomat website.

In the interview he called for a need for faster expulsion of rejected refugees, used an expression that is generally considered to be an offensive racial slur, and made a mocking imitation of a Muslim call to prayer.

In their discussion Soini urged Hakkarainen to exercise more discretion in what he says. The fresh MP attributed his speech to his rural background.

Earlier in the day Hakkarainen, who runs a sawmill in Viitasaari, expressed surprise at the uproar that his comments had caused in the social media. “Why can’t I say how things are?” he asked.

Helsingin Sanomat, 29 April 2011

The success of the anti-immigration, euroskeptic True Finns in Sunday’s elections may have proved a shock to Finland’s political elite, but the signs were already there.

Populist right-wing parties across Europe have benefited from a growing resentment towards the European Union, Islam and immigration, meaning Timo Soini’s True Finns are far from being alone.

Deutsche Welle, 19 April 2011

See also BBC News, 18 April 2011

April elections in Finland could see the rise of yet another Northern European anti-immigrant, nationalist rightwing party that flatly rejects the far-right label while using populist rhetoric.

The True Finns is the latest such party to show signs of gaining mainstream traction. Opinion polls suggest its showing in the April 17 parliamentary election could leap from its 4.1 percent score in the 2007 election right up to 20 percent.

The True Finns, Sweden Democrats (SD), the Danish People’s Party (DPP) and Norway’s Progress Party (FrP) are all already represented in their respective national parliaments.

AFP, 29 March 2011

As Finland’s April elections draw nearer, the country’s tiny foreign population finds itself the focus of debate, with the anti-immigrant, nationalist True Finns party expected to make runaway gains.

The party has catapulted to popularity thanks to its affable, charismatic leader Timo Soini and its “Finns-first” message, seen by many as xenophobic in a country where immigrants make up just 2.9% of the population. “Immigration is a problem and not a solution,” Soini has argued in television debates.

Although the party won only 4.1% in the last elections in 2007, a recent surge in popularity saw it register 16.2% support in one January opinion poll published in Finland’s daily of reference Helsingin Sanomat.

But the party cannot quite shake off the taint of racism. A small fringe group of the party, led by Helsinki city councilman Jussi Halla-Aho, has published an election manifesto blasting multiculturalism. Halla-Aho was convicted last year over blog comments linking Islam to paedophilia and saying that Somalis are pre-disposed to mugging people and living on the dole.

The True Finns’ leadership, however, plays down Halla-Aho’s influence. “Every party has these young radicals,” says founding member Raimo Vistbacka, a member of parliament since 1987. Vistbacka insisted that official party policy, while sceptical of immigration, was not extremist or xenophobic.

AFP, 14 February 2011

Cf. Migrant Tales, 27 November 2010