The Finns Party,formerly known as the True Finns,is a right-wing populist political party in Finland. It was founded in 1995 following the dissolution of the Finnish Rural Party. The party is currently a participant in the Government of Petteri Orpo,holding seven ministerial portfolios. The party achieved its electoral breakthrough in the 2011 Finnish parliamentary election,when it won 19.1% of votes,becoming the third largest party in the Finnish Parliament. In the 2015 election the party got 17.7% of the votes,making it the parliament's second-largest political party. The party was in opposition for the first 20 years of its existence. In 2015,it joined the coalition government formed by Prime Minister Juha Sipilä. Following a 2017 split,over half of the party's MPs left the parliamentary group and were subsequently expelled from their party membership. This defector group,Blue Reform,continued to support the government coalition,while the Finns Party went into opposition. The party,having been reduced to 17 seats after the split,increased its representation to 39 seats in the 2019 Finnish parliamentary election,while Blue Reform failed to win any seats. During the 2023 Finnish parliamentary election,the Finns Party finished in second place and recorded their strongest result,46 seats,since the party's founding.
Timo Juhani Soini is a Finnish politician who is the co-founder and former leader of the Finns Party. He served as Deputy Prime Minister of Finland from 2015 to 2017 and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2015 to 2019.
Helsinki is one of the 13 electoral districts of the Parliament of Finland,the national legislature of Finland. The district was established as Helsinki City in 1954 from parts of Uusimaa Province. It was renamed Helsinki in 1997. It is conterminous with the municipality of Helsinki. The district currently elects 23 of the 200 members of the Parliament of Finland using the open party-list proportional representation electoral system. At the 2023 parliamentary election it had 546,375 registered electors.
Jussi Kristian Halla-aho is a Finnish politician,currently serving as the Speaker of the Parliament of Finland since 2023. Halla-aho has served as a member of the Parliament of Finland from 2011 to 2014 and again since 2019,and as the leader of the Finns Party from 10 June 2017 to 14 August 2021. Previously,between 2014 and 2019,he was a member of the European Parliament,where he was part of the Identity and Democracy group.
James Hirvisaari is a Finnish politician. He was elected to the Finnish Parliament in the 2011 general election held on 17 April on the electoral list of the Finns Party,but since 2013 he has represented Change 2011.
Sampo Terho is a Finnish politician who served as Minister for European Affairs,Culture and Sports. He was the chairman of Suomalaisuuden Liitto and was earlier a Member of the European Parliament.
Jussi Niinistö is a Finnish politician and a former Minister of Defence and a former member of Finnish Parliament,representing the Finns Party 2011–2017 and Blue Reform since 2017. By occupation he is a military historian,a docent of Finnish history in the University of Helsinki and a docent of military history in the Finnish National Defence University. In 2013 he was elected as the first vice-chairman of the True Finns,but lost his seat in 2017.
A 2011 poll showed that 66% of Finnish respondents considered Finland to be a racist country but only 14% admitted to being racist themselves. Minority groups facing the most negative attitudes were Finnish Kale,Somalis,and ethnic groups mostly consisting of Muslims. Many Finnish people believe that Finns played little or no role in colonialism,a view known as "Finnish exceptionalism". However,Finns did settle while not an independent people the Sámi land and in the north and were involved in European colonial projects in Africa and North America. Finns at the time were subjects of Sweden and later the Russian Empire,which has been used to excuse their participation in colonialism.
Juhana Mikael Vartiainen is a Finnish politician,economist and a member of the Finnish Parliament,representing the National Coalition Party,which he joined after having been a member of the Social Democratic Party of Finland from 1975 to 2015. He was elected the Mayor of Helsinki in August 2021 by the Helsinki city council.
Parliamentary elections were held in Finland on 14 April 2019. For the first time,no party received more than 20% of the vote. The Centre Party,which had been the largest party following the 2015 elections,dropped to fourth place,losing 18 seats and recording its lowest vote share since 1917. The Social Democratic Party saw the biggest gains,winning six more seats and narrowly becoming the largest party for the first time since 1999. The Green League and the Left Alliance also gained five and four seats respectively.
Presidential elections were held in Finland on 28 January 2018. The incumbent Sauli Niinistöreceived 63% of the vote and was elected for a second term,avoiding a second round. He received a plurality of the vote in every municipality and a majority in all but 13 municipalities.
The 2017 Finns Party leadership election was held in Jyväskylä,Finland,on June 10,2017,to elect the new chair of the Finns Party. All members of the party who had paid their subscription were allowed to vote in the election.
Laura Huhtasaari is a Finnish politician and teacher. As a member of the Finns Party,she has represented Satakunta in the Parliament of Finland from April 2015 to July 2019. She was the Finns Party candidate for the 2018 Finnish presidential election. In 2019 Huhtasaari was elected to the European Parliament with 92,760 votes
The 2017 Finnish government crisis followed the Finns Party leadership election held on 10 June 2017. Prime Minister Juha Sipiläand Minister of Finance Petteri Orpo announced on 12 June that they would no longer cooperate in a coalition government with the Finns Party after Jussi Halla-aho was elected party chairman. The crisis resolved on 13 June when twenty MPs defected from the Finns Party's parliamentary group,forming what would eventually become The Finnish Reform Movement party. Sipilä's government retained a majority in Finland's parliament as The Finnish Reform Movement continued as a member of the coalition.
The Finnish Reform Movement,previously known as Blue Reform,was a Finnish conservative political party.
Leena Kristiina Meri is a Finnish politician,representing the Finns Party in the Parliament of Finland. She has served in the Parliament since 2015 and in the City Council of Hyvinkääsince 2013.
Sakari Rainer Puisto is a Finnish politician. He was a candidate of the Finns Party in European Parliament elections in 2014 and in parliamentary elections in 2015 and 2019. In spring 2015,he participated in the government negotiations. He worked as a Senior Adviser to former Minister of Employment Jari Lindström in the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment of Finland. During this time,he especially focused on the asylum seeker crisis as well as education and innovation policy,in addition to economic affairs and employment policy. In 2019,he was a candidate of the Finns Party in Pirkanmaa constituency and was elected to the Parliament.
Riikka Katriina Purra is a Finnish politician,serving as the Deputy Prime Minister of Finland,and Finance Minister,since 2023. She is also a member of the Parliament of Finland for the Finns Party for the Uusimaa constituency. In August 2021 she was elected the new leader of the party,after Jussi Halla-aho.
Presidential elections were held in Finland on 28 January 2024,with a second round held on 11 February. Voters elected a president of the Republic for a six-year term. Incumbent president Sauli Niinistöwas term-limited and ineligible to run for re-election,having served the maximum two terms,ensuring the president elected would be the country's thirteenth.
