Populists like Finland’s Foreign Minister Timo Soini of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party are constantly campaigning. As we’ve seen in the disaster that Brexit inflicted on the United Kingdom, Soini too like Boris Johnson makes it up.
Like Johnson, Soini has got hit hard in the polls because he made campaign promises that he could never keep.
In his usual style, the PS leader exaggerates to a reporter and viewers who are little informed about Finland.
“The discussion is now open and loud as well,” he told the Sky News reporter.
“Loud?” Oh, yes, because PS’ Sebastian Tynkkynen and Sampo Terho raised the possibility of a referendum in Finland.
Even if Soini acknowledges that there are no plans for the present government to hold a referendum on EU membership, he leaves the door ajar for such a possibility after the 2019 general elections.
“…each party is going to publish its program for the elections [concerning EU membership],” he continued. “It’s up to our people and our members to decide what kind of an approach we’ll have.”
Listen to interview here.
Taking into account the popularity of the PS in the polls, which has plummeted, not too many will care what it does if it becomes a taxi party like in 2007, when it had 5 MPs.
A taxi party is a term used in Bolivia to describe parties that are so small that all of their members can fit inside a taxi.
* The Finnish name for the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The English names of the party adopted by the PS, like True Finns or Finns Party, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and xenophobia. We, therefore, prefer to use the Finnish name of the party on our postings. The direct translation of “Perussuomalaiset” is “basic” or “fundamental Finn.”