Sebastian Tynkkynen is third vice president of the nationalist populist Perussuomalaiset (PS)* and chairman of its youth wing. Recently he’s been in the national spotlight and a thick thorn in Timo Soini’s side and a threat to party unity.
The official reason why Tynkkynen’s party membership was revoked Friday was – according to PS party secretary Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo – because he published a list of the party’s members online to call an emergency meeting to debate if the PS should remain in government.
The way Tynkkynen’s membership was revoked exposes once again that the PS’ real name is TS, or Timo Soini, who rules his party with a mixture of charisma and terror, especially against those who get out of line.
The way Soini keeps the party leadership and MPs on short leashes, coupled by its turncoat policies in government, are certain recipes for disaster. It is ironic that the very people Soini gave a political voice, the racists and far right, are threatening to destroy the party today.
Soini doesn’t accept criticism from within his ranks as the Tynkknynen row shows but he doesn’t have a problem with members who have issues with racism, ethnic agitation convictions, and ties with far right groups.
Even if the media and some politicians are following the row with keen interest, we mustn’t forget that many of Tynkkynen’s opinions of migrants, minorities, cultural diversity and the EU are racist and ultranationalist. They are in the same league as far right parties like the Danish People’s Party and Sweden Democrats.
Should we then feel sorry for Tynkkynen as some media, politicians and law experts have expressed?
Not at all. How could you feel sorry for a member of a party that bases its popularity on xenophobia and victimizing migrants and petty provincialism?
We should, however, thank Tynkkynen for speeding up the eventual demise of the PS that is not only a huge disappointment to those that voted for it but for unmasking the political paper tiger the party is.
*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.