SINIMUSTA LIIKE, a newly registered political party, has morphed into an umbrella organisation for far-right movements in Finland, writes STT.
The Finnish news agency reported early this month that the organisation is made up of members of the radical wing of the former youth organisation of the Finns Party, anti-immigrant street patrol group Soldiers of Odin and dissolved neo-Nazi group Nordic Resistance Movement (PVL).
Sinimusta Liike (Eng. Blue-and-black movement) has announced its goal to nominate candidates in all electoral districts for the upcoming parliamentary elections and come away with at least one seat in the Finnish Parliament. The party states on its website that it intends to offer radical nationalists a vessel for participating in parliamentary decision-making instead of having to “settle for operating in the shadows”.
Tommi Kotonen, a research professor at the University of Jyväskylä, viewed that the registration of the party marks the most important development in the far-right space in Finland since 2020, when the Supreme Court banned the Nordic Resistance Movement.
“You can think about its significance through the fact that it’s currently a public-facing organisation. They’ve set their sights on the parliamentary elections, so it’s clear that this has happened. And maybe you could see them in a way as something bringing together the far right,” he commented to STT.
An organisation can be entered into the party register if it has received statements of support from at least 5,000 people who are eligible to vote.
It must also have adopted a set of rules that ensures its decision-making and operations abide by democratic principles and a general programme that lays out the goals and principles that steer its national activities.
Kotonen added that the party’s ideology strongly resembles anti-modernistic fascism.
Sinimusta Liike markets itself as a nationalist-radical party that aims to protect the interests of white Finns and foster the Finnish way of life.
“We’re a party that maintains a racial identity. So you can think of us as a racist radical-right movement in the sense that we do feel that Finns are more valuable than foreign populations,” Tuukka Kuru, a former member of Finns Party Youth and the chairperson of Sinimusta Liike, summarised to STT.
He confirmed that the movement also meets many of the descriptors of fascism. “If you’re talking about a movement that opposes capitalism, is nationalistic, highlights mixed economy, is corporative – terms that are commonly attributed to fascism – I guess it’s close to it.”
Kuru declined to state whether the party condemns the most extreme consequences of fascism, such as the Holocaust.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
