“Traditional divisions between the right and the left have become less and less important and been replaced by a division into nationalists and globalists,” he stated in Tampere on Saturday.

THE FINNS PARTY and Green League are the only two parties that have adapted to the new division of the party-political landscape in Finland, estimates Jussi Halla-aho, the newly re-elected chairperson of the Finns Party.

“The Finns Party and Green League are the only existing parties that have adapted along this axis. The other parties are internally divided and losing support to the Finns Party and Green League,” he added.

Halla-aho was elected for a second two-year term as the chairperson of the populist right-wing party in Tampere on Saturday. He was the only party member to throw his hat in the leadership competition.

“The big question of our time is whether the state has a duty to protect its own people or function as the whole world’s welfare office,” he told.

The Finns Party on Sunday announced its new deputy chairpersons are Juho Eerola, a third-term Member of Parliament from Kotka, Arja Juvonen, a third-term Member of Parliament from Kuopio, and Riikka Purra, a first-term Member of the Finnish Parliament from Tampere. Purra has been described as the right hand of Halla-aho and was responsible for running the presidential campaign of Laura Huhtasaari, who won election to the European Parliament in May.

Halla-aho on Sunday also claimed that the increasingly narrow-minded climate is making it difficult and outright dangerous to criticise the status quo in Finland.

“Criticising the Soviet Union during the Cold War was socially reprehensible and could land you in political limbo. In today’s Finland and Western countries, immigration, Islam, sexual minorities, the European Union and some other issues have become the new Soviet Union,” he stated.

“If you voice wrong opinions about these, you’re a dark force. And the worst thing is that you’re increasingly likely to face judicial sanctions for voicing wrong opinions.”

Halla-aho warned that limiting the freedom of expression could have devastating consequences for countries based on the rule of law, arguing that freedom of speech signifies the freedom to voice opinions even if they hurt or bother others.

“What’s even more devastating is that no one really knows what’s legal and what’s not. Legal uncertainty leads to rule of man and, on the other hand, also to self-censorship.”

Aleksi Teivainen – HT

Source: Uusi Suomi