I have lost a chunk of my respect for the Finns Party.
That said, I have absolutely no respect for any of the other parties in Finland whatsoever.
A picture I took of Sebastian Tynkkynen in Helsinki a few days prior to his being ousted from the party for challenging the chairman, Timo Soini. I was seated a few seats from him at the Free Speech event arranged by YLE.
Tynkkynen was recently ejected from the party, following his efforts to get the party leadership to consider whether or not it should continue in government. At the time, Tynkkynen cited the party’s participation in government decisions that ran counter to its election platform.
Finns Party MP group takes back Facebook furore MP, rejects youth wing chair
Finns Party MP participated in a parliamentary group meeting in Helsinki Thursday. Image: Jussi Nukari / Lehtikuva
The Finns Party parliamentary group has welcomed back MP Olli Immonen after a Facebook post widely condemned as racist. Last month Immonen requested reinstatement via message after his self-imposed time-out. The party was not as lenient in the case of re-elected youth wing chair and third vice president Sebastian Tynkkynen, who was banned from attending parliamentary group meetings.
Following a Facebook post in which he advocated a “fight to the death” against the “evil” that was multiculturalism, Finns Party MP Olli Immonen announced in August that he was voluntarily withdrawing from the party’s parliamentary group. Immonen’s comments were widely condemned, and he received a warning.
His comments sparked nationwide anti-racism demonstrations, with the largest in Helsinki attracting upwards of 15.000 participants. Later, in October, Tynkkynen appealed to be reinstated to the group via text message.
On Thursday Immonen appeared with Finns Party parliamentary group leader Sampo Terho, who announced that Immonen had been accepted back into the fold.
“After listening to MP Immonen and following lengthy discussions the Finns party parliamentary group has after due consideration decided to accept MP Immonen back into the parliamentary group, however giving him a warning over the previous incident that led to his voluntary suspension,” Terho said.
Terho said that Immonen’s Facebook comments had been “ambiguous” and that the fallout had been unfortunate.
“We have now issued a warning. This cannot happen again and in future MPs should be more mindful of their statements,” Terho added.
Immonen said that he was satisfied with the parliamentary group’s decision and was pleased to return to the group.
“My comment was open to interpretation. In future I will try to avoid this kind of ambiguity and express myself clearly and simply when I make my arguments” he remarked.
Upstart youth wing Tynkkynen not so lucky
While Immonen is back in the party’s good graces, the party’s third vice chair and recently re-elected youth wing leader Sebastian Tynkkynen was not so fortunate.
Tynkkynen was recently ejected from the party, following his efforts to get the party leadership to consider whether or not it should continue in government. At the time, Tynkkynen cited the party’s participation in government decisions that ran counter to its election platform.
Parliamentary group chair Terho told journalists of the decision to exclude Tynkkynen from further participation in group meetings.
“The group had come to the unanimous decision that the right to participation will be revoked according to the group’s rules. The reason was what many MPs saw as a crisis of confidence, and which has led the party leadership expel Tynkkynen from the party.”
Tynkkynen acknowledged that “the parliamentary group has made its decision and they have the power to decide.”
“I still have to digest this. Everything happened so quickly,” he said.
Sampo Terho had previously said that in principle the party’s vice presidents had the right to join parliamentary group meetings, unless otherwise stated. Traditionally the Finns Party youth wing chair – in this case Tynkkynen – also had access to parliamentary group meetings in the past.
NOTE: The only reason why Immonen faced any kind of real “backlash”, was due to the weak-in-the-knees (tepid) response by the party leadership. It was a prime moment to educate the media on what multiculturalism is, what the party stands for, and why we need proper vetting of opinions and open debate of the issues. They blew it big time.
