Scroll down for UPDATE:
They’ll do anything to stay in government…
So they really don’t like democratic mechanisms when votes don’t go their way. So what this means is that there are now two competing forces forces for votes, lets see who wins out after all. I’m really disappointed in Simon Elo. What I hope is that they are relegated to the ash heap of history, the base of the party spoke in a landslide, and the elite of the party don’t like it. To prove what an eel Soini actually is, on his own blog ten days ago, he labelled those who jump ship (defectors) as losers. He was right.
NOTE: Jussi Halla-aho is much smarter than than those who left, which includes the founder of the party as well. This will boomerang.
Another thing….those who left do not get any government funding whatsoever, it all remains with the Finns Party, the traitors are toast come next election, and, The Finns /Halla-aho doesn’t have to bother with their nonsense in his party anymore….clean divorce…this looks to be an even better situation than before
Finns Party splinters, new group makes bid for Sipilä government
Following its exit from Juha Sipilä’s government, the Finns Party’s parliamentary group has collapsed, with a band of 20 MPs forming a new group to be known as the “New Alternative”. Chair of the new group Simon Elo said the move was not just about the election of anti-immigration hardliner Jussi Halla-aho as Finns Party chair, but about elements that had taken over the party.
Reeling after its departure from government, the Finns Party has splintered, with a group of 20 MPs leaving to establish a new political force known as the “New Alternative”.
Former party chair and Foreign Minister Timo Soini is among the members of the new faction. He is joined by other high profile MPs such as parliamentary group leader Sampo Terho, Defence Minister Jussi Niinistö and Health Minister Pirkko Mattila, as well as Parliamentary Speaker Maria Lohela.
The announcement was made by MP Simon Elo before a meeting of the Finns Party’s parliamentary group meeting Tuesday afternoon.
“The group is ready to continue as part of the Sipilä government with the same government programme and constitution,” Elo said.
Elo acted as the spokesperson during the hastily-arranged press conference and will also act as chair of the new party, with MP Tiina Elovaara serving as vice chair.
“Today we are not just politicians but also acting on behalf of our country. This is not just about Jussi Halla-aho’s election, but about those elements that have taken over the party,” Elo remarked, adding that the decision to break off from the Finns Party had been surprisingly easy.
New group ready for government
Former Labour Minister said he was forced to admit with a heavy heart that the Finns Party was not the party he originally joined.
“When I went to Jyväskylä, I still had a political home. On Saturday, it was no longer there for me,” Lindström said, referring to last Saturday’s election of anti-immigration hardliner Jussi Halla-aho.
According to Elo the parliamentary group is ready to enter into government formation talks. Asked whether PM Sipilä knew of the splinter group, Elo responded,
“The Prime Minister is hearing about this now, at least.”
Former Finns Party chair Timo Soini said that he was a rank and file member of the new group. He joined his colleagues in lamenting that the Finns Party is no longer the same. Before the party convention on Saturday, he wrote on his website that the idea of defecting to another party was unthinkable.
The new political force will not receive the taxpayer-funded financial support that political parties in Finland receive. Soini himself shepherded the legislative amendment through Parliament a few years ago, after two MPs expelled from the party formed a splinter group in Parliament, Change 2011.
“We won’t get the money, but we’ll maintain our backbones,” Elo responded cryptically to a question about the loss of funding.
UPDATE:
He pointed out that during the party chair election campaign and when the results of the ballot were in, the candidates for chair and vice chair had committed to respect the election outcome.
“If this is their idea of respecting the outcome of a democratic election, then I have a different view,” Halla-aho concluded.
PM Sipilä: “Government to continue” with New Alternative
Prime Minister and Centre Party chair Juha Sipilä said Tuesday afternoon that he intends to accept the New Alternative — a Finns Party splinter group — as a partner in his coalition government.
Speaking from Turku, Prime Minister Juha Sipilä announced Tuesday afternoon that he intended to reconstitute his governing coalition with the help of the New Alternative — a group of MPs who defected from the Finns Party following the election of anti-immigration hardliner Jussi Halla-aho as chair last weekend.
Sipilä said that ministers would be able to retain their current portfolios.
Sipilä was expected to formally ask President Sauli Niinistö to dissolve Parliament following the break-up of the three-party government coalition on Monday.
However he called off the meeting when news broke that a group of 20-odd MPs had broken with the Finns Party to form a new Parliamentary group, the New Alternative.
The group, which includes Foreign Minister Timo Soini, immediately signalled that it would be ready to discuss joining the government coalition. Its announcement threw a spanner in the works for the Swedish People’s Party and the Christian Democrats, who had both signalled a readiness to join a Juha Sipilä-led government — on condition that the senior coalition parties agree to reformulate the government agenda.
Sipilä’s alliance with the New Alternative means that he will have 107 of a total of 200 seats in the Parliament, giving him slightly more leverage than the 101 votes he would have had if he had partnered with the SPP and Christian Democrats. The departure of the New Alternative MPs leaves the Finns Party with just 15 MPs in Parliament.
During their hastily-convened press conference earlier on Tuesday, the defecting MPs had lamented the change in the Finns Party with the election of the ultra-nationalist Jussi Halla-aho as chair.
Halla-aho: Scale of defections unexpected
Speaking at a Finns Party press conference Tuesday afternoon, Halla-aho said that he did not expect such a large-scale exodus from the parliamentary group.
“It was expected that one or a few MPs might have come to that kind of conclusion, but I didn’t expect such a large scale movement,” he commented.
He revealed that neither the party leadership, the party office nor the head of the parliamentary group had been informed of the decision to split with the party in advance.
“It didn’t feel good at all,” he added.
He said that in his view, the people who had split with the parliamentary group had also broken away from the party. Asked whether the departure of parliamentary group leader Sampo Terho had come as a surprise, Halla-aho prevaricated.
“Among the people who defected from the parliamentary group were individuals of whom I would have least expected. All were disappointing, but some were more disappointing than others,” Hall-aho remarked.
