I’m losing my patience with this guy.
So once you’re in, you can do just about anything you want, do major flip flops and point to your “unanimous election” as the end of debate with those who are dissatisfied with your performance?
Also, I’ve had it with his cult of personality, if he is “The Finns Party”, then it’s not a party, but a cult following. He should resign and new leadership be found that will put the screws to the government, shift course on mass migration, or it’s election time again and let the people decide who’s the right party to lead us out of this mess.
NOTE: All the other hacks that running major Finnish parties have my contempt as well.
In an article published Friday evening in Finland’s leading daily Helsingin Sanomat, Finns Party Chair Timo Soini said he no such intention of arranging a party leadership meeting.
“I was unanimously elected party chair. I cannot be pressured or intimidated,”
Another Finns Party MP calls for vote to leave government, Soini: “I cannot be intimidated”
Finns Party MP and vice-chair Vesa-Matti Saarakkala joined his party colleague Sebastian Tynkkynen and company on Friday in a call to organise an emergency meeting of the party leadership. He says the meeting should be arranged with the purpose of taking a vote on whether party members wish to continue in the coalition government.
MP Vesa-Matti Saarakkala, third vice-chair of the Finns Party, has echoed the wishes of his fellow vice-chair Sebastian Tynkkynen, calling for a vote of his party leadership.
Joined by other Finns Party board members, their united demand is for the party’s board, party council and parliamentary group to meet for a joint session to vote on whether or not to remain in the coalition government with the Centre Party and conservative National Coalition.
Saarakkala says he plans to resign from the Finns Party’s parliamentary group if the meeting isn’t arranged.
“I am completely serious in my demands,” Saarakkala said on Friday.
Saarakkala admitted that he did not warn the party leadership that he would be presenting the demand and was not prepared to speculate what the reaction from the party’s top brass might be.
“Of course I want the meeting to be held. The party congress gave us the mandate to participate in the government according to our current party agenda.”
He says the government programme to which his party originally agreed has regrettably not been followed.
“So now it has become necessary to ask whether we can continue in this way. Do we still have the mandate under that same equation? As an MP, I certainly want it, if that is how the party truly wishes to continue,” he said.
“Discipline must be restored”
The MP says cutting benefits to Finns cannot be justified on economic grounds, if at the same time “the tab is wide open for immigration”.
Saarakkala says the there are only a few weeks’ time to make a decision, before the parliamentary committees are asked to submit their opinions on the budget. He himself would like to see the government follow through with its proposed austerity programmes, but with a significant decrease in the number of asylum seekers.
“We can’t have hundreds of people arriving daily. Immigration is out of control right now,” he said.
The Tynkkynen-led statement from October 5 that called for a party meeting also demanded that Finland reintroduce temporary controls at the border with Sweden. The authors want Finland to require that all asylum seekers who enter the country via Sweden be sent back, in line with the Dublin Regulation.
They say that if the government parties do not agree to close the border, the Finns Party will no longer participate in the government.
In a later statement, Tynkkynen said that if the emergency meeting isn’t called he will begin gathering names to put pressure on the party leadership. He said “discipline must be restored” in the party because of “an emergency on the ground”. According to him, the Finns Party is “running out of coats to turn” on the immigration issue.
Soini responds
In an article published Friday evening in Finland’s leading daily Helsingin Sanomat, Finns Party Chair Timo Soini said he no such intention of arranging a party leadership meeting.
“I was unanimously elected party chair. I cannot be pressured or intimidated,” he said.
Soini said the Finns Party parliamentary group considered the possibility on Thursday, but the idea did not find support.
“I will not call a party meeting. The entire party leadership (with the exception of Sebastian Tynkkynen), which includes Jussi Niinistö, Hanna Mäntylä, Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo and myself, are opposed to the idea,” Soini continued.
He said he has received several angry messages from veteran Finns Party representatives about Saarakkala’s demand.
Yle, Helsingin Sanomat
