Parliamentary elections in Finland
The parliamentary elections in Finland come to an end on Sunday, with the National Coalition party becoming the largest. Of the past government only the prime-minister party the Social-democrats (SDP) could increase the amount of its votes. The Left Alliance, the Greens, and the Center Party which were part of the government coalition lost seats. The so-called ”populist” party the Finns did their best election result ever, being the second largest with 46 seats of the 200 of the Finnish parliament. 60% of the votes were centralized to the three largest parties, the National Coalition, the Finns and the Social-democrats. The participation statistics stayed the same as in the last election, with a third of those who could vote not voting.
What the results especially portray is the crisis of bourgeois democracy, and the bankruptcy of opportunism. The votes shows that the people were deeply disappointed to the ”leftist” government and want change. The analysis of the revolutionary news site Punalippu states that the result does not mean that the people would want more ”rightist” politics but that the influence of opportunism on the masses has decreased.
Other signs of the crisis of bourgeois democracy is the relative success of the Finns. They portray themselves as a ”people’s party”, which struggles against the corrupt elite and understands the ”common people”. With their openly racist and anti-immigrant demagogy they try to split the working class. Before the elections, especially the Left Alliance and the Greens, which portray themselves as “progressive” tried to scare the people to vote with tales of how not voting would be a vote for ”fascism” of the Finns. What this shows is that more and more people are unhappy with the bourgeois democracy. Many of these did not vote, but some still have illusions of voting. Therefore the Finns misdirect the justified anger of the people and serve to incorporate them into the bourgeois democracy in different ways.
Revolutionaries have carried out an election boycott campaign in Finland. Election billboards were sabotaged in Helsinki and Tampere. In Tampere, activists went to the Central Square of Tampere and the proletarian neighborhood Hervanta multiple times to distribute flyers and discuss with the residents. Punalippu reports that many took the message warmly, and were interested in the election boycott. The revolutionaries faced also a few aggressive individuals, who were representatives of the opportunist SDP or Left Alliance. Punalippu reports that the campaign was a success.
Now the negotiations to build a new majority government will begin with the leadership of the National Coalition Party. All three largest parties have expressed their interest to be part of the government. Punalippu writes: ”Whichever basis of government the reaction ends up with, it will attempt to advance in three of its tasks: ”1. giving impulse to the imperialist economy, 2. making the State more reactionary, 3. opposing the revolutionary movement. It will try to gather a government, which would fulfill these tasks in the best possible way, but it is doomed to fail.” They write that the contradictions between and within the reactionary parties are growing and it will be harder for the reaction to make a government that would be able to fulfill its tasks in peace with one another.
