Finland

olkets Klimamarch is held in Copenhagen before the upcoming EU Parliament elections on Sunday 2 June 2024.

More than just an electoral upwind? Nordic left-wing parties after the EU elections

Record results for (Centre-)Left parties in the Nordic countries, with far-right parties losing ground. Ada Regelmann gives a sober assessment of the European elections results in Denmark, Finland and Sweden.
Finland Left Alliance NATO

‘We Could Not Provide Any Credible Alternatives to NATO’: Interview With Finnish Left Alliance’s Henrik Jaakkola

Oleksandr Kyselov interviews Henrik Jaakkola, of Finland's Vasemmistoliitto/Vänsterförbundet (Left Alliance)
Macron

European elections: Far right surge but centre holds on (plus: The European left after the elections)

Dave Kellaway examines the outcome of the European elections, while Johanna Bussemer writes that strong showings in several countries will ensure a left presence in Brussels, but internal contradictions are bigger than ever.
Finland

Opposing Finland’s Thatcherist turn

Li Andersson, leader of the Finnish Vasemmistoliitto (Left Alliance), talks about her party’s priorities in this super election year.
The Finns Party presidential candidate Jussi Halla-aho at his election reception in Helsinki on January 28, 2024.

Finland’s far right: Between scandal and mainstream

Tatu Ahponen — The Finnish government was sent into upheaval almost as soon as it was formed over revelations of racist statements by one of the coalition’s main parties – The Finns.
Finland s President Sauli Niinisto meets with the new government led by Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, Helsinki, June 20, 2023

Finland’s cabinet of horrors

Pinja Vuorinen — After only two weeks in power, Finland’s new right-wing coalition faces neo-Nazi scandals and a mounting opposition to its austerian agenda that make it seem increasingly unlikely to last the full four-year election cycle.
Finland

Finland comes back into the cold

Robert Stark — The parliamentary elections in Finland were expected to be decided by a razor thin margin, and the results did not disappoint.

Left Youth of Finland: 'The most significant consequence of Putin's war in Finland has been the question of NATO membership'

Pinja Vuorinen interviewed by Duroyan Fertl

April 20, 2022 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal reposted from Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung — Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine grossly violates international law and thus leads to new discussions on how to deal with Russia. As a result, Finland and Sweden are closer than ever to join NATO. If Finland were to join NATO, the Western military alliance's land border with Russia would double. The most significant consequence in Finland regarding the Russia-Ukraine war has been the question of NATO membership, says Pinja Vuorinen, Chair of the Left Youth of Finland. Duroyan Fertl interviewed her about Finland’s position on the war and the expected consequences for Finland.

Finland’s forgotten revolution

Crowds during the general strike in Helsinki, Finland, 1905. By Eric Blanc June 4, 2017 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal reposted from Jacobin with the author's permission — In the past century, histories of the 1917 revolution have usually focused on Petrograd and Russian socialists. But the Russian empire was predominantly made up of non-Russians — and the upheavals in the imperial periphery were often just as explosive as in the center. Tsarism’s overthrow in February 1917 unleashed a revolutionary wave that immediately engulfed all of Russia. Perhaps the most exceptional of these insurgencies was the Finnish Revolution, which one scholar has called “Europe’s most clear-cut class war in the twentieth century.”

Winning power, not just government

By Florian Wilde May 6, 2017 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal reposted from Jacobin with the author's permission — Is it a shortcut, if it’s seemingly the only path on offer? Many left parties in Europe today see participating in a center-left coalition government as the only realistic way to win reforms. They often justify joining these administrations by reasoning that having a left party in government will at least block the most regressive policies and keep a more reactionary formation from taking power. These parties also believe government participation will increase their credibility in the eyes of voters and members, ultimately strengthening their prospects to govern on their own. Twenty-five years of history, however, suggest that these expectations are rarely met.

 

Revolutionary roots of women’s suffrage: Finland 1906 — an International Women’s Day tribute

European Left discussion: What scorecard for the radical left in government?

Helmut Markov (Di

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