Finland’s presidential elections were uneventful. President Sauli Niinistö, the incumbent, comfortably won with 62.7% of the votes. He was followed By Green Party candidate Pekka Haavisto (12.4%), Laura Huhtasaari of the Perussuomalaiset Party (6.9%), Kansalaipuolue’s Paavo Väyrynen (6.2%), Center Party’s Matti Vanhanen (4.1%), Social Democrat Tuula Haatainen (3.3%), Merja Kyllönen (3.0%) and Nils Torvalds of the Swedish People’s Party (1.5%).
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While Niinistö’s election was a shoo-in, two anti-immigration and anti-EU candidates, Huhtasaari and Väyrynen, got 13% and came in third and fourth place, respectively.
While Huhtasaari’s campaign was filled with anti-immigration rhetoric, scapegoating asylum seekers and her admiration for US President Donald Trump and Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, PS party secretary Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo was very happy with the result.
“We gave quite a dire warning [in these presidential elections that our party isn’t dead] considering the next parliamentary elections [of 2019],” Slunga-Poutsalo was quoted as saying in YLE. “We have behind us a tough year behind us.”
http://newsnowfinland.fi/videos/video-laura-huhtasaari-interview
* The Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13 into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. Despite the name changes, we believe that it is the same party in different clothing. Both factions are hostile to cultural diversity. One is more open about it while the other is more diplomatic.
A direct translation of Perussuomalaiset in English would be something like “basic” or “fundamental Finn.” Official translations of the Finnish name of the party, such as Finns Party or True Finns, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and racism. We, therefore, at Migrant Tales prefer to use in our postings the Finnish name of the party once and after that the acronym PS.