Now that the True Finns will possibly be in government, the great question rises: who are the “untrue” Finns?
Maybe I should be really worried now? My Swedish is better than my Finnish. My home is in the not-so-loved-island-of-Åland. EU is quite a useful invention after all, a multi-cultural society is fantastic, great – not scary. There’s not even anything wrong with foreign aid.
Well, guess what: I’m as much a Finn as everyone else living in that country. I pay my taxes, speak both national languages, an ancestor even changed his Swedish surname to a Finnish one (and thus I ended up having a pretty cool surname, if that has any importance whatsoever).
In my country colour doesn’t matter, nor does mother tongue. Every individual has the right to choose his or her religion: and it’s nobody else’s business. Selfishness and “protecting our own” is not something positive that we should aim for at all costs – we do have a responsibility to those who are less fortunate than us: to those in our own country, but also those abroad. International cooperation is far better than isolationism.
All citizens in Finland have the right to vote freely – a very big number of citizens made a decision that might seem unacceptable to the rest of the voters. But because of the democratic system, they had the right to make that decision, and it’s something that the rest of society should respect. Instead of criticizing, pointing fingers and being ashamed for the “bad publicity”, I hope that politicians and citizens can leave the pettiness aside, analyse the situation and work together for a better society.
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