The True Finns took the third-largest bloc of seats in Finland’s April 2011 parliamentary elections with 19 percent of the vote. The party espouses nationalism and social conservatism. In its charter it “identifies Christianity as a hallmark of Finnishness and rails against free immigration ... and the ‘Islamization’ of Europe,” the Monitor reported in May.
The victory was mostly a reaction to the bailout of struggling European economies, but some Finns are also angry about the influx of immigrants and what some call an “erosion of ‘Finnish values.’ ”
