Finland: Where The Toilets Would Like A Word With You

FOTP Monday

Continuing our alphabetic tour of the great nations of Europe, we head this week to Finland, which oddly is one of the few places in the world that doesn’t call itself that. Many of its habitants go with Suomi, which, though nobody can actually agree on the origin, either means swampland or something to do with the scales on a fish.

Go figure.

In case you think the Finns are somehow immune to the oozing political darkness affecting the rest of Europe (and America, for that matter), there are dark clouds, black and blue ones, more precisely, on the horizon.

From The Helsinki Times

An openly fascist political group in Finland is poised to return to the country’s official party register after gathering the required number of supporter cards. The Blue-and-Black Movement, founded by former members of the Finns Party with strong ethnonationalist views, has submitted 5,000 verified support statements to the Ministry of Justice. The ministry confirmed that the group now meets the legal conditions to be re-registered as a political party.

This is the party’s second attempt at legitimacy. Two years back, the Finnish Supreme Court, The Supreme Administrative Court, said the Blue-and-Black Movement was “incompatible with constitutional rights and democratic principles” and disqualified it. But Finnish law allows removed parties to reapply for certification if they change their onerous ways and meet registration criteria. Black-and Blue did, or so it says, but it doesn’t sound like it’s getting the hang of the whole “democratic principle” thing.

“It borrows its colours and themes from the Lapua Movement, a radical nationalist group active in the early 20th century. The Blue-and-Black Movement has staged public events where members wear black clothing, carry Finnish flags, and display banners such as “May Day is White.”

Lovely.