The Finns are all too aware of what far-right government means, they’re living next to it

They're living in it. The existing Finnish government was already on a hard-right tilt over the last ten years, and this election has resulted in a countercyclical backlash.

This isn't a bunch of Finns saying "We don't want to be like Russia." It's a bunch of Finns saying the National Coalition / True Finns suck fucking ass for cannibalizing their public sector in order to inflate their police sectors in an anti-migrant freak out.

The country has dipped into a recession following a slew of big cuts to social spending and economic lag caused by the war. And people justifiably don't like that shit.

They also have a (lesser than the neighbor) far-right government

Some comments have pointed out that Finland already had a right-wing government going into this election, and I'll admit that I was entirely unaware of this.

Again, I congratulate the Finnish public on rejecting right-wing and authoritarian politics, especially after having to suffer under it at home.

When all people are cared for, no one turns bigot. This becomes a vertuous circle. "Simple as that". Meanwhile France worked hard to release the kraken

the Finnish do not rake their forests

but they have turned it into a running gag

Allow me to gas Finland up a bit more. They're higher than Germany in terms of innovation (triadic patents per capita), they have semi-democratically owned grocery stores with 90% of the country being a member/co-owner, they have 60% union density and a Ghent system (like Sweden, unlike Norway), their housing prices were among the few in Europe falling - after the government started their Housing First initiative and built social housing for the poor, their education system being so good (despite being relaxed unlike e.g. Singapore) and state-funded instead of private... life is pretty good in Finland.

But i did vacuum clean it the other day

I think it really goes back through history. Finland was a possession of Sweden and then Russia. The nobility would have spoken either of those languages depending on who was in charge, and ethnic Finns were essentially pawns for the larger powers, and the finnish language wasn't even written down much.

This changed when Russia started to crack down on Finnish culture, leading to a surge in pro-Finnish sentiment. People even changed their names from Swedish versions to finnish versions, and went from using "Christian" names to names from finnish mythology or culture. Actually, it's somewhat similar to how black Americans changed naming conventions in the Civil rights era. The very concept of finnish-ness was somewhat of a working class concept. This, combined with a similar law of jante type belief meant there was and is much more of a focus on the collective good than in other countries.

During the Russian revolution, a Civil War erupted between left wing and right wing, with the right wing wanting a German aristocratic monarchy over finland. The right wing actually won, but it was very short lived because Germany lost WW1 right aftwards, and a liberal democracy was formed. Finland was super poor, but started to build itself up as it's own country.

When WW2 rolled around, most people are familiar with the Winter War where they held their ground against a Russian invasion. Most people aren't as familiar with the Continuation War against Russia, where they (with the support of germany) continued to fight against Russia, or the Lapland war, where they actually had to fight against Germany to kick them out of the country. The Germans actually used scorched earth on finland as they retreated, knowing they were losing WW2.

After all of that, a huge swath of finland was destroyed by the Germans, or annexed by the Russians, leaving many homeless. Finland had to provide for those people, so homes were rebuilt rapidly throughout the country. Since they were in the soviet sphere of influence, but they weren't a Warsaw pact country, they didn't get any assistance from the eastern bloc (and they actually had to pay reparations as an axis country). They were also not included in the Marshall plan that helped provide recovery to western Europe.

They survived as a people by taking care of each other, and they are very proud of that. If you go to a Finnish museum, next to works of art and science, you'll see things like the baby box, or other displays about the establishment of the welfare state. Many countries have a welfare system, but treat it like a dirty secret, while they celebrate what they were able to accomplish.

One last thing I think is really cool is that they are not afraid to experiment with policies. Many governments will do little trials of policy here and there, but not many go to the point of actually doing scientifically rigorous studies.

Well hopefully your population is intelligent enough to see through the lies after the populists take in to office. It's usually when their incompetence shines right through as they'll just start making excuses and keep blaming the opposition for their failures. It's also the point where they usually start breaking most of the promises they made during the elections or while they where in the opposition.

The French also have history of not so peaceful protests so the people in the ivory towers need to take that in to account.

Yep. From a minor party to second place, with a small campaign and core leftism program. Li has been the straight shooter calling bullshit out for years and suddenly it worked. Absolutely amazing

Maybe two things; people see what the far right is currently messing up in the Finnish government, and Russia (& China) focused on Germany and France so the election was cleaner. Sweden's Left also had a huge jump

I don't think that's it, many countries with neighboring hostilities still suck.

Always good to have some insider info

Just one question before we let you in: how do you pronounce "sauna"?

I might have believed you until you went too far claiming you like Salmiakki.

I hope you know Finnish already or are really good with languages because it's completely unrecognizable to people who speak most other European languages. My dad went to Helsinki in the 90s and said the only signs he could recognize were ones which had international logos like McDonald's.

This is (according to a search) "I love you" in Finnish: minä rakastan sinua.

But yes, it sounds like a very nice place to live.

Well I don't think we really have, honestly.

It's just that the inbred racists who are all too common don't think these elections mattered.

Yeah. 42% turnout.

One of the rules is to assume every group is infiltrated by fascists