True Finns and Non-True Finns: The Minority Rights Discourse of Populist Politics in Finland

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article analyses minority rights discourse in statements of the populist radical right party called the True Finns, which has become a major political force in Finland in the 2010s. A framework for the analysis is provided by research about the development of political approaches to multiculturalism in Western democracies. Kymlicka (2010) argues that a backlash against multicultural policies has mainly occurred in relation to the acceptance of ethnic-cultural diversity among immigrant groups. Support for a backlash is found in the minority rights statements of the party. However, the political rhetoric of the party is not mainly about policies relating to immigrants, but basic principles of group-specific rights for minorities are also disputed. The article argues that the populist rhetoric has to be understood as related to fundamental discourses about majority and minority rights in developed welfare states.