How the True Finns won a seat in Etelä-Savo in April 2011 : and why it is important to know

Authors

• David Arter

Abstract

Party research in Finland appears dead and at the 2013 Politiikan tutkimuksen päivät in Rovaniemi a panel on political parties was conspicuous by its absence. Surprisingly, moreover, for all the voting and media studies relating to the ‘jytky victory’ in April 2011, along with the dissection of its programmes, we know relatively little about the big winner Perussuomalaiset (PS) as a political party. This paper argues that in understanding the PS’ ‘jytky’, three processes have been neglected – party-building, candidacy-building and intra-party competition. It applies all three to explain how the PS won its first parliamentary seat in Etelä-Savo and then reflects on the wider significance of the result.