Analysing ‘Successor Parties': The Case of the True Finns

Abstract

Whilst the ‘successor party’ (SP) has a well-established place in the literature on post-communist Eastern and Central Europe, occasional references to its West European counterpart have tended to use the term loosely and not separate it out from other varieties of new party. Focusing on the question, ‘where do parties come from?’ – that is, the process of party origination – this article makes a case for viewing the SP as a distinct genus in the West European party hemisphere. The SP is defined as a party which is nominally and legally a new entity that takes the place of, and fills at least some of the political space vacated by, a single, defunct party of origin. The mortality of the ‘original party’ is a sine qua non. SPs emerge with a clear political inheritance. What this is and how they interpret and respond to the inheritance makes the case for their systematic study. The paper also asks, ‘where do new parties go to?’ (how do they evolve?). The question of party change in SPs is analysed by reference to the True Finns.

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to Richard Luther for comments on an earlier draft of this paper.

Notes

1. Harmel and Robertson (1985: 509) also refer to the ‘reorganisation of a former party’ but do not elaborate further.

2. Purho was the PS party secretary between 1999 and 2007, Soini's personal assistant and editor-in-chief of the party newspaper. He left the PS after the 2007 party conference following a breakdown of relations with the party leader. ‘Lähipiiri Soinista: Prinsessa’, Iltalehti, 28 March 2011; ‘Perussuomalaisten joukoissa syttyi avoin riita’, Helsingin Sanomat, 14 June 2007.

3. ‘Kannatus löytyy työväestä’, Helsingin Sanomat, 19 February 2011.

4. ‘Politiikan vainukoirat’, Helsingin Sanomat, 11 December 2011.

5. From the party website bio: http://pohjois-karjala.perussuomalaiset.fi

6. By July 2011 the PS had become the largest party in the opinion polls with 22.1 per cent. However, throughout autumn a number of individual PS MPs attracted largely unwelcome publicity and strained the unity of the parliamentary group. Jussi Halla-aho was suspended from the PPG for two weeks following what he claimed to be a frivolous comment to the effect that Greece would not be able to resolve its economic difficulties unless it returned to military dictatorship. Teuvo Hakkarainen (he claimed jokingly) suggested that all homosexuals and Somali refugees should be exiled to the Åland islands and he declined to attend the president's Independence Day celebration because it would not feel right to rub shoulders with the ‘cream of society’. Pertti Oinonen also decided against attending because he could not stomach the prospect of watching homosexual partners on the dance floor. Finally, two weeks before Christmas James Hirvisaari was fined for inciting racial hatred against the Muslim minority in a blog he wrote before becoming an MP. A piece in The Guardian on Timo Soini and the latter's decision to enter the 2012 presidential race also kept the party in the news although its support had fallen back slightly by the end of 2011. ‘IL: Perussuomalaisten ehdokas ei mene Linnan juhliin, koska tanssivat homot häiritsevät’, Aamulehti, 16 November 2011; ‘Syrjivä teksti toi sakkotuomion’, Helsingin Sanomat, 13 December 2011; Richard Orange, ‘Far-right Finnish Politician Timo Soini Bids for Presidency’, The Observer, 13 November 2011.

7. ‘Kuinka suureksi Soinin puolue vielä kasvaakaan’, Helsingin Sanomat, 4 April 2011.