The Finns Party and the Killing of a 12th Century Bishop. The Heritage of a Political Myth

Abstract

The parliamentary elections in Finland in the spring of 2011 shocked the political consensus over the country’s participation in the European integration. The populist party called Perussuomalaiset (the Finns Party) won a landslide victory and became the third largest party in the Parliament. This meant that the popular opposition and criticism among the electorate against the European Union has become a political factor that had to be taken seriously by the other parties. The popularity of the Finns Party represents a general trend in today’s Europe, but it also draws in significant ways on particular interpretations of Finnish history, nationalism, and identity politics, carrying along sentiments that first emerged and developed in 19th century Fennoman nationalism. For this reason, the Finns Party’s opposition to the European integration is not merely an issue of current economic politics but also a question of cultural and political heritage. The paper discusses the role that one of the key nationalist myths in Finland, concerning the killing of a legendary Christian missionary bishop in the 12th century, plays in the argumentation of the party supporters’ values.

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Parlamentarne volitve na Finskem spomladi 2011 so pretresle politično soglasje o udeležbi države v evropski integraciji. Populistična stranka Perussuomalaiset (Stranka Fincev) je dosegla prepričljiv uspeh in postala tretja največja parlamentarna stranka. To pomeni, da sta popularno nasprotovanje in kriticizem, usmerjena proti Evropski uniji, postala politični dejavnik, ki ga morajo druge stranke resno upoštevati. Popularnost Stranke Fincev predstavlja splošno težnjo v današnji Evropi, hkrati pa na pomenljiv način vpeljuje posebne interpretacije finske zgodovine, nacionalizma in politik identitete, pri čemer se opira na čustva, ki so vzniknila in se razvila v finskem nacionalizmu 19. stoletja. Zaradi tega je nasprotovanje Stranke Fincev evropski integraciji ne le stvar trenutne gospodarske politike, temveč tudi vprašanje kulturne in politične dediščine. Članek obravnava vlogo enega glavnih nacionalističnih mitov na Finskem, ki se sklicuje na umor legendarnega krščanskega misijonarja škofa Henrika v 12. stoletju in je pomemben za argumentacijo vrednot strankinih podpornikov.