https://www.euronews.com/2023/06/20/racism-and-rape-fantasies-the-pr-headache-facing-finlands-new-right-wing-government
In response to a request for comment, the Finns Party tells Euronews Halla-aho "is one of the most esteemed politicians in Finland."
However, Party Secretary Arto Luukkanen says "your information concerning Finnish politics is not apt and does not correspond to realities of life. To rely on biased sources is a typical 'rookies-mistake' (sic), both in journalism and in historiography (sic)" he added.
This guy transformed the Finns Party from a joke into the third biggest party and became one of the most popular politicians in Finland... by having a blog where he complained about immigrants and Muslims, but in a very annoying pedantic snarky way that sort of combined the styles of Yahtzee Croshaw and
Him and his followers liked to swear up and down that he couldn't possibly be racist since he was only using facts and logic aka cherrypicking studies and news articles. He basically came up with a way to repackage racism in a way that was irresistible to dipshit dudes aged 25-50 who worked with computers, and who had always been massively racist but knew just saying you wanted to shoot the n-words was socially unacceptable. This guy was Finland's first poster politician and it cannot be understated how big he was in like 2010.
Prior to becoming big with his blog he was some bloodless academic with a doctorate in Old Church Slavonic living in a fancy part of Helsinki. He also loves guns, specifically handguns and target shooting but opted for civil service instead of mandatory military service
He used to be in a racist metal band in university and belongs to the secretive Völkisch organisation Suomen Sisu along with several other Finns Party higher ups. They have some kind of literary study group that's literally called Thule Society
Before Halla-aho, Tony Halme was a also major factor in the party's popularity. They went all in on having a celebrity candidate (pro wrestler who was briefly in the WWF as Ludvig Borga, failed boxer and MMA fighter, appeared on the Finnish version of American Gladiators, really he was way more famous in Finland than you'd expect) and Finns just couldn't get enough of this guy who said racist and ”hur hur, feminists and modern art amirite?” shit in the media. As almost always happens with celebrity candidates in liberal democracies, it was very successful at raising the profile of the Finns Party in the 2003 elections.
Halme originally wanted to run as part of some even more right-wing party that was basically a bunch of fascists, and also had an SS tattoo.
The difference is that Halme was a joke and a complete embarrassment between his meathead persona, Exit Only tattooed above his ass and continual drug escapades, and the Finns party was seen as something for dumbdumbs and yokels
Halla-aho made it so that educated middle class guys could support the party without fear of being laughed at or dying of cringe themselves
IIRC before he actually became a politician his followers were debating if he should join the Finns or start his own party because they were afraid of the Finns party association
Why did he study old church Slavonic? Seems like a weird choice for a guy like him, why not runes or old Finnish language
He did study was not too good at it, then continued with a PhD that didn't lead to academic impact or positions. I think he chose the PhD field cause it wasn't very competitive and it meant to further his Slavic presence, both in terms of right wing networks in the areas on one hand and also in terms of links to a fictive medieval past.
He speaks Ukrainian
I honestly also think he did it because he's a fucking nerd. There's a hilarious photo of him with long hair from his metal band days floating around and he looks like the biggest dweeb (which he still does)
yes when I googled his name some liguistic paper about vowels or something came up lol