Electoral Support for True Finns: General and Country-Specific Factors

Today we are witnessing the Renaissance of nationalism in Europe. If we look at the political life in European countries, we can see a significant increase in electoral support for the right-wing parties. The "shift to the right" has affected most of Central European countries and the Nordic countries. This paper examines the Finnish version of nationalism and the reasons for its popularity in Finland and analyses the "new wave" through the prism of the nationalist party "True Finns". A special interest in the Finnish case is connected with the fact that the nationalist party "True Finns" became one of the first right-wing parties in Europe, which managed to gain the support of the population and form a stable electorate. It is also worth mentioning the atypical behavior of the electorate and electoral support, which in turn distinguishes the True Finns from the other parties of the "new wave". Thus, this research is aimed at studying the peculiarities of Finnish nationalism and populism in the context of the Renaissance nationalism in Europe and its influence on the electoral support of the "True Finns" in the parliamentary elections. The work focuses on the origins of Finnish nationalism, the peculiarities of its modern version and the discovery of the concept of "Finnishness", which has helped Finnish nationalists to strengthen electoral support in parliamentary elections and to become one of the largest parties in the opposition.