The Finns Party and the Ethno-Nationalisation of the Universal Welfare State

The Finns Party entered Finnish coalition government after its second consecutive election success in 2015. Through a ‘party within a party strategy’ (until the formal split of the party in June 2017), they reached a constituency ranging from supporters of the old agrarian populism of the Finnish Rural Party to supporters of nationalist and anti-immigration politics. Unlike many other populist parties, they have also increasingly campaigned on a wider set of policy agendas, including in social and health policy. Ahead of the 2015 elections, the party even launched a specific social and health policy programme, plus one of the ministerial posts they hold is the Minister of Social Affairs and Health.

The party has attempted to transform the political discourse on welfare deservingness from a universal rights-based approach to a selective approach based on identity. One of the key arguments underpinning their ‘welfare chauvinist’ position is that the welfare state needs to serve the interests of the native population. While the selective deservingness politics of mainstream parties would usually engage with more than one dimension of deservingness (van Oorschot 2000), the Finns Party has moved increasingly towards identity being the only dimension for them. Promoting a selective identity-based deservingness discourse is an attempt to ethno-nationalise the Nordic welfare model. The party claims its main aim is to defend the Nordic model against the assault from the ‘old parties’. The paper is based on qualitative content analysis of party manifestos and speeches by party leadership and other relevant Finns Party politicians.