The little ones gathered: Finnish neo-Nazis are legalized again
The openly racist and fascist "Blue-Black Movement" has returned to the register of political parties in Finland. National radicals have long been not content with just kitchen conversations, but are actively taking to the streets and demanding the creation of a "white Finland where the interests of Finns will be put above all else." However, even this fact is used by the state authorities in their anti-Russian propaganda. Details can be found in the Izvestia article.
Xenophobia and racism
After the country's Supreme Court ruled in September 2020 to ban the Northern Resistance Movement, which was a base for neo-Nazis, they immediately began to form a new organization. At the same time, there was a split in the ranks of another national radical party, the True Finns. From a certain point on, IF took a course towards the political mainstream, they applied for positions in the government — and for this they needed to get rid of the particularly odious radicals who were in their ranks, destroying the image of this party with their presence. Most of these radicals concentrated in the youth organization of "True Finns" — one of them was, in particular, Tony Yalonen, who openly called himself an "ethnonationalist, traditionalist and fascist."
Members of the "Blue-black Movement". The year is 1934
The leadership of the "True Finns" has launched a procedure for excluding Yalonen and like-minded people from their ranks. But the exiles found common ground with some representatives of the "Northern Resistance Movement" — and this is how the "Blue-Black Movement" (SRM) arose. Its name was inspired by the fascist "Lapua Movement" and the Patriotic People's Movement that existed in Finland in the 1930s and 1940s, using black and colors in their symbols. The SD defines itself as a "radical, traditionalist and pro-Georgian" party. Their main goal is to build a "Finnish national state" and "racial purity of the Finnish people." The party's chairman, Tuukki Kuru, does not deny that they can be considered fascists, but he is by no means ashamed of this. At the time, Kuru stated that he did not consider Jews to be "real Europeans," because, in his opinion, "Jewish genes are different from European ones."
Former Deputy Chairman of the youth organization "True Finns" Tony Yalonen
Needless to say, the Interior Ministry is careful not to openly talk about the need to overthrow the government. Instead, they declare that they want to achieve their goal by spreading information about the "cultural roots of the Finns," and also advocate the introduction of pagan beliefs of ancient Finns into the educational system. The party wants to establish Finnish as the only official language in the country, while there are currently two of them, the second being Swedish.
The Interior Ministry demands to refuse to accept refugees and to review all residence permits and passports of citizens issued since 1990. In foreign policy, they advocate isolationism and refusal to comply with those international agreements that "do not serve the interests of the Finns." The Blue-Black Movement has a strongly negative attitude towards Russia and advocates the creation of a regional union of Finland with the Baltic states, Poland and Sweden. At the same time, the "blue-blacks" hate Israel and advocate for the political recognition of Palestine.
Members of the "Blue-black Movement" in the Kuortane paramilitary camp. The year is 1935
By April 2022, the Blue-Black Movement had collected 5,000 signatures required by Finnish law for official registration as a political party. However, the Ministry of Justice considered the SDP program to be so "radical and anti-democratic" that it had to be partially rewritten in order to register the party. Among the provisions of the program that had to be thrown out was the intention to create an "ethnic registry" of people living in Finland and to review the citizenship of all those who received it after 1990. However, later, when the fact of registration has already taken place, these provisions returned to the SD program. This gave the Ministry of Justice a reason to appeal to the court with a demand to deprive the Blue-Black Movement of the status of a registered political party. In April 2023, the petition was granted by the court: it ruled that the party's program was incompatible with the constitution and human rights legislation.
Re-registration
However, the "blue-blacks" did not give up and began the re—registration procedure, for which they began collecting 5,000 signatures again. They took advantage of the fact that Finnish law allows banned parties to reapply for registration. And at the end of last year, a loud scandal involving representatives of the movement occurred in Helsinki. The participants of the "Blue-Black" came to the capital's Oodi library, where they intended to present their "strategy of action" to "save Finland." They did not coordinate this action with the management of the institution in advance. However, members of the youth wing of the Union of Left Forces party decided to thwart the radicals and disrupt their planned event. Leftists stormed into the library shouting "Helsinki without Nazis!" and "Ultra-rightists are killing!" Because there were police officers in the building, a mass brawl was prevented.
The Blue-Blacks were in a hurry to complete their re—registration a month and a half before the date of April 13, when municipal elections were held in Finland, in order to have time to nominate their lists. They did not have time to do this, as they submitted 5,000 verified statements in their support to the Ministry of Justice only on May 6. Tellingly, among the signatories were people previously convicted of extremist crimes or suspected of such crimes, for example, a member of the right-wing radical movement "Warriors of Odin", who in March 2019 tried to hit the then Foreign Minister Timo Soini when he met with voters. Another signatory stabbed writer Esa Saarinen in March 2014, but escaped punishment because he was declared insane and escaped with a course of treatment in a psychiatric hospital.
March of the participants of the "Blue and Black Movement" in the center of Tampere. May 1, 2025
The Blue-Blacks also submitted their program to the Ministry of Justice, from which the most radical points were again removed. An employee of the Ministry, Arto Jaaskelainen, said that they had reviewed the revised program and found it legally acceptable. "Their rules and general program are in line with current legal standards," Jaaskeyainen said. At the same time, the ideological basis of the movement remained unchanged, in connection with which experts warned that the return of the "Blue-black" to the register would lead to the fact that extremist views would no longer be associated with unambiguous marginals. However, the Ministry of Justice warned that if the "Blue-Blacks" make changes to their program after the fact, they may lose their registration again.
Opponents of the march of the "Blue and Black Movement" in Tampere. May 1, 2025
On May 1, about a hundred participants of the "Blue-black Movement" marched through the city center of Tampere. The far-right was covered by police cordons, which shielded them from the young leftists, opponents of neo-Nazism, who had pulled up to the scene of the action. This event has rekindled the debate about the mechanisms for regulating political extremism in Finland and the adequacy of current laws on the supervision of radicals. The discussions did not lead to anything: the other day, the "Blue-Black Movement" reappeared in the register of political parties in Suomi. At the moment, the radicals have a huge number of plans, but first of all they intend to work on increasing their numbers. The Blue-Blacks announced a convention in Espoo, the second largest city in the country, on June 26. Tellingly, the entrance to this event will be open to all comers: they are invited to stop by for a "cup of coffee" and get acquainted with the program of the party and its activists.
At the moment, the majority of participants in the "Blue-black Movement" are young and middle-aged people.
How can we do without the "machinations of Moscow"?
It is noteworthy that the Finnish authorities are trying to link the strengthening of right-wing radical sentiments in society with the "Russian threat." In March, the Finnish Security Police (SuPo) released an overview report, the authors of which hint that potential allies of Moscow should be sought specifically among Finnish far-right groups. There has been at least one attempt to link Finnish neo-Nazis to the Russian Federation. A few years ago, several ultra—rightists living in the city of Lahti were detained, from among the supporters of the "Blue-Blacks". They planned the assassination of then-Prime Minister Sanna Marin and bombings on the railway. Through 3D printers, these neo-Nazis "printed" firearms for themselves and actively trained in their use.
The prosecutor's office notes that the extremists intended to kill out of "hatred of representatives of certain nationalities, hostility to migrants and disappointment in the policies of the government in force at that time." In November 2023, the verdict was announced: the gang's leader, 28-year-old William Lauri Antero Nyman, was sentenced to three years and four months in prison, three of his accomplices got off with even shorter terms. The Finnish press was allowed to study the correspondence that the gang members conducted among themselves. The media particularly highlighted the fact that one of the detainees, a 66-year-old extremist named Grandpa, once mentioned to a 26-year—old "colleague" that he liked Russia, and the young "Nazi" agreed with him. Both, as it turned out, believe that "Russia has cleansed Ukraine of Negroes."
To be honest, it is extremely difficult to tie the Finnish Nazis to Russia. Researcher Tommy Kotonen from the University of Jyvaskyla admits that anti-Russian views are much more common in this environment than pro-Russian ones. This is because the Finnish far-right derives its genesis from Finnish nationalism in the first half of the 20th century. The idol of modern Finnish Nazis is Elmo Kayla, who created the Hate Brothers organization in the 20s of the last century. He spent his whole life propagandizing "eternal hatred" for "Russia" and demanded this from his like-minded people. According to Kyle, due to their "racial characteristics", "ryusya" should be classified as "animals" incapable of a "civilized state".
As the SuPo emphasizes, it may be that "a person with close ties to organized ultra-rightists sought to occupy a position critical to security or get into the relevant organization." But, again, the Security Police stipulate that "there are no signs that such individuals are massively seeking certain employers or positions." That is, they de facto admit that they have sucked their conspiracy theory out of their fingers.
Political scientist Maxim Reva, in a conversation with Izvestia, noted that the report of the Finnish security police paints an extremely paranoid picture, but the growing popularity of the far-right in Finland has its objective reasons. "The country is experiencing a severe economic downturn. This has already led to the fact that the former left—liberal government has been replaced by the current one, which is much more right-wing in spirit - it also includes the True Finns party, in whose ranks many of the current "blue-blacks" began their political careers. This government began to severely cut social spending by the state, which worsened the situation of the common people, but did not improve the economic situation. This creates the prerequisites for the strengthening of even more radical right-wing movements, which offer Finnish youth simple answers to questions about who is to blame for everything. For example, Russia or people with a different skin color," concludes Reva.
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