Not long ago the words "hate speech" were unknown in Finland. Now it is a familiar concept to anyone who endeavours to read the anonymous discussions and comment threads on the Internet.

There immigrants, people who defend immigration, Finland-Swedes, Russians and other minorities all get their share - and increasingly also the politicians who openly support the European Union, Finland's active policy in Europe and assistance for the euro countries which are in difficulties.

It is difficult to make an estimate of how widespread this hate rhetoric really is. It seems that some people devote entire days to expressing their dissatisfaction in a steady stream on various forums and topics on the Internet. Aggressiveness on discussion threads online is sometimes so tangible that you can almost touch it.

After the massacre in Norway more care has also been taken in Finland to tone down the discussion columns, especially in the media. Elsewhere on the Internet there are plenty of places that are not monitored by anyone.

Towards an uncompromising climate

In Finland, there is no widely known right-wing or left-wing group that could without doubt be described as an extreme movement. There has been no experience of any politically motivated violence, and the school massacres in Finland did not have political motives. However, many people of foreign origin have talked about increasing everyday racism. Protection of the Prime Minister has been tightened in recent times and security guards are now far more visible than before. The police have been investigating a number of cases of death threats against politicians.

The Prime Minister, Jyrki Katainen, cautioned in late September about the changing climate in society: the traditional spirit of mutual understanding has shifted to a black and white and uncompromising attitude. This breach is easy to understand, but it is more difficult to analyse the reasons behind it.

In Finland, the general election was held in April. Many of the candidates talked about a changed, hardened climate during the election campaign. The winds of change in the air also showed themselves in practice in the actual election, when the True Finns Party achieved a historic election victory by Finnish standards. The party received almost 20 per cent of the vote in the election and has since competed with the National Coalition Party for the position of the largest party in the opinion polls.

It is impossible to talk about extreme political movements in Finland without including the position of the True Finns in the equation.

Populism and immigrant opposition

In essence, the party is a populist movement whose basic message is to defend "forgotten" citizens and to oppose Finland's EU policy. The crisis in the eurozone has come as if ordered by the True Finns, and the other parties have been forced to take account of the situation. The tone of the debate has changed, the government has aggressively demanded guarantees for supporting Greece, and Finland's role in Europe has changed.

Finland now has a government made up of six parties, from the National Coalition Party to the Left Alliance. This unnatural political combination can only be explained in that there was no other alternative after the rise of the True Finns and the corresponding fall of the former Prime Minister's Centre Party.

The True Finns can be regarded as a right-wing populist movement. Using the word "extreme" is more problematic, since the leader of the party Timo Soini cannot be put into this box. For his part, you can talk about nationalism, which emerges in the form of opposition to the EU line that Finland has chosen.

As a group the True Finns are, however, more complicated. Among the party's parliamentary caucus of 39 people, there are a dozen MPs who follow a core political line of opposition to Finnish immigration policy, multiculturalism and political Islam. These aims also include, amongst other things, the idea that Finland should become monolingual.

The figurehead of this group is not Soini, but the Helsinki resident Jussi Halla-aho, whose writings on the Internet have raised eyebrows many times. He has, for example, been taken to court for breach of freedom of religion and incitement to racial hatred. Jussi Halla-aho was elected to parliament with a large number of votes and became chairman of the Administration Committee.

Post on the military junta was too much

Halla-aho has a very active following on the Internet. A very well-organised discussion forum is linked to this, which has opposition to immigration as its central idea but also revolves around other policy areas. There is not much room for traditional Nordic values here. When you talk about the extreme right in Finland, this is the group that is meant.

Halla-aho's name was also found among the borrowed texts in Anders Behring Breivik's online manifest. No connection between them has been found. After the events in Norway, however, a blog post written by Halla-aho in 2006 was unearthed, written in response to Sweden's policy at that time: "I cannot think of a more inferior creep in the universe than a Nordic social democrat."

At the time of writing, Halla-aho has been suspended from the True Finns Party parliamentary group for two weeks. In a Facebook post he recommended a Greek military junta as a solution to the problems that cannot be solved by democratic means. Following the great stir that immediately arose as a result, Halla-aho removed his post and explained it all saying it was meant to be funny, but was, as usual, misunderstood by the media.

The humour did not hit home with Timo Soini, who immediately announced that Halla-aho would be suspended from the parliamentary group for a month. ”Enough is enough". But when the group met, it was decided that the suspension would only be for two weeks. This saved Soini taking it to the vote and was a measure of the real balance of power in the party.

Many other politicians have called on Soini - who himself is not considered by anyone to be a representative of extreme views - to distance himself clearly from the extreme elements and contempt for democracy in the party. On the other hand, the other parties have a clear need to undermine the rise of the True Finns and create divisions within the movement, leading to a tougher tone on both sides.

In fact, the situation is now changing so quickly in both Finnish politics and across Europe that the two weeks that pass between the writing of this article and its publication may seem like a very long time. The old stability has gone and has been replaced by sudden changes. What is remarkable under these conditions is that while Europe is moving towards greater instability, in Finland a strong populist EU-critical movement has arisen that includes a group that appears to have a very uncompromising attitude. This grouping is very new in Finland and will, in all probability, be in evidence in the local authority elections and the presidential elections which are now approaching.

The views expressed are those of the author.