True Finns' Soini declines the offer

True Finn party chairman Timo Soini reacted (fi) to the merger proposal by the Centre Party's Jarmo Korhonen in a typically Soinian manner. Quoth Soini in today's papers:

"It's entirely clear that a merger is out of the question."

"If a girl at a dance is asked for a spin, no one can mind that. Another matter is whether she'll accept."

"When you fell a tree, you take the branch. I have no right to sell the Finnish people's lifeline or even to negotiate with it."

"Korhonen is the sort of siren that I bolt myself more tightly to the mast and let the siren sing."

"[Before the election] snot wasn't good enough for the devil. Now that our support is on the rise, there's a terrible interest in a merger."

"I'm dangerous, but only to the Centre's support, not to the people. When they can't say something bad about me, they say I'm one of theirs."

"This tells that our rise is even bigger than what the polls say."

"I myself have been a Vennamoist since age 16 and don't shy away from that connection at all. And I still am, in my ideological roots."

"The Centre hasn't changed since the times of Kekkonen, so the most important things are power and might. Now they want a copyright on this legend."

"When we can't be hit, must we be hugged?"

That'll be a no, then.

One thing this episode shows is that the other parties aren't all that hostile toward the True Finns. Their isolation is more self-inflicted than anything imposed on them; to stay true to their message, they can't compromise with the major parties. Their agenda in itself is not such an anathema that a mainstream politician like Korhonen can't speak of them in a positive tone.