The Blue-and-Black Movement was founded by a group of disgruntled former Finns Party members with strong ethnonationalist views.
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The group held an event and march in Tampere on 1 May, during which participants dressed in black were seen carrying Finnish flags and a banner that read “May Day is White”. Image: Anni Hyypiö / Yle
5.5. 19:04•Updated 5.5. 19:06
The openly racist and fascist Blue-Black Movement is set to return to Finland’s political party register.
The Justice Ministry’s electoral administration director, Arto Jääskeläinen, confirmed the development to Yle.
He said that the group had gathered the required 5,000 supporter cards needed to be registered, and that there was no legal obstacle in re-registering it as a party.
“The group’s rules and general programme were reviewed last year. They were found to be acceptable, and all that was missing were the supporter cards,” Jääskeläinen told Yle.
The development was initially reported by the newspaper DemokrattiOpens an external website.
Last week, the Blue-and-Black Movement claimed it had collected the required number of supporter cards it needed to be re-registered.
Party status system
The group initially received permission from the justice ministry to register as a political party in June 2022.
However, in 2023, the ministry applied to the Supreme Administrative Court to have the party removed from the register on ground that its party programme was incompatible with constitutional and human rights law.
The following year, the court preliminarily removed the organisation from the register. However, groups are able to apply for party registration again, according to Jääskeläinen.
The Blue-and-Black Movement was founded by a group of disgruntled former Finns Party members with strong ethnonationalist views. They borrowed use of the blue and black colours from the Lapua Movement, a radical nationalist and fascist group that was active in Finland between 1929 and 1932.
Last week the group held an event and march in Tampere on 1 May, during which participants dressed in black were seen carrying Finnish flags and a banner that read “May Day is White”.
Ministry monitors parties
According to Jääskeläinen, the justice ministry is generally able to oversee that parties operate within a framework of rules and regulations.
However, in practice, such monitoring of party activities has been limited to their use of funds.
“Previously, there was little need to monitor parties and their activities,” he said.
Yle asked Jääskeläinen whether there is a need for more detailed monitoring of political parties.
“That remains to be seen. The Act on Political Parties has been in force since 1969, and I’m not aware that the ministry has ever had to intervene in the activities of political parties,” Jääskeläinen said.