True Finns Call for Monolingual Finland
Image: YLE / Jani Aarnio
The youth organisation of the True Finns Party is calling for Finnish to be the country's only official language.
The party adopted a resolution that Swedish should no longer be Finland’s second official language at its congress in Vaasa over the weekend. The party wants Swedish downgraded to a minority language status, such as Sami, Roma and sign language.
Vesa-Matti Saarakkala, the chair of the True Finns’ youth organisation, says the resources spent on maintaining Swedish-language services are unreasonable. He points to the cost of supporting YLE’s Swedish-language service as one such example.
He argues that the special status of Swedish should be downgraded as it may prompt Russians living in Finland to demand a similar status for the Russian language.
The True Finns’ Youth Organisation says Finland has failed in its language policy since it doesn’t reflect reality.
YLE