Timo Juhani Soini is a Finnish politician who is the co-founder and former leader of the Finns Party. He served as Deputy Prime Minister of Finland from 2015 to 2017 and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2015 to 2019.
Timo Soini
Soini in a debate with NCP leader and Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen (left) and SPP leader Carl Haglund (right) in 2014.
Soini with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
Timo Soini in 2018
The Finns Party, formerly known as the True Finns, is a right-wing populist political party in Finland. It was founded in 1995 following the dissolution of the Finnish Rural Party. The party is currently a participant in the Government of Petteri Orpo, holding seven ministerial portfolios.
The party achieved its electoral breakthrough in the 2011 Finnish parliamentary election, when it won 19.1% of votes, becoming the third largest party in the Parliament of Finland. In the 2015 election the party got 17.7% of the votes, making it the parliament's second-largest political party. The party was in opposition for the first 20 years of its existence. In 2015, it joined the coalition government formed by Prime Minister Juha Sipilä. Following a 2017 split, over half of the party's MPs left the parliamentary group and were subsequently expelled from their party membership. This defector group, Blue Reform, continued to support the government coalition, while the Finns Party went into opposition. The party, having been reduced to 17 seats after the split, increased its representation to 39 seats in the 2019 Finnish parliamentary election, while Blue Reform failed to win any seats. During the 2023 Finnish parliamentary election, the Finns Party finished in second place with 46 seats, recording their strongest result since the its founding. They then, out of Petteri Orpo’s request, proceeded to form a coalition government with the winning National Coalition Party, the Christian Democrats and Swedish People's Party of Finland.
Stall at Hakaniemi square, Helsinki in 2010
Timo Soini, chairperson for 20 years
Election tent in 2018
An ex-police commissioner and MP Raimo Vistbacka was elected the first chairperson of the Finns Party in the Kokkola Party Congress in November 1995. Photograph from 2011