Jussi Halla-aho, the leader of the True Finns party (Perussuomalaiset), is running for mayor of Helsinki in the municipal elections that will take place next spring.
The Perussuomalaiset leadership in Helsinki confirmed that Halla-Aho, who is well known in Finland for his speech against immigrants, was unanimously appointed as a candidate after a proposal was presented on 2 November. But the decision has not been known until now.
In a video posted Friday in YouTube, Halla-aho has expressed concern about issues such as the "unbearable costs of housing" in the capital city, drug trafficking, insecurity and also by the fact that - he says - by 2035 every fourth resident of Helsinki will be a foreign language speaker.
"Global social office"
In view of these developments, he thinks in future more and more Finnish taxpayers will move out of the city and "social security customers" will replace them.
"Helsinki is a global social office," he claims.
The current mayor of Helsinki, Jan Vapaavuori (from the National Coalition Party or Kokoomus), has announced that he will not run for a new term.
