You may find it then a bit surprising that populist political forces have fared so well in Finland and the other Nordic countries. In the Nordic countries, support for populist parties has ranged between 15–20 percent in recent years. In Finland, the (True) Finns Party has scored between 17–19 percent of the vote in the last three national elections in 2011–19.
So why is it so that even the “happiest people in the world” are so prone to populist temptations? As mentioned, the combination of economic insecurity and threats to national identity appear to trigger populist surges. This is amplified if the political system fails to address citizens’ concerns.