Finnish think tank Suomen Perusta registers website vaestonvaihto.fi amid immigration debate

A think tank connected to the Finns Party, Suomen Perusta, has registered the website vaestonvaihto.fi. As indicated by the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency’s domain search, the registration occurred on September 26. Currently, the site is empty and redirects to the official Finns Party website at perussuomalaiset.fi. Simo Grönroos, the executive director of Suomen Perusta, stated that the think tank plans to soon present statistics related to immigration growth. To this end, it has registered several domain names, suggesting that the information could eventually be released on a different site.

Suomen Perusta operates independently from the Finns Party while being founded by it, and includes several party members among its leadership. The website’s name alludes to the extremist right-wing “great replacement” conspiracy theory, which posits that the white population in Western countries is being deliberately reduced and replaced by individuals of different ethnic backgrounds. However, there is no evidence to support such claims of intentional demographic replacement.

Grönroos denies believing in the theory of a deliberate population exchange, emphasizing instead that the share of foreign-born individuals in Finland has been increasing over time. According to Statistics Finland, foreign-born residents constituted 10.2% of the population last year, up from 2.2% in 2000.

Grönroos argues that changes in population dynamics will lead to majority populations becoming minorities in Finland and other parts of Europe without the influence of a conspiracy. He highlights the presence of various political actors advocating for open border immigration policies. The term “population replacement,” he suggests, does not necessarily imply a conspiracy theory, though multiple members of the Finns Party have previously employed the term in discussions surrounding immigration.