On Mon, Jul 09, 2012 at 04:24:02PM +0300, Martin von Willebrand wrote:
Some comments below:
Torvalds was active in the Communist Party of Finland (SKP) since he was a college student in the 1960s. He was elected to the Central Committee of the SKP in 1982. He belonged to the Taistoist (hardline) minority. His political beliefs developed after learning of the atrocities committed against communist sympathizers in Finland. In >his
son Linus' book, he is reported as having lost enthusiasm for >Communism.
In 2007 Torvalds was elected to the post of the third vice chairperson of the Swedish People's Party. In 2008, he was elected in Helsinki City Council for term 2009-2012.
Source Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nils_Torvalds
I think the account is pretty much in line, although I do not know Nils Torvalds' history in more detail. He hasn't made many openings at all recently, at least not so that they would have reached me. My impression is that he is, as a person, an intellectual.
"Communist" tends to mean very different things in different countries, especially when principle meets practice.
I'm approaching him the same way I approach all MEPs: We'll have a polite discussion about what we can do together.
The Swedish People's Party is a liberal party. While their members have quite a lot of differing opinions regarding economy, the party is viewed slightly right-winged in the Finnish political scene. The unifying factor is the Swedish speaking minority together with the liberal approach to the questions on values.
In the EP, he's with the ALDE group (Liberals & Democrats). Not exactly a bunch of Stalinist hardliners.
Oh, and I had a look at his declaration of financial interests:
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/ep-dif/114268_04-07-2012.pdf
It's in Swedish, so I might be missing some details. But his income seems to consist of a Finnish pension. He also holds 10 shares in a mobile phone company. [1]
Best regards, Karsten
[1] No, not *that* Finnish mobile phone company.