The use and abuse of national stereotypes and prejudices have become more ubiquitous throughout Europe, especially after the 2008 financial crisis. The trend is apparent in Finland, where previously consensus-driven discourse about the EU and its impact on a national and
international level has turned into a battle where populist politicians take advantage of the now popular image of Southern Europeans as work-sky people who use responsible Northern European countries – including Finland – for their own benefit. As a result, the North-South
bifurcation has to a large extent come to epitomise the economic crisis in Europe, forcing politicians across the political arena to take a stance in the debate.
Using Hayden White’s modes of emplotment, argument, and ideological implication in analysing narratives, the paper provides two different metanarratives that have been employed in discussing Finland’s role in the EU: a tragic narrative where Finland’s naïve generosity towards its Southern European neighbours leads to its downfall from AAA rating, and a romantic narrative where Finland rescues a sinking Europe with its tight-fisted attitude towards fiscal policy. In doing this, the paper also presents a genealogy of the debate that came to draw the imaginary line between Northern and Southern Europeans after the 2008 financial crisis. My aim is not to study whether one of the narratives is ‘better, or more correct, account of a specific set of events or segment of the historical process’ but to ‘identify the structural components of those accounts’ (White 1981: 3-
4).
