Watching the parliamentary question-and-answer session between the opposition and government revealed two matters: the opposition’s xenophobic politicking and the government’s sometimes infirm responses.
The debate between the opposition and the government occasionally appears like a shouting match, where the government caves into the opposition.
In a historic government decision on the same day, Finland closed its border to Russian tourists.
If one was to state, in a nutshell, the hostile diatribes of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, National Coalition Party (Kokoomus), and Christian Democrat MPs Thursday, it was to tar and feather Russians, asylum seekers from outside the EU, and undocumented migrants.
PS MP Jari Ronkainen parrots his party’s fear-mongering: “Fleeing military service is not grounds for asylum. If it were, up to 20 million Russians would theoretically be entitled to asylum. Despite this, the minister of interior [Kirsta Mikkonen] said yesterday that they are preparing at the border for an influx of asylum seekers and setting up processing centers. For potentially millions?”
“A visa on humanitarian grounds allows a person from Russia or any other country to apply in practice for asylum without even coming to the border of the country,” said PS chairperson Riikka Purra, “and this raises the same security concerns as the right to apply for asylum at the moment.”
The Finns Party (PS) is actively campaigning for the upcoming parliamentary election in April. The party published Monday its so-called “Finnishness program,” Suomalaisuuden ohjelma 2022.
The program attacks two groups: migrants and Finland’s Swedish-speaking minority.
The hostility and simplistic arguments against these two groups resemble an angry and spiteful person willing to lie and cheat to get his or her way.
The PS’ main argument in the program is to also play the usual victim. One of the arguments is that Swedish speakers, never mind migrants, “do not strengthen the linguistic cohesion and identity of Finnish speakers.”
In the PS xenophobic bubble. there is a surrealistic hope that Finland will return to a time that never existed, a time when everyone was white and spoke Finnish as their main language.
I’m not surprised the host on A-studio Tuesday, Marja Sannikka, did not ask the PS leader, Riikka Purra, to elaborate on her dog-whistle tweets of closing the border to all Russians.
Fortunately, Sannikka rebuffed Purra’s claim in a later tweet, where the PS leader claimed on her show that Russian asylum seekers would be treated on a one-by-one basis.
A later tweet below demanded that the border should be shut to all Russians.
RIikka Puura tweets: “Russia blows up gas pipelines and incorporates areas to itself, kills, rapes, destroys without remorse. I was asked many times at the studio how many Russians we should take and help. Close the border [to all Russians]. National security proceeds everything.You did not say it that way on air, but those Russian asylum seekers would be treated individually and receive asylum if they meet the requirements. Thus you are not shutting the border [to Russian asylum seekers].”
Purra’s tweets expose lies and deception. Say one thing and then another.
Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy election victory received applause from several far-right European leaders and the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party. While the PS chairperson Riikka Purra and the former leader of the party, Jussi Halla-aho, allowed MEP Laura Huhtasaari and Olli Immonen to do the talking.
As we saw in Sweden on September 11, Sunday’s election was another political earthquake ushering to power a far-right leader for the first time since fascist dictator Benito Mussolini ruled the country.
Adulations from far-right European leaders were quick to come, haling Meloni’s victory as a political game changer for the region.
In Finland, and since the PS leadership was too chicken to congratulate Meloni directly, even if the party forms part of the far-right and pro-Russian EU parliamentary group Identity and Democracy, Huhtasaari, and Immonen, chairperson of the far-right Suomen Sisu, showered praise.
Remember Huhtasaari? Apart from her alternate-reality statements and selfies with Hungarian autocrat Viktor Orbán, Huhtasaari said in an interview that all parties on the center-left are communists, even the conservative National Coalition Party.
With parliamentary elections in April, the PS is trying – but failing – to look like a straight party. It may explain why Purra is so quiet about the Italian election.
And wouldn’t you know it? Praising the inhumane and illegal Greek push-back policy, the PS encourages the new Italian government to get even tougher with asylum seekers and vulnerable migrants crossing the Mediterranean.
Melloni, her minions in the PS, and other far-right European parties believe that inhumane and let-them-drown policies will convince people to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.
Such parties are part of a conspiracy to replace our democracies with failed political experiments of the past that ended up hanging a dead Mussolini from his feet in Milan in 1945.
A paradox: “Liberal” Nordic countries like Finland have large far-right parties that feed off racism.
If I were to use the racist rhetoric of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party to solve social problems, I’d be lost. Solutions, like tougher laws, more restrictions, enforcing marginalization, and strengthening institutional racism, would leave me in a bind.
Fearmongering and stirring up the us-and-them message is the bread and butter of parties like the PS. They have nothing to offer except to feed your prejudices and embolden your hatred.
Politicians like PS chairperson Riikka Purra and Jussi Halla-aho are fortune tellers. All they can do is tell us the horrible things migrants will do if we let them in Finland.
The latest prank by the PS is to end Russian tourists from coming to the country. They claim that these people are a security threat. What about if some of these Russians are fleeing Putin’s terror? OK, I get it: the plan is to restrict asylum seekers from coming to Finland.
The ad by the youth chapter of the PS received a lot of criticism onsocial media. It reads: “Russians vacationing in Finland…genocide in Ukraine. Close the border.”
As the sign in Helsinki shows, it is time to close our easter border with Russia because there is “genocide in Ukraine.”
If there is something to reinforce from the Southern Ostrobothnia district court ruling of the Fares Al-Abaidi case, it is the following: In some cases, the police and the courts play down racist crime.The sentence was a miscarriage of justice.
Al-Abaidi has appealed the ruling.
Why is the ruling a travesty?
Because racism is a toxic component of Finland’s police and justice system.
Imagine scores of people attacked Al-Abaidi in June 2020, but only oneperson was convicted for assault. Racism was not a motive for what happened.
The Iraqi youth’s case is an example of hair-splitting and a miscarriage of justice.
If the authorities are to be believed, racism was not what motivated the attack. The vandalized car that had mamu (a racist term for migrant) sprayed on its side does not prove anything because they never found the suspect.
The victim’s car before……and after. Photo: Mari AaltolaMari Aaltola writes: “What I saw [the vandalized car] was unbelievable. I asked myself who could do something like this to another person’s property, smash every window, tear out the hubcaps and then spray paint in big letters mamu on the side of the car. I was also saddened by the sight and cried and [remembered when] I went with Fares to buy the car. He spent all of his and some of his mother’s savings to buy the car. The car was in bad shape, but I was happy that I had advised them to take full insurance coverage for the vehicle. This allowed them to get compensation for a new car after the insurance company repossessed it. Otherwise, they would have lost all the money since the culprit[s] were never caught [by the police].”
The recent parliamentary election in Sweden is only one of the worrying signs that Islamophobia is not receding in the EU but gaining strength. Muslims, like other minorities, must work together to challenge Europe’s ever-growing anti-Muslim racism. We must do this not only for ourselves but for our grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
The editors of the European Islamophobia Report 2021 are Enes Bayrakli and Farid Hafez.
In Finland, we supposedly live in the happiest country in the world. Even so, the biggest opposition party is Islamophobic and openly hostile to minorities. Even “straight” parties like the National Coalition Party (Kokoomus) flirt, spread Islamophobic rhetoric, and support such policies.
You can access the full European Islamophobia Report 2021 here.
If the latest 2020 hate crime report is anything to go by, Muslims continue to suffer the most from hate crime attacks. Due to their “foreign-sounding” names, discrimination in the labor market is also a problem. Moreover, racism in the police continues to be a blow to trust, and the blind spot of the media to Islmophobia is equally worrying
The election in Sweden was of special interest to me since I live next door to the country in Finland. Will the good showing of the far-right Sweden Democrats boost our far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party in the April parliamentary election?
While it is fair to predict that the election result in Sweden should not hurt the election prospects of the PS, I am certain that the party took a lot of notes from the election and is now drafting a campaign strategy that hinges on migration.
Like many, I am not surprised by the election result in Sweden and the rise of the Sweden Democrats. Considering that all the Nordic countries now have large far-right parties that wield political power, it was only a question of when the chickens would come home to roost in Sweden. In Finland, the PS plays the same anti-Muslim tune as in Denmark (Social Democrats today and formerly Danish People’s Party) and Norway’s Progressive Party (FrP).
How can affluent countries with a comprehensive social welfare system that values and professes social equality end up with far-right parties that are hostile and want to exclude people from society who come from different backgrounds?
If we can’t receive an answer to the latter question, could we figure out how got here? Possibly we were always there. Our Nordic social welfare system and values were not meant for people who aren’t like us.
While some will blame migrants for the success of the Sweden Democrats, I would point the finger at the media and political parties like the Moderates, which gave the far-right party a platform of legitimacy to strike.
As of September 11, the future looks bleaker in Sweden and the Nordic region if you are a migrant or minority.
The Nordic saw a predictable political earthquake on September 11, when the right-wing bloc led by the far-right Sweden Democrats nudged the right-wing bloc to victory. The election brought Sweden in line with its other Nordic neighbors: all four now have or had large far-right anti-immigration parties.
Of the four countries, the entrenchment of the far right is best seen in Denmark, where mainstream parties like the Social Democrats tow the Islamophobic line.
The far-right Danish People’s Party came to power in the early 2000 and had steadily worked to turn Denmark into a haven for anti-Muslim rhetoric and hatred.
In light of what happened in Norway and in Finland, what will be the path of the Sweden Democrats to implement their Islamophobic policies?
Step 1 was the election. Step 2 is polluting Swedish politics with more racism. Like in Denmark, “straight” parties like the Moderates or Social Democrats may rob the Sweden Democrats of their support by becoming as Islamophobic as them. It is what happened in Denmark.
September 11 is a bad day for many: 9/11 and the coup in Chile that ousted democratically elected Salvador Allende.
That infamous day will also be remembered when far-right politics came home to roost in the Nordic region.
Whenever I get fan or hate mail, I wonder why they never sign them with their names. I normally don’t publish hate mail but this will be an exception. The one below is by KKK Molly, at least it is what’s on her email address. I wonder what “KKK” stand for? Ku Klux Klan, maybe?
Why are you here exactly? Nobody is forcing you to live in Finland or anywhere else in Scandanavia. If you don’t like “racism”, there is a quite simple solution: Leave. In every single one of your articles you express the most brazen form of foreign entitlement to somebody else’s country i’ve ever seen. You have the erroneous believe you have the inherent right to White people’s hospitality and social welfare as if it has been bestowed upon you by God himself, and that indigenous Finns and other indigenous Scandanavians are obligated by some invisible mandate to give you the fruits of their labor and treat you as superiors.
You come in and DEMAND that you be given special privileges and protection at the EXPENSE of the native population. What if you invited somebody into your house and they started making demands and acting like it’s their house now – I’m sure you would be more than displeased. Not an inch of gratitude from non-White foreigners, never a for “We appreciate your hospitality” it’s always “You’re not doing enough for ME” from you sand niggers.
Come here and act like you own the place – And you wonder why the indigenous population doesn’t like you. It’s never your fault – It’s always “White racism” which in your minds, exists for no reason other than white people being inherently evil.
We hear many slogans from you people: “Dismantle whiteness” “We deserve more rights” “We have a right to live in White countries” but NEVER ONCE have we ever heard “Thank you”.
You are little more than entitled colonizers. You have a homeland to go back to. If Finns and other scandanavians become a minority in our own lands, we have nowhere to flee.
Keep making demands. Keep pushing until we’re against the wall and have no choice but to send you all straight to hell.
This is Part 2 of Tariq’s* ordeal in Finland. Go here to read Part 1.
“This is my case:
I have been living in Finland for eleven years. I moved here to be with my wife, and upon arriving, I started to work and study at the same time. After three years in the country, my ex-wife wanted a divorce, and we separated on friendly terms. I lived in Kanta-Häme area for four years.
My ex had a close friend working as a police officer in the Kanta-Häme region, and he was dealing with immigrant cases. I was invited to his office after my divorce and was questioned on the details of my divorce process to see if I still had legal reasons to stay living in Finland. I was working at the time and received a study place shortly after.
I moved to the Helsinki region and started my new life. Later, in Helsinki, I went to the police station to ask for some information. After getting my documents to process my request, the office informed me that there was something written in my info about me that I was completely unaware of and still don’t know exactly what it is. He took my residence permit card and told me to wait. He returned after some minutes with his supervisor, they asked me to follow them inside the station, and I was questioned on issues like what I was doing here since my divorce.
I told them I was studying and had about three months left to complete my graduation. He informed me that the police had canceled my residence permit and that I had thirty days to leave the country or be deported. He took my residence permit away and refused to give it back when I asked.
I asked him whether he had the right to take my permit away, and his answer was that he had the right to do so. I left the police station and went to meet a lawyer. I explained the situation, and she told me he had no right to take my residence card. Immediately she called the police officer that had taken my card away, and she told him that he didn’t have the right to do that by any laws since I hadn’t broken any laws in Finland. He said that he had an order from the Kanta-Häme police to take my permit away on site.
I have been officially asking the police about this order, but I have been denied access to my info here in Finland.
After this incident, I was forced to quit school with three months left. I had to find a job and then apply for a residence permit based on my work contract. I was also denied the permit because my salary fell short of a hundred euros from the minimum, which you have to have to finance my life here. They informed my boss directly that I didn’t have a valid permit and couldn’t work because of that. My boss contacted Migri [Finnish Immigration Service] and told them that I was doing my job, they were happy with me and didn’t understand why I couldn’t get the necessary permit to continue.
I didn’t stay waiting and so went looking for a new job, with a higher salary of about three thousand euros and with that I appealed against their decision, but again they refused. This time, I changed jobs to apply for a residence permit.
Since this time, I have been harassed by the police. For some reason, I just started getting a lot of traffic fines. I received tickets for speeding and reckless driving from the police without evidence, such as dashcam videos. Went many times to court due to these fines since I contested them, but in court, I always lost. The court told me they don’t think the police can lie. Also, during one stop a policeman was shouting and cursing at me when approaching; for this incident, I had a witness in the car with me. I took the fine to the court, where the case went on for seven hours with my lawyer Miro Delgado. The judge ultimately decided that I was fined wrongfully, and the fine was canceled. The two policemen weren’t reprimanded for their behavior or wrongfully giving me the fine. I had to sell my car because of this continuous harassment.
During the time we were going through this process, I started a new relationship, I got married, and was granted a residence permit for family reasons.
In 2016 I applied for citizenship, it normally takes one year to get a decision, but in my case, it took the immigration office three years to give me a negative answer. The negative decision was because I had been legally in the country all this time without a residence permit, which directly resulted from the immigration office’s long processing times and cancellation of my residence permit. That was also the reason for not getting permanent residence in the country.
Each migrant who survives in Finland deserves a medal for heroism.
