January 2023 - Page 3 of 3

Reija Härkönen: Onko kokoomuksen maine nyt palautettu?

Posted on January 4, 2023 by Reija Härkönen

Wille Rydmanin paha sai viimein palkkansa: hän joutui eroamaan kokoomuksesta ja siirtymään vähemmän mairittelevaan perussuomalaiseen puolueeseen. Alaikäisten tyttöjen lähentely toi lopulta niin paljon ikävää palautetta, että kokoomus joutui luopumaan yhdestä puolueen kultamunista.”Kokoomukselle on kunniaksi, että ongelmaedustajasta hankkiuduttiin eroon”, otsikoi Kansan Uutiset.

https://www.ku.fi/artikkeli/4817157-perussuomalaisten-sanat-ja-teot-tyttojen-ahdistelu-oli-vaaliteema-nyt-rydman-kelpaa

Koska artikkelissa käsiteltiin perussuomalaisten kaksinaismoralismia – vaaleissa teemana pikkutyttöjen ahdistelu, mutta nyt ansioitunut ahdistelija kelpaa hyvin jäseneksi – on ymmärrettävää, että halutaan sanoa kokoomuksen toimineen oikein. Se jättää kuitenkin taka-alalle sen, että Rydmanin käytös on toki ollut puolueessa tiedossa ja hänen äärioikeistolainen rasisminsa ilmiselvä osa kokoomuspolitiikkaa jo vuosia. Vasta suuren yleisön älämölö arvojen vastaisesta seksuaalikäyttäytymisestä sai puolueen toimimaan. Ovathan vaalitkin ihan ovella.

Julkaisin vuonna 2016 blogikirjoituksen Rydmanin rasistisesta toiminnasta.

Väestönsiirtosalaliitto, pakolaisten tekemät raiskaukset ja ”taharrush” olivat Rydmanin politiikan keskeisiä teemoja.

Myös puolueen puheenjohtaja otti kaiken irti tekaistusta taharrush-kampanjasta.

https://www.is.fi/kotimaa/art-2000001104143.html

Myöhemmin kävi ilmi, että varsinaisia rikostapauksia ei ollut, oli vain ilmeisen pahantahtoisia ilmi-antoja. https://yle.fi/a/3-8696033

Surprised that former Kokoomus MP Wille Rydman found his new home in the PS? Not.

Posted on January 3, 2023 by Migrant Tales

Disgraced former National Coalition Party (Kokoomus) MP Wille Rydman announced that he’d join the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*. After announcing Monday that he’d leave Kokoomus, the latest announcement did not come as a surprise considering Rydman’s anti-immigration stance.

But some questions remain. In Kokoomus, he had built a reputation for being the Jussi Halla-aho of the party. Halla-aho was convicted in 2012 for ethnic agitation and breaching the sanctity of religion. The far-right politician is responsible for steering the PS on its radical right path.

**The next day he announced that he’d join the PS.**

A campaign poster for the 2011 parliamentary election, where Rydman claims, among other matters, that Finland should only accept the number of migrants it can adapt. In the ad, Mukhtar Abid, a social worker, states, ” This is why I, a Helsinki Social Democrat, will vote for Kokoomus’ Wille Rydman.” I sent Abib a message to ask him what he thought about the scandal and if Rydman was the right person to back in 2011. He has not responded to my message. Source: *Migrant Tales*

Will Rydman feel at home with so many Islamophobes? He will no longer be the Halla-aho of his party but will be part of a nasty mass of Islamophobes PS MPs.

Other Kokoomus MPs that could find a home in the PS are Atte Kaleva and Seida Sohrabi.

Another important question: Does the scandal, which led to him being indefinitely ousted from Kokoomus’ parliamentary group in June, means the end of Rydman’s political career?

A Helsingin Sanomat investigative story exposed in the summer MP Rydman’s sexual harassment of underage girls to whom he sometimes offered alcohol.

Finland’s President Sauli Niinistö panders (again) to the racists

Posted on January 3, 2023 by Migrant Tales

“That’s the central issue, people who want to be here need to accept our core values: democracy, equality, human rights and all of that. If they don’t, they can’t stay in Finland.”

President Sauli Niinistö in Yle News

During the many years I have written about President Sauli Niinistö, he has always disappointed me. For me, he represents a Finland where time will steamroll over it. If you read many of his comments throughout the years, one matter stands out like a sore thumb: He does not like anti-racism activists, Muslims, and minorities like people of color.

Instead of uniting all the people in this country from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds, his populism gets the better of him.

There are many examples, like when he addressed parliament in 2020. Without mentioning radical-right parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, he warned about the rise of “anti-Semitism and racism.” There is nothing wrong with that, but what was odd was he did not mention a word about Muslims and Islamophobia.

**Cartoonist Ville Ranta’s view of President Sauli Niinistö’s two-extremes argument.**

Islam is Finland’s second-biggest religion, with 120,000-130,000 followers.

A good example that he does not respect cultural diversity is the following statement he made in 2018, which is the worst of the worst.

He said: “I read in a newspaper about an Iraqi who had lived a long time in Finland, and he said that this [his culture] isn’t any problem. When I leave home for work, go to the store, or anywhere, I behave like a Finn. In this society, [I] follow the rules of the [cultural] game. But when I come home, I have Iraqi culture – truly impressive. And together with acquaintances can practice [my culture] very well, but the starting point is that Finland’s values are respected, democracy, gender equality.”