In 2015, when a record number of asylum seekers came to Finland, a number of attacks were carried out against asylum reception centers. One of these was in Niinisalo, located a stone’s throw from Kankaanpää, where over two weeks ago a group of white Finnish terrorist suspects was detained by the police.
While a lot of questions abound about the motives and ideology of the white Finnish terrorist suspects, there is one question that needs an answer.
For those who don’t remember, a building going to house asylum seekers was set alight and razed to the ground in December 2015 in Niinisalo. Perussuomalaiset* MP Juho Mäenpää, elected to parliament in 2019, claimed jubilantly after the arson attack: “Great. There is a god. My prayers have been answered.”
I interviewed Mäenpää and asked him about the arson attack. “Politicians should wake up to the situation [of asylum seekers],” he said, “if they don’t it could spark a civil war.”
The person thanking God for the burning of the future asylum center and threatening a civil war is none other than Mäenpää, who is Southern Ostrobothnia district manager of the far-right and Nazi-spirited Suomen Sisu association. During a session of parliament in 2019, he labeled asylum seekers “an invasive species.”
Why do we still know nothing about the arson attack and the possible role of neo-Nazi groups and Suomen Sisu in the arson attack?
A lot of questions remain in the air.
Was a proper investigation ever carried out on the burning of an asylum reception center in 2015?
