Suomalaisuuden liitto or the Association of Finnish Culture and Identity (AFCI) will not receive any funding this year from the ministry of education and culture, according to Ilmari Rostila, the chairperson of the association. He is also a member of the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party.
For some, the news is welcome. One of the main aims of AFCI is to undermine the role of the Swedish language. Swedish is Finland’s second official language.
Another problem with AFCI is that it mostly run by members of the PS, a party that is openly hostile to Islam that sees the encroachment of English as a threat to the Finnish language and culture.
One of the matters that characterizes the AFCI is that it is in a time warp where its views of the Finnish language and culture are obsolete.
Another matter that the AFCI is accused of was its role in whitewashing Finnish culture. Right after it founding in 1906-07, there was a drive to change people’s “foreign”-sounding surnames into Finnish ones.
During 1935-35, some 200,000 Finns changed their surnames into Finnish ones.
Not granting funding to the AFCI is a step in the right direction.
