By Enrique Tessieri
If I had to draw a cartoon about suspended Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP James Hirvisaari and his aide Helena Eronen, I’d draw them as the legendary Spanish literary icons Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. If Hirvisaari were Don Quixote, would his windmills be “multiculturalism,” “Islamization” and the media?
Contrary to Hirvisaari, Don Quixote was a kind-hearted impractical idealist that wanted to make right the incorrigible wrongs of the world.
Here is a painting by Pablo Picasso of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. If Eronen were Sancho Panza she’d be much thinner.
Alongside Hirvisaari Don Quixote is the always faithful Eronen Sancho Panza, listening to those far-right tales that would reinforce and encourage her to write demeaning blog entries of ghastly matters like female genital mutilation never mind about armbands. Here is a link to a young woman’s view [in Finnish] of Eronen’s blog post on female genital mutilation.
One of the matters that should worry sensible Finns about the Eronen scandal isn’t what she wrote but her boss Hirvisaari. It’s sometimes difficult to figure out what shines through this far-right PS MP: His ignorance of our democratic institutions like the media and/or his extremist views?
If it were up to Hirvisaari, he’d change the Constitution and our laws to censor and place limitations on press freedom directly from the annals of the 1930s but in a twenty-first century context.
By stating that the media intentionally lies and distorts reality, Hirvisaari exposes his far-right credentials and his contempt for our most cherished civil rights. What you are hearing in fact is a mean Hirvisaari Don Quixote charging at windmills.
Below is an excerpt of the PS MP’s latest blog post headlined Lies and power on Uusi Suomi. It sends shivers up one’s spine but you be the judge:
It is clear that the media has distorted the blog entry the truth by my parliamentary aide and blatantly lied to the public’s face. I have written in previous blog entries about the outrageous manner in which the Turun Sanomat staff treated the ”armband” blog post.
Another monstrous lie: The media has falsely claimed for a long time that some members of the Perussuomalaiset parliamentary group are ”far right,” ”racists” and even ”Nazis.” The Perussuomaalist party does not have a ”racist wing.” This intentional demonizing [by the media] as well as all forms of distortion must stop in the name of truth.
…In the above-mentioned examples the issue is the power of the media. The people are deliberately fed lies. It is time that the media should look at itself in the mirror.
Look at itself in the mirror? Hmm.
Even if we pointed the mirror to Hirvisaari he’d have a difficult time figuring out which is the mirror and which are his demonic distortions of those institutions that shelter us from his extremist views.