Finnish Perussuomalaiset (PS)* parliamentary group leader Sampo Terho wrote a decade ago in Kanava an essay with the classic far-right populist rhetoric about the threat of migration. His point of view in the essay is not only sinister but was a central argument used by parties like the PS to attract voters and that their racism was “normal.”
UPDATED (20.3): By publishing this baloney in a respected publication like Kanava, Terho’s aim is to substantiate his racist points of views.
Many politicians who wrote racist things in the past and which helped them get elected want us to forget.
We cannot and should not forget for the sake of decency and respect for future generations.
Terho is not just any PS MP with racist views, but one that is vying to become chairman of the anti-immigration party after Timo Soini steps down in early June.
In a letter to the editor to Helsingin Sanomat, Terho claims that his or Halla-aho’s election to the helm of the party will not force it a path of “sheer darkness and evil.”
Columnist Yrjö Rautio wrote in Helsingin Sanomat Friday that if either Terho or Halla-aho become chairman of the PS it would not only mean the end of Soini’s populist project but a slip into “sheer darkness and evil.”
We disagree with part of Rautio’s analysis. The PS was always a party of “sheer darkness and evil” and its main architect is Soini.
Who is Terho anyway and what are his thoughts about migration and cultural diversity?
Even if the PS MP has tried to hide what he wrote in Kanava, it is a classic example of the racism and ethnocentrism that is spread by far-right and right-wing populist anti-immigration groups at the time to instill fear, hostility and racism against migrants and minorities.
Let’s look at some of the main points of Terho’s essay headlined, “European’s past and future.”
Read full essay here.
- Terho groups humans in the essay into three racial groups: “Negroid, Mongoloid and Caucasian;”
- The European population of Africans will grow three-fold by 2050;
