Amnesty International Report 2020/21 cites recurring problems with asylum seekers and children that the Finnish authorities continued to detain unaccompanied children and families. Finland continues to maintain strict rules in its immigration act approved in 2016 by Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s government (2015-2019).
Some observers believe that these restrictions, like shortened appeal times and strict family reunification requirements, will be lifted by Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s government.
Other issues that the report cites are violence against women and girls, indigenous rights, low social security levels, excessive use of force by the police, legal gender recognition (Transgender law), the right to privacy (surveillance), and conscientious objectors.
The last time we read about Perussuomalaiset (PS)* Turku chapter chairperson Jyrki Åland was in January when he stated that Covid-19 deaths “would do a lot of good” in Varisuo, a neighborhood of Turku where 48% of its inhabitants don’t speak Finnish or Swedish as their mother tongue.
In a blog posting Monday on the PS website, Åland uses in the headline the infamous Nazi phrase found in Nazi German concentration camps: Arbeit macht frei, or “Work will set you free.”
The blog post, which is full of mistakes and forgets that EU citizens have a right to work in Finland, reflects the far-right hostility and mindset of the PS.
While the headline used by Åland shows his ignorance of history and the suffering of millions of Jews and others at the hands of the Nazis, the most incredible matter is that such a blog post headline could be published on the PS website.
On se ihmeelistä kuinka kansanlaulaja Irwin Goodman on suosittu. Kävin Wikipediassa ja lisäsin hänen sivulleen Mutakuono ja lakupelle laulu, joka oli yksi hänen suosituin laulujaan.
Wikipedia sensuuria on hyvä esimerkki siitä, kuinka rasismia ei vastustetaan ja kuinka valkopestään rasisteja ja loukkaavia lauluja.
Vaikka jotkut haluavat unohda tämä laulu, monet eivät koska se yhä loukkaa.
Former Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP Ano Turtiainen has become a real thorn in the side of the far-right Islamophobic party. Apart from hisracist postings of George Floyd, encouraging violence against asylum reception centers, assaulting a fourteen-year-old, wishing that asylum seekers would drown at sea,inciting civil war, anti-vaxxer buffoonery, and other issues.
His latest tweet states that he would be ready to kill people if a friend of his was forced to use a mask.
People who are suspected and later convicted for ethnic agitation defend themselves in the following manner: my free speech rights are being infringed; it is prohibited to debate immigration topics and that “I am innocent…”
Oulu Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Sebastian Tynkkynen has made a name for himself as an avid Islamophobe who mixes hate speech from the earnest debate. For some strange reason but in the same way as a junkie, he cannot lay off the (Islamophobic) stuff.
“If making immigration-critical policies is deemed illegal by the judiciary,” Tynkkynen was quoted as saying in Yle News, “then it can be said that the judiciary is in a very weak position. The opportunities for one party to take practical action are deprived.”
What is wrong with the above statement?
Note that he uses the term “immigration-critical” which is just a sugar-coated word for Islamophobic and xenophobic. Moreover, he is falsely claiming that “one party” is being deprived of acting against Muslims.
One party? That one party, the PS, spreads Islamophobic diatribe constantly.
You are not being censored, Tynkkynen, you are being told that there are ways to debate matters without victimizing, spreading hate and labeling whole groups of people.
The Finnish Security and Intelligence Service (Supo) 2020 report laid bear how ethnic replacement claims are the usual mix of far-right conspiracy theories and the smoking gun of terrorism from this fringe group. Should we be surprised that the far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, which leads in opinion polls, is spreading this malarkey?
If we look at the PS leadership, there are three prominent members who are pushing this conspiracy theory: its chairperson Jussi Halla-aho, its first vice-president Riikka Purra and party secretary Simo Grönroos.
From left to right: Jussi Halla-aho, Riikka Purra, and Simo Grönroos are the most avid promoters of spreading the ethnicreplacement conspiracy theory.
Most recently, PS MP Olli Immonen, who was a security guard before being elected as MP and who proposed an ethnic register for Finland, defended the racist lie of ethnonationalists.
How much is the Covid-19 pandemic impacting in a positive manner the far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party? This is not a trivial question considering that the party, which has built its voter base and message on racism, leads in the polls. What future does the PS have when the Covid-19 pandemic subsides?Will it be a painful day of reckoning for it?
Covid-19 has uprooted our lives for over a year. We have faced lockdowns, fear, and our generous share of conspiracy theories like the lie about the great replacement. In such a backdrop, the PS is leading in the polls.
But not to worry. The PS is a tinderbox that will implode due to its own making.
Disagree?
Look at the PS candidates in the municipal elections. All white people, mostly men except for one black person, tell us how they want to take Finland back and do everything possible to continue excluding migrants, especially Muslims and people of color. The white nationalism soundbites are mentally nauseating.
The only reason a party like the PS has grown, and why their politicians can continue to spread racism and hostility against migrants and minorities with near impunity, is because Finland has issues with its racism. I am still confident, however, that we can push back the far-right threat and save our country from turning into a Hungary and Poland.
In the face of such challenges, it is clear that the PS will not make Finland a more socially equal country but exacerbate such social ills.
If you study the history of the PS, it has done everything possible to label and stigmatize migrants and minorities as useless human beings. It even calls some migrant and minority groups as “harmful.”
Isn’t it surprising that after they have tarred and feathered us in public for at least three decades, they wonder why certain groups face high unemployment in Finland?
The PS and its followers are responsible for the hostility, violence, and exclusion that migrants and minorities are presently suffering in Finland.
When the pandemic subsides and when we return to what was normal, that is when the PS will begin to retreat in the polls. People will be able to get out of their four walls and computer screens and interact with the world as they did before.
Un humilde mensaje en una postal mandada en pleno dictadura, en el año 1978.
“Esta tarjeta es una realidad para que siempre te recuerdes de estos pagos tan lejanos, prácticamente en el fin del mundo pero que es tan querido por nosotros. Ya va a llegar un día en que el sol saldrá realmente para todos en estas latitudes, el asunto es seguir siendo como somos y formar a la gente, educarla para que comprenda y comience a despertar, a abrir sus ojos.”
Claudia
Casa de Gobierno – Bs. As. – Argentina. Diseño de Anikó Szabó.
Remember Charlottesville, when the far-right, which Donald Trump called in 2017 “very fine people,” marched yelling, “they will not replace us?” While in the US, this message was an anti-Semitic rant, in Finland, politicians like Jussi Halla-aho, Riikka Purra, and Simo Grönroos of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party are playing the same vile tune.
From left to right: Jussi Halla-aho, Riikka Purra and Simo Grönroos.
The Finnish Security and Intelligence Service (2020) annual report published Tuesday states that apart from radical Islam, the far right is another cause for concern.
Like in countries like the United States, when the Capitol building was stormed by white nationalists and Trump supporters on January 6, it has become a bitter pill to swallow that white people pose as much of a terrorist threat as Isis. Finland is slowly waking up to the same reality but how can you tackle the far right in Finland when the biggest opposition party in parliament is a breeding ground for such ideology?
One of the PS and politicians’ pet topics like Halla-aho, Purra, and Grönroos is deeply rooted in ethnonationalism and white supremacy. They don’t say, “we will not be replaced,” but politicians like Purra warn us how darker people will replace us.
Writes Supo: “One of the most noteworthy ideological motives of far-right terrorists is known as the Great Replacement conspiracy theory based on the idea of a fundamental threat posed by immigration and multiculturalism to the white population of Western countries. Views reflecting the idea of a Great Replacement have been highlighted in several far-right terrorist attacks.”
Far-right demonstrators in Charlottesville in 2017 and who President Trump called “very fine people.” Source: Inside Higher Ed.
The comment by Supo in the annual report, which equates ethnic replacement as a far-right conspiracy theory, has caused a swift reaction from the PS and its leadership, who are trying to back their claims as “scientific.”
Some foreigners, especially those who came to Finland seeking asylum in 2015 and got a work permit to stay, face a dire situation: either put up with the work or leave Finland.One such case is Majid*, a 24-year-old Iraqi national living in Rovaniemi for the past three years.
Apart from the near-constant bullying and poor treatment he says he experiences at work, it is doubtful that he will be able to raise his hourly wage of 10.88 euros an hour. According to him, the money he makes is not enough to live off.
Finding a job in Finland is a challenge for some. For some, like Majid, it means daily bullying and ridicule.
“I am bullied and treated without respect by my supervisors,” Majid said. “I have turned to the PAM union’s shop steward and spoken directly to the manager of the company about my situation. None of them take what I say seriously, and life at work continues the same way as before.”
The Iraqi national said that a recent bullying case that occurred at the company was with a supervisor. He saw him inside an empty train at work cleaning and asked him to turn off the music. “I told him that the music doesn’t bother anyone,” he said. “Since I didn’t do what he said, he locked me in a small closet for a few minutes.”
When I told a manager of the company about the incident, he didn’t do anything.
“As a low-paid employee and being a foreigner on top of it means that nobody listens or believes you,” he added.
Even if the Iraqi would do anything to change jobs, it isn’t that easy.
