After Perussuomalaiset (PS)* Finance Minister Riikka Purra was forced to eat her words after falsely claiming that the stabbing of a 12-year-old in Oulu was the work of youth gangs, few if any analysis is being made about the government’s hard-right immigration policy and its spread of conspiracy theories like the great replacement.
In racist code, “youth gangs” means non-white youths.
A twelve-year old boy, “who is a Finnish citizen but with a foreign background, was stabbed in Oulu Thursday. Source: Yle.
Fiancne Minister Purra and Interior Minister Mari Rantanen disguise far-right conspiracy theories like the great replacement as “statistics.” The most recent example was a talk a little over a week by Purra and Rantanen.
Migrant Tales has published many stories exposing how parties like the Perussuomlaiset (PS)* use migrant crime to attract support and votes. Finance Minister and PS Chairperson Riikka Purra jumped the gun Thursday by blaming a terrible stabbing in Oulu on “youth gangs.”
“Youth gangs” is code for black and brown youths.
Masters at making storms in tea cups, especially when it involves migrants and asylum seekers, Purra wishes in the first tweet a speedy recovery to the victim. In the second tweet, where she is forced to eat her words, Purra does not even wish a recovery apparently because the victim is a so-called “person with a migrant background.”
On Thursday, Purra tweeted (formerly Twitter):
“In broad daylight, in the middle of a shopping center, a young man is stabbed. I hope the victim survives. With street crime, gangs, etc., we are unfortunately following the same trend as in other [European] countries. The government is working, but it’s horrible, what have we arrived to in this country!”
On Friday, Purra was forced to eat her words.
Note that in the first tweet she blames “youth gangs” at the top but mentioned the suspect’s far-right ties at the end of the second tweet.
“Extremism, drugs, robberies, gangs – the problems are growing. We must take the deterioration in security seriously, increase penalties, and stop shying away from all kinds of violence. The victim in Oulu is 12 years old, the perpetrator has a background in the far-right movement, according to the police.”
These two tweets demonstrate how desperate the PS is after its stinging election defeat on Sunday.
I still remember clearly the 2011 general election when the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party saw the number of MPs surge to 39 from 5 previously. Some thought that the PS would implode as the Rural Party did in 1972.
It took over 13 years for the PS to suffer its worst election loss in the European parliamentary election, when it saw its support dive from 13.8% in 2019 with three MEPs to 7.6% to one MEP.
The shock of the MEP election result was written all over Riikka Purra’s and PS secretary Harri Vuorenpää’s faces. Source: Iltalehti.
Before the election and if opinion polls are to be believed, PS chairperson and Finance Minister Riikka Purra thought that the party would end up in third place with three MEPs.
The secret to the PS’ success would be its favorite scapegoat: migration. Purra and her party poured it on before the election by villifying migrants and supporting a Rwanda model to send asylum seekers to Africa.
Four days before the election, Interioir Minister Mari Rantanen and Riikka Purra hosted a talk about how migration means trouble for society. It was an opportunity to step up on the xenophobia gas pedal and spread the conspiracy theories like the great replacement.
Interioir Minister Mari Rantanen, copies Nigel Farage and depicts migrants as “swarms.” Source: Perusuomalainen
Two critical questions emerge after the MEP election: – Was it a knock-out blow that will send the PS flying back to the minor single-digit political leagues? – With growing dissent against Purra and her party’s austerity policies, will it force the party to split like in 2017?
If the political price that the PS will pay for its defeat on Sunday was a massive political blow, it’s clear that 2011-2014 was a lost decade when Finland flirted with racism and fascism.
One of the matters that has amazed me about National Coalition Party Prime Minister Petteri Orpo is his alternative truth about non-existent the threat of the hard right in Finland. Despite the racism and far right scandals that have eaten away at his government’s credibility, Orpo actually believes that parties will change if you go to bed with them.
“In my opinion, [the Perussuomalaiset PS*] are not a far-right party anymore,” Orpo was quoted as saying in March in Politico.
That statement was made after he repeatedly said that there are no far-right parties in government.
Prime Minister Petter Orpo revealing his true colors. Source: Facebook
When the issue of far-right parties in government was brought up at a session of parliament by Green MP Maria Ohisalo, Orpo was evidently irritated by the question.
“There is no hard right or extreme right in Finland,” he snapped. “Those are pretty strong accusations If you give the impression that some people are Putinists or pro-Russian, or that some party in Finland is destroying the rule of law! I hope this is not about campaigning in the European elections.”
In writing the Finland chapter for the European Islamophobia Report 2023, I sometimes give a partial preview of the “Central Figures in the Islamophobic Network.” Last year’s pick could well be the same candidates for 2024.
An imam I spoke to a few years ago described well the difference of the racism of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* and the National Coalition Party (NCP). “The Perussuomalaiset don’t hide their racism but the NCP does,” he said.
With the entry of the PS in government, I have noticed that the party has gone in the closet like the NCP with its hostile racist views. The PS, like the NCP, can claim with a poker face that the migration policy of the government isn’t racist because it is in line with other Nordic countries.
If this is the case, we could then conclude that all the Nordic countries’ migration policy is racist.
Despite the latter, the PS continues to be one of the most important facilitators for Finland’s Islamophobic, far-right network. It is Hungarian Trojan Horse making its presence felt in all circles. Like the NCP, it uses the cover of institutional racism to hide its vile racism.
The PS continues to have close ties with groups that are hostile to Muslim groups like Suomen Sisu, Soldiers of Odin, Hommaforum, Kansallismielisten liitouma (National Alliance), Sinimusta Liike (Black-and-Blue Movement), the banned neo-Nazi Pohjoismainen vastarintaliike, and others.
All the 39 MPs of the PS elected to parliament based their campaign on the party’s anti-immigration theme.
The main PS ministers of government, Minister of Finance Riikka Purra, Interior Minister Mari Rantanen, Justice Minister Leena Meri, Minister for Development Cooperation Ville Tavio, present and former Minister of Economic Affairs Wille Rydman and Vilhelm Junnla, Speaker of Parliament Jussi Halla-aho, maintain the hostile environment against migrants and minorities.
The European Islamophobia Report 2023 will come out in the summer.
Interior Minister Mari Rantanen and her far-right follower of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* like to copy and paste. Apart from inciting memories of the 1930s, when fascism and anti-Semitism were the order of the day, the PS continues to spread its Islamophobia and fascism.
The analogy that the PS makes in their EU election brochure should be condemned for being disgusting, racist, and inciting hatred.
An official complaint would be in place that the picture incites ethnic agitation.
How similar are the two pictures? The one on the left could not be found online. Nigel Farage scaring people before the Brexit vote. Source: Independent
In a nutshell, researcher Milka Sormunen sums up in a good essay what the law is all about: legalizing illegality.
Moreover, would you trust a government and Interior Minister Mari Rantanen to spearhead such a law? Rantanen is an Islamophobe that sees Muslims even under her bed.
In an editorial, Helsingin Sanomat hit it right on the dot: “The stage is now being set for how easily another government in another situation could also violate the constitution and international treaties.”
Two questions arise from the draft pushback law: – Will it be effective in stopping what the government calls the instrumentalization of migrants at the Finnish-Russian border? – If Prime Minister Petteri Orpo’s government is ready to go as far as to trash Human Rights, international agreements, and the rule of law, what will he do next? Which minorities will be targetted? Russian-Finnish dual citizens?
The dismantling of the rule of law, like what happened in countries like Hungary or Argentina during the 1970s, usually starts with convincing arguments and threat scenarios.
If the parliament approves the pushback law, it will put Finland on a slippery slope, where xenophobic and racist politicians will “Instrumentalize” migrants and minorities to dismantle the rule of law.
Prime Minister Orpo and his cronies in government speak of paradigm changes in migration, labor, and social welfare sectors. Such actions have a price and may create paradigm changes to our democracy.
With the Perussuomalaiset (PS) sinking in the polls, it’s clear that the Islamophobic party is pulling as many old tricks out of its racist hat. One of these is the great replacement theory, a white supremacist claim that Europe is white and not diverse
Tweets Purra: It is not a conspiracy theory to look at the statistics of what is happening to many countries in Europe at a rapid pace. You know it, I know it. Many people get upset when we talk about the change in population base as a result of mass immigration, but we just need to talk about it more. Source: Twitter
What’s the deal now, Purra? Polls not to friendly to your budget cuts and hateful hubris towards Finland’s most vulnerable? Oh I see, you are a “visionary” staring into the sunset breathing life to the same far-rght conspiracy theories that you denounced a while back. You are a fake and an opportunist..
Before being appointed interior minister in June 2023, Mari Rantanen, had posted and hashtagged far-right conspiracy theories like the great replacement. After removing such post on her socal media platforms, Rantanen wrote: “Let me be clear: I do not believe in conspiracies. Nor do I believe in the Great Replacement theory.”
National Coaaliton Party MP and chairperson of the constitutional committee, Heikki Vestman, has made a name for himself for his xenophobic statements and for flaunting human rights and the rule of law. His parliamentary committee has given the green light to the Draft Act on Temporary Measures to Combat Instrumentalised Migration, or the so-called pushback law that will be introduced to parliament next week.
Vestman likes to spread macho bravado by portraying himself as a true “patriot” by throwing human rights and the rule of law under the bus, and bullying vulnerable groups like asylum seekers.
Rarely, if ever, will he and the media tell you what his behind the pushback law.
“As a Finnish Member of Parliament, I believe Finland and the Finns must be able to safeguard their security in every situation. It is a core task of the state.” said MP Vestman. What you are saying if we cut through your nationalistic bravado is: legalizing illegality.
Some ask why are the hundreds of people seeking asylum such a threat to national security if 32,360 asylum seekers came to Finland in 2015 and now tens of thousands fleeing war from Ukraine?
Disagree? Just take a look at other EU borders, and you will come to a startling reality: suffering and death.
Milka Sormunen called in her comprehensive piece on the draft law appropriately “Legalizing illegality.”
Prime Minister Orpo and his National Coalition Party, who have given the radical-right Perussuomalaiset (PS)* a free hand on migration issues, did not mention a word about the four crucial factors undermining the draft law: breaching international agreements, the Constitution, Human Rights, and in general the rule of law.
Said Orpo: “I think that this law is drafted in such a way that it fulfills all the essentials [issues] simultaneously: First, the law works in such a way that we are not subject to instrumentalization [by Russia]. Secondly, it is written in such a way that it can be approved [by parliament].”
Orpo said that the above two factors, which do not mention breaching Human Rights, the constitution, and international agreements, have a good chance of passing in parliament.
Some say that the PS’ policy of “zero asylum seekers” is one factor why the government, especially the PS, wants to close the Finnih-Russian border and deny asylum. Is it a coincidence that the majority of asylum seekers at the Finnish-Russian border come from Muslim-majority countries?
After this draft law gets approved, what other steps will the government take to undermine Human Rights and the rule of law?
The whole Fnnsh-Russian border conflict has a bitter taste of politics.
