Enrique Tessieri Archives - Page 42 of 246

Finland is a country swept once again off its feet by xenophobia

Posted on September 30, 2022 by Migrant Tales

Watching the parliamentary question-and-answer session between the opposition and government revealed two matters: the opposition’s xenophobic politicking and the government’s sometimes infirm responses.

The debate between the opposition and the government occasionally appears like a shouting match, where the government caves into the opposition.

In a historic government decision on the same day, Finland closed its border to Russian tourists.

If one was to state, in a nutshell, the hostile diatribes of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, National Coalition Party (Kokoomus), and Christian Democrat MPs Thursday, it was to tar and feather Russians, asylum seekers from outside the EU, and undocumented migrants.

PS MP Jari Ronkainen parrots his party’s fear-mongering: “Fleeing military service is not grounds for asylum. If it were, up to 20 million Russians would theoretically be entitled to asylum. Despite this, the minister of interior [Kirsta Mikkonen] said yesterday that they are preparing at the border for an influx of asylum seekers and setting up processing centers. For potentially millions?”

The PS, which wants Finland to implement a zero asylum seeker policy, sees the passage of the national border act as an instrument toward such a goal.

“A visa on humanitarian grounds allows a person from Russia or any other country to apply in practice for asylum without even coming to the border of the country,” said PS chairperson Riikka Purra, “and this raises the same security concerns as the right to apply for asylum at the moment.”

Purra favors shutting the Finnish border to Russians even if there is no threat.

How the PS and other European far-right leaders celebrate Brothers of Italy victory

Posted on September 26, 2022 by Migrant Tales

Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy election victory received applause from several far-right European leaders and the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party. While the PS chairperson Riikka Purra and the former leader of the party, Jussi Halla-aho, allowed MEP Laura Huhtasaari and Olli Immonen to do the talking.

As we saw in Sweden on September 11, Sunday’s election was another political earthquake ushering to power a far-right leader for the first time since fascist dictator Benito Mussolini ruled the country.

Adulations from far-right European leaders were quick to come, haling Meloni’s victory as a political game changer for the region.

You can read the far-right’s reaction here.

In Finland, and since the PS leadership was too chicken to congratulate Meloni directly, even if the party forms part of the far-right and pro-Russian EU parliamentary group Identity and Democracy, Huhtasaari, and Immonen, chairperson of the far-right Suomen Sisu, showered praise.

Remember Huhtasaari? Apart from her alternate-reality statements and selfies with Hungarian autocrat Viktor Orbán, Huhtasaari said in an interview that all parties on the center-left are communists, even the conservative National Coalition Party.

With parliamentary elections in April, the PS is trying – but failing – to look like a straight party. It may explain why Purra is so quiet about the Italian election.

And wouldn’t you know it? Praising the inhumane and illegal Greek push-back policy, the PS encourages the new Italian government to get even tougher with asylum seekers and vulnerable migrants crossing the Mediterranean.

Tens of thousands of people have died crossing the Mediterranean. Matters are expected to get worse, according to UN News.

Melloni, her minions in the PS, and other far-right European parties believe that inhumane and let-them-drown policies will convince people to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.

Such parties are part of a conspiracy to replace our democracies with failed political experiments of the past that ended up hanging a dead Mussolini from his feet in Milan in 1945.

European far-right parties are part of a conspiracy to replace our democracies

Posted on September 25, 2022 by Migrant Tales

A paradox: “Liberal” Nordic countries like Finland have large far-right parties that feed off racism.

If I were to use the racist rhetoric of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party to solve social problems, I’d be lost. Solutions, like tougher laws, more restrictions, enforcing marginalization, and strengthening institutional racism, would leave me in a bind.

Fearmongering and stirring up the us-and-them message is the bread and butter of parties like the PS. They have nothing to offer except to feed your prejudices and embolden your hatred.

Politicians like PS chairperson Riikka Purra and Jussi Halla-aho are fortune tellers. All they can do is tell us the horrible things migrants will do if we let them in Finland.

The latest prank by the PS is to end Russian tourists from coming to the country. They claim that these people are a security threat. What about if some of these Russians are fleeing Putin’s terror? OK, I get it: the plan is to restrict asylum seekers from coming to Finland.

The ad by the youth chapter of the PS received a lot of criticism on **social media. It reads: “Russians vacationing in Finland…genocide in Ukraine. Close the border.”**

As the sign in Helsinki shows, it is time to close our easter border with Russia because there is “genocide in Ukraine.”

How Finland plays down hate crime and miscarriages of justice

Posted on September 24, 2022 by Migrant Tales

If there is something to reinforce from the Southern Ostrobothnia district court ruling of the Fares Al-Abaidi case, it is the following: In some cases, the police and the courts play down racist crime. The sentence was a miscarriage of justice.

Al-Abaidi has appealed the ruling.

Why is the ruling a travesty?

Because racism is a toxic component of Finland’s police and justice system.

Imagine scores of people attacked Al-Abaidi in June 2020, but only one person was convicted for assault. Racism was not a motive for what happened.

The Iraqi youth’s case is an example of hair-splitting and a miscarriage of justice.

If the authorities are to be believed, racism was not what motivated the attack. The vandalized car that had mamu (a racist term for migrant) sprayed on its side does not prove anything because they never found the suspect.

No racist motive spells no hate crime, full stop.

Sweden’s election spells trouble for Muslims, migrants, and minorities

Posted on September 21, 2022 by Migrant Tales

The election in Sweden was of special interest to me since I live next door to the country in Finland. Will the good showing of the far-right Sweden Democrats boost our far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party in the April parliamentary election?

While it is fair to predict that the election result in Sweden should not hurt the election prospects of the PS, I am certain that the party took a lot of notes from the election and is now drafting a campaign strategy that hinges on migration.

Like many, I am not surprised by the election result in Sweden and the rise of the Sweden Democrats. Considering that all the Nordic countries now have large far-right parties that wield political power, it was only a question of when the chickens would come home to roost in Sweden. In Finland, the PS plays the same anti-Muslim tune as in Denmark (Social Democrats today and formerly Danish People’s Party) and Norway’s Progressive Party (FrP).

How can affluent countries with a comprehensive social welfare system that values and professes social equality end up with far-right parties that are hostile and want to exclude people from society who come from different backgrounds?

If we can’t receive an answer to the latter question, could we figure out how got here? Possibly we were always there. Our Nordic social welfare system and values were not meant for people who aren’t like us.

While some will blame migrants for the success of the Sweden Democrats, I would point the finger at the media and political parties like the Moderates, which gave the far-right party a platform of legitimacy to strike.

As of September 11, the future looks bleaker in Sweden and the Nordic region if you are a migrant or minority.

The Nordic region’s slippery Islamophobic slope

Posted on September 20, 2022 by Migrant Tales

The Nordic saw a predictable political earthquake on September 11, when the right-wing bloc led by the far-right Sweden Democrats nudged the right-wing bloc to victory. The election brought Sweden in line with its other Nordic neighbors: all four now have or had large far-right anti-immigration parties.

Of the four countries, the entrenchment of the far right is best seen in Denmark, where mainstream parties like the Social Democrats tow the Islamophobic line.

The far-right Danish People’s Party came to power in the early 2000 and had steadily worked to turn Denmark into a haven for anti-Muslim rhetoric and hatred.

In light of what happened in Norway and in Finland, what will be the path of the Sweden Democrats to implement their Islamophobic policies?

Step 1 was the election. Step 2 is polluting Swedish politics with more racism. Like in Denmark, “straight” parties like the Moderates or Social Democrats may rob the Sweden Democrats of their support by becoming as Islamophobic as them. It is what happened in Denmark.

September 11 is a bad day for many: 9/11 and the coup in Chile that ousted democratically elected Salvador Allende.

That infamous day will also be remembered when far-right politics came home to roost in the Nordic region.

Sweden’s nasty surprise comes home to roost

Posted on September 14, 2022 by Migrant Tales

THE STORY WAS UPDATED

Incumbent Social Democratic Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson conceded defeat in Sweden’s nail-biter election to the rightwing parties led by the far-right Sweden Democrats, reports The Guardian. The rightwing parties received 49.6% of the votes, with the left bloc securing 48.9%.

If anything, it was a long overdue nasty surprise that permitted a far-right Islamophobic party to gain power in Sweden. Today, all Nordic countries have large far-right Islamophobic parties spreading fear and hatred against vulnerable migrants like Muslims and people of color.

While it is unlikely that the Sweden Democrats may hold ministerial posts, the new government led by the Moderate Party may resemble what happened in Denmark. In Denmark, the far-right Danish People’s Party (DPP) supported minority governments in return for tightening immigration policy

In the lowliest of political stunts to gain power, the Social Democrats in Denmark took up the rhetoric of the DPP and won the elections in 2019. The Danish Islamophobic party saw its popularity nosedive by 12.4 percentage points to 8.7% (16 MPs) from 21.1%(37 MPs) previously.

Fares Al-Abaidi: “I was very disappointed [with the sentence, and] it was a very, very bad decision.”

Posted on September 12, 2022 by Migrant Tales

Fares Al-Abaidi got a hard lesson on Wednesday from the Southern Ostrobothnia district court on Finnish justice: only one person was convicted after a group of white Finns attacked him in June 2020. That person, PV, was forced to pay Al-Abaidi about 3,900 euros for his suffering.

“He got away with only a fine while my life changed completely,” he said. “I was very disappointed [with the sentence],” he admitted. “It was a very, very bad decision.”

Al-Abaidi said that his lawyer had appealed the court decision.

Some questions arise when looking at the case.

Its long 26-month length;
Not all of the suspects were questioned by the police;
No hate crime charges were brought; racism had nothing to do with the cause of the incident;
The district court judge gave his sentence on the same day as the trial began, which is extremely rare in Finland.

Were all these factors due to limited police resources?

Fares Al-Obaidi’s car after it was vandalized in June 2020. The police did not rule out a hate crime back then. Source: *Migrant Tales*

He said that only one person was sentenced because he was the only one who admitted to hitting him.

“Nobody else admitted anything,” he added. “I don’t know why the police chose to charge only one person. I told my attorney that it wasn’t only one person [who attacked me]. There were more than one.”

Social Democrats’ left-green bloc emerge as victors but so did the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats

Posted on September 11, 2022 by Migrant Tales

Sweden’s center-left bloc led by the Social Democratic party is set for a narrow victory over right-wing opponents in today’s parliamentary election, according to Yle. The biggest upset was the dismal showing of the conservative Moderate party, which slipped into third place after the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats.

In light of the boycott against the Sweden Democrats, the Moderate party changed its tune and was willing to form a government with the anti-immigration party with neo-Nazi roots.

The lesson? Don’t copy the rhetoric of xenophobic parties. Voters can vote for the real thing instead of a poor copy.

In Finland, the best example was when the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* split into two parties in 2017. There was the old PS and a lighter version called Blue Reform.

The PS survived as a party, and Blue Reform disappeared from the political map.

The election result Sunday will expose nasty things about Sweden and the Nordic region

Posted on September 11, 2022 by Migrant Tales

Sweden will elect 349 MPs of the Riksdag (parliament) today, and the big question is how well the far-right Sweden Democrats will fare. According to various opinion polls, the Sweden Democrats are seen coming second after the Social Democrats. The biggest upset would be the Sweden Democrats doing better than the conservative Moderate party.

Just like the far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS)* in 2011, the Sweden Democrats scored their best election victory in 2010 by almost doubling their support to 12.9% (+29 MPs to 49MPs) from 5.7% (20 MPs) in parliament.

Even if Sweden Democrat chairperson Jammie Akesson assures us that the party has moved away from its racist and neo-Nazi past, some are not convinced.

Up to now, all mainstream political parties in Sweden have blocked the party from forming part of a government.

Why all the commotion and support for the Sweden Democrats?

It’s the same story in all of the Nordic Countries: migration.

In Finland, the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* plays the same toxic tune as in Denmark (Social Democrats today and formerly Danish People’s Party), and the Progressive Party (FrP) of Norway.

In Denmark, the Islamophobic narrative has taken hold of the country’s political environment, and the same is happening in Finland and Norway. A big victory for the Sweden Democrats today could shift matters in the country for a long time.