Riikka Purra, the chairperson of the far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party, defended Jussi Halla-aho’s blog writings that are full of racism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, and anti-democratic worldviews. In one of Halla-aho’s writings, he hopes foreigners rape MPs like Eva Biaudet and Tarja Filatov.
The former PS chairperson’s blog writings were under scrutiny again after he was named chairperson of the foreign affairs committee. He also denied mentioning Eva Biaudet’s name in the infamous blog post.
Source: Twitter
It was disproven by Helsingin Sanomat and Halla-aho stuck by his lie, stating in the interview he would not apologize for what he wrote.
Source: Twitter
Imagine Purra, who holds a master’s degree and who is writing her doctoral dissertation and is one chosen offspring of the Finnish education system, can spread so much racism and hatred against people who never had the same opportunities as her.
Her logic went as far as to defend Halla-aho’s racist writings that are a good example of George Orwell’s famous quote in 1984: “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength,” and our own “racism is cultural understanding.”
There are a lot of baffled faces at the far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party. “Did you see our regional election result?!” one asks while the other states: “A Yle poll saw us nosedive by 3.3 percentage points to 15%. and now Helsingin Sanomat reinforces the latter.”
In our opinion, the PS is a far-right party that beats mainly the anti-immigration drum. The party is so obsessed with anti-immigration themes that it lost, a long time ago, its good sense if it ever had any.
Its good showing in the 2011, 2015, and 2019 parliamentary elections hinges on its anti-immigration theme. Before 2011, Finland was being intoxicated with racism from politicians like Jussi Halla-aho, the 2015 election was helped by a sexual assault case in Helsinki, and in 2019 by the overblown sexual assault cases of Oulu.
All of the PS 39 MPs elected in 2019 had an anti-immigration platform.
So what gives? Why are the PS facing a crisis in the polls?
Contrary to the past, politicians are more outspoken and openly question the PS racist and far-right ideology. Voters are also getting tired of hearing, like a broken and scratched record, the same anti-immigration theme over and over again.
Moreover, the PS has lurched further into the far-right thanks to Halla-aho and its new chairperson, Riikka Purra, who parrots what the former chairperson says.
If this type of strategy by the PS does not work and forces the party to suffer election losses, I hope that they continue spreading the same hateful rhetoric until they are blue in the face. More of Halla-aho, Purra, Mauri “Perkele” Peltokangas, Jani Mäkelä and a long list of others.
Keep up the “good” work, PS!
Kick out all the migrants, “let God sort ’em out.”
The new chairperson of the parliament’s foreign affairs committee, Jussi Halla-aho, did not get such a warm reception. In a highly unprecedented move by the committee members, 11 voted in a secret ballot in favor of Halla-aho while six abstained.
Halla-aho took over the committee’s chair Mika Niikko, its former chairperson, resigned in disgrace after suggesting that some Western leader should assure Russia that Ukraine will not seek Nato membership.
Even if the PS wouldn’t care less, too many in Finland have not forgotten who Halla-aho is and that he was convicted in 2012 for ethnic agitation and breaching the sanctity of religion. The former PS chairperson’s writings in the 2000s are full of racist Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, homophobia, or for suggesting that three women politicians be raped by foreigners.
Source: Twitter
Halla-aho has not apologized or regretted his past writings.
Below are some of his recent tweets:
Halla-aho tweets (left) that we’d have “no reason to masturbate” if there were no news about migration and asylum seekers. On the right, he states: “Trump is the best thing that happened in a long time to the United States and the Western world.” Source: Twitter
Considering that people like Halla-aho could build a political future by spreading racism, those very things he said have come back to haunt and bite him.
He might get a lot of votes, but he would never become prime minister, never mind president.
Thanks to Halla-aho, the PS has become even more racist and openly flirted with neo-Nazi and far-right groups.
Should we be surprised that six MPs abstained on Halla-aho’s appointment to chair the foreign affairs committee?
Not at all.
His racist writings and opinions will follow him till the end of his days.
The ministry of interior published on Thursday its recommendations on what to do with some 3,000 undocumented migrants who came to Finland in 2015-2016. Of this group, about 300 are childrenliving in legal limbothanks to a 2016 law that abolished granting residence permits on humanitarian grounds.
The number of undocumented migrants rose from a few hundred to a few thousand thanks to the 2016 law.
Before the passing of the law during Prime Minister Juho Sipilä’s government, asylum seekers who could not be sent to their country because of human rights violations were given temporary residence permits.
“It always amazes me to hear Finland’s most xenophobic politicians from the Perussuomalaiset* and National Coalition Party (Kokoomus) pointing the accusing finger at Sweden about how the country has failed because of immigration. Sweden has a more dynamic and competitive economy than Finland’s because of migrants. If there are problems in Sweden, the state is one big culprit. Don’t just blame migrants. That’s cheap populism.”
According to Helsingin Sanomat, former Perussuomalaiset (PS)* chairperson Jussi Halla-ago is expected to replace Mika Nikko, the chairperson of parliament’s foreign affairs committee, according to Helsingin Sanomat. Niikko resigned Tuesday evening after he suggested in a tweet that the West should assure Russian President Vladimir Putin that Ukraine will not join Nato.
While Niikko is a loose canon, Halla-aho isn’t any better. He wrote in 2011, on Facebook that Greece should have a military junta to crush protests. He was temporarily banned from the party’s parliamentary group for the comment.
No media in Finland has mentioned how inappropriate Halla-aho would be as chairperson of the foreign affairs committee for suggesting, among other matters, a military coup in Greece.
In 2011, he was temporarily banned from the party’s parliamentary group after he wrote on Facebook that the military junta could best solve the crisis in Greece by crushing protestors.
Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP and head of the parliament’s foreign affairs committee, Mika Nikko, resigned today after he tweeted that come Western leader should assure Russian President Vladimir Putin that Ukraine must not join Nato.
The tweet, which was in conflict with Finland’s foreign policy, was deleted. Even so, it had created quite a stir and it was in the evening when Niikko announced that he’d resign as chair of the foreign affairs committee.
Surprised?
Not at all. Nikko, who has made a name for himself from his homophobic and Islamophobic stances, was never cut for the job. There is speculation that former PS leader Jussi Halla-aho named him as a joke to the foreign affairs committee chair.
Apart from his close relations with China that pay his visits, Nikko recently created headlines when he contracted Corona and used parasiticides as medication.
However, today’s inappropriate Nato tweet was the stick that broke the camel’s back and reinforces that he is a loose canon.
The Chinese government has paid a number of trips to the country raising a number of conflict of interest questions. Sources: Iltalehti and Suomen Kuvalehti
The PS will decide on Thursday who will replace Nikko. Some possible candidates are PS chairperson Riikka Purra, MP Sakari Puisto, and Halla-aho.
Of all the newspapers that write about migrants and cultural diversity, tabloid Iltalehtipublished Sanna Ukkola’s column on how “antiracism is the new racism.”
With a headline like that, we could also put together provocative headlines like how “feminism is modern misogyny,” “anti-fascism is the new fascism,” and “how promoting same-sex marriage is the new homophobia.”
Nonsensical, right?
Ukkola, who is a white Finn with an alt-right view of things, is married to far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS)* editor Matias Turkkila, who belongs to Finland’s Islamophobic network, according to the European Islamophobic Report 2020.
She, of all people, is coaching us about the evils of antiracism.
Dr. Leonardo Custódio offered a good tweet concerning Ukkola’s conclusions.
Source: Twitter
Ukkola goes further in the column and cites four “people with migrant backgrounds” to back her preposterous claim.
Convenience? Just because her sources aren’t white doesn’t mean that they are “experts” on racism.
Of all the four that Ukkola cites, Arman Alizad quotes conservative apologist and critic of the Black Lives Matter movement, Robert Woodson, “antiracism has become the new racism.”
Throughout the years, Alizad has vacillated on racism in Finland. In early 2011, he criticized and made fun of foreigners on Tuomas Enbuske’s show who were social welfare recipients and victims of racism.
Tweets Outi Länsman: “Finnish journalism. The year is 2017.” Read the full story here.
Binga Tupamäki is a National Coalition Party city councilor of Helsinki. She claims that “a lot” of people see anti-racism as a bad way of dealing with societal problems. She adds: “One reason, for example, is to bring out the ‘races.’ Personally, I would like to remove the talk of ‘races’ when there are no such things in humanity.”
Tupamäki’s observation is a good example of colorblind racism, which is nothing more than a convenient way to brush the problem of ethnicity or race under the carpet.
Do I have to say anything about Kamal Jafi and Seida Sohrabi?
Both of the above persons make a name for themselves by parroting the most toxic views about migrants that are the foundation for bigotry and racism in this country.
Antiracism is a good concept if any to tackle inequalities in society. NGOs like the European Network Against Racism have done a lot of work on this front.
Did any of you watch A-Talk with two government representatives, Iris Suomela of the Green League, Center Party Finance Minister Annika Saarikko, and two opposition representatives, Perussuomalaiset (PS)* head Riikka Purra, and National Coalition Party MP Antti Häkkänen?
One matter stood out: Purra’s aggressive style and talking out of turn when Suomela spoke. Her facial expressions and body movements reinforced her disdain for the Green League MP.
After her party suffered a big setback in the regional elections and saw its support in a Yle opinion poll plummet by three percentage points to 15%, it is clear that Purra is a bit on edge.
Apart from being a poor leader, which is coming to bite her party, she sounds like a broken record scapegoating migrants, especially asylum seekers, mostly Muslims.
From left to right: Annika Saarikko, Iris Suomela, Riikka Purra, and Antti Häkkänen. Source: Yle.
Purra is a person who has shown beyond any doubt her Islamophobic colors. In one debate, during the regional elections, she suggested that foreigners living in Finland should not get social welfare. While her suggestion is unconstitutional and her party’s wet dream, not a single reporter asked if she took her comment seriously.
There’s good news and bad news. Depending on your perspective, bad news can be good news and vice-versa. In the latest opinion poll published by Yle, the far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party saw its support nosedive by three percentage points to 15%.
While it would be simplistic only to blame the regional election, other factors like PS chairperson Riikka Purra’s poor leadership, living in large and small populist bubbles, and brainless nationalism are just a few factors that contributed to the fall in popularity.
But above all, I have to thank the PS team that put together the last campaign strategy, namely MP Mauri “Perkele” Peltokangas, party secretary Arto Luukkanen, and Purra, who gave their blessing to such populist malarkey.
Imagine the party raised the issue of petrol prices at the pumps and so-called harmful migration as their main campaign message in the regional election, which will decide on health care and emergency services.
Regional councils cannot decide on petrol prices or immigration policy.
