The new chairperson of the far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party, Riikka Purra, will soon be calling out the knives. In her latest tweet, she reveals her radical cruelty against the vulnerable.
In the Tweet below, she feeds the Afghans to the dogs and shows the worst of Finland.
No experts, human rights activists, defenders of the rule of law, feminists, journalists. No Afghans to Finland.
No requests from the United States, Nato, the EU, or UNHCR.
No debt of honor, four-year residence permits, family reunifications, citizenship.
Will, we read any editorial on Sunday or any objection by politicians to Purra’s far-right battle cries?
I doubt it.
The far right and their xenophobic diatribes score another point for now.
Migrant Talespublished on Tuesday comments by Yaron Nadbornik, the president of the 1,100-strong Jewish Community of Helsinki, concerning the Helsinki district court’s ruling that carrying Nazi Germany flags in public was not ethnic agitation.
If there is one group of people who have a lot to say about Nazi flags and the Holocaust, they are the Jews and other minorities like the Roma.
As usual, the news in Finland about the district court’s ruling occurred in a bubble between white Finns, but to our surprise, the media did not approach one Jew or member of the Roma community for comment.
Migrant Tales did interview Nadbornik on Tuesday and asked him if newspapers like Helsingin Sanomat and others had approached him. His answer was “no.”
After Migrant Tales published his comments, Kirkko ja kaupunki did a story on Wednesday citing Nadbornik’s views.
“Displaying a swastika flag is a demand for genocide,” he was quoted as saying.
The Finnish media coverage of the district court’s ruling on the Nazi flag reveals ignorance and disinterest in the Holocaust, racism, and equity issues. Shame on the media for their incomplete coverage of an important social topic that impacts minorities.
While it may surprise some, victims of racism are usually not interviewed by the media but by white authorities who have never experienced racism.
Today is a good time for the media to wake up and challenge those structures that encourage biased reporting.
We all know about Perussuomalaiset (PS)* new chairperson Riikka Purra’s radical views on cultural diversity and migration in general. Yes, she’s the one warning about how Muslims are taking over Europe and how brown and black Finns will replace white Finns.
Her latest Tweet below suggests that white Finns should be the only beneficiaries of social welfare, but Finland must reform the constitution to do this. Purra states that she is ready to reform the constitution if she becomes the next prime minister.
The new PS chairperson lives in a time warp constantly attacking windmills. Purra speaks highly of Denmark, the Nordic region’s most Islamophobic country, and hopes to wipe out migrants and minorities with the help of discrimination, social exclusion and far-right nationlism. She can try, but she will fail beceause our ever-growing diversity as a nation is growing and blossoming every day.
The question that all of Purra’s and her party’s hostile attacks against migrants and minorities should raise a question: Are we going to allow it to happen?
Riikka Purra Tweets: “Should we consider changing our social security system that would be based on nationality (taking into account the EU). There are no good options [because the state] is running out of money. Such a change would require, for example, a reform of the constitution so it would not be a simple change of the law.”
Only the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* and Ano Turtiainen’s one-man party expressed opposition to criminalizing the use of the Nazi flag in public. The story by Yle was published a day after the Helsinki District Court dismissed ethnic agitation charges agitation against five men of carrying a swastika flag in public on Independence Day 2018.
PS parliamentary group leader Ville Tavio told Yle that they should not criminalize the use of the Nazi flag.
“In my opinion, our society is not in such a critical [and fragile] state that we need the state to intervene [in this matter],” he said.
Yaron Nadbornik, president of the 1,100-strong Jewish Community of Helsinki, stated that the decision of the Helsinki district court shows that the country still has a long way to go in acknowledging hate crime, and the existence of minorities.
Considering what the Nazi flag symbolizes for Jews and other minorities, Nadbornik said that not a single newspaper had gotten in touch with him about the district court’s decision. He said that the recent case showed the little power the non-discrimination ombudsman has in challenging racism and discrimination.
In an interview in 2020, Nadbornik said that it was not until 2018-2019 when the police started to recognize anti-Semitism as a problem in Finland.
“It is od that even if the non-discrimination ombudsman spoke out in favor of criminalizing the Nazi flag, their position was not weighed by the court,” he said.
Another Jewish leader said with sarcasm that the court decision “didn’t get a lot of support” from the Jewish community [of Finland].
Leif Hagert, who is an activist for Roma and minority rights in Finland, was surprised by the district court’s decision.
“The Nazi flag represents hatred and racism,” he said. “I find it hard to understand why such opinions and values need to be proclaimed on the streets. I hope the court of appeal’s ruling is different. [from the district court’s]”
The Roma were also victims of the Holocaust with an estimated 1.5 million perishing during 1935-1945.
Some observers believe that the PS’ stance on the criminalization of the Nazi flag is another indication of the group’s close ideological bonds with the far right and neo-Nazis.
Remember when Center Party parliamentary group leader Juha Pylväs slammed asylum seekers as “parasites” that wanted to live off social welfare? Pretty sickening and lowly on his part.
I hope that Pylväs get charged with ethnic agitation.
But what is worse? The silence and support for what he said and the arguments that justify the latter?
Hanna-Leena Mattila is a Center Party politician from the city of Raahe in western Finland. She uses the same argument to call migrants parasites and deviants by stating that despite Pylväs’ words, “[We still]l have to be able to discuss [the problems of migration] without hesitation.”
Mattila’s Facebook post below:
Mattila states: “Juha Pylväs said what many people think: Our goodwill should not be abused. [His) use of words were not the best. Migration and its many forms have to be discussed without hesitation,”
How quaint and unimaginative are Mattila’s Tweet. What politicians like her say over and over again is that only white Finns can insult migrants.
The sometimes farcical “discussion” about migrants is similar if only men were speaking about women’s rights.
Another shameful fact of the ongoing debate that won’t be corrected any time soon as long as white Finns control the debate.
One of the big questions that the Hesburger employee debacle proves is that Finnish unions, the police, and state regulators don’t take the law seriously enough. Migrant Tales has cited numerous cases where employers exploited foreigners.
It’s clear that if their employers exploit some migrants, it happens as well to white Finns.
A group of former and present Hesburger employees of the fast-food chain made public the chronic understaffing problems and exploitation at work. Some said they worked long hours without breaks and did not even have time to go to the bathroom.
One may ask how this is possible in a Nordic welfare country like ours that promotes social equality and fairness?
If I were critical, even realistic, I would go as far as to state that laws that are aimed at protecting workers are selective. If you are a migrant, young, and without a profession, there is a good chance your rights aren’t respected.
These apply to labor laws, and Finland’s Constitution is supposed to guarantee that everyone is equal before the law. Too often we forget a key component of social equality – equity.
As the Hesburger case reveals, why were the employees who brought these illegal practices to light? Where is the Regional Administrative Agency (AVI)? The unions?
The Hesburger case does not only reveal the illegal working conditions of a fast-food chain but a much broader problem of complacency.
Center Party parliamentary group leader Juha Pylväs got his brief moment in the media by insulting migrants and minorities. Today, however, he showed us one of the oldest political tricks in the books: say something outrageous, usually racists, and then apologize.
He regretted calling some asylum seekers “welfare surfers” or shoppers. He said his statement was inappropriate because it undermined human dignity.
Such racist outbursts are harmful and only raise the level of hostility and suspicion of migrants and minorities.
Even if Pylväs spoke of “parasitic” asylum seekers who live off our social welfare, he meant our migrant and minority community. Asylum seekers don’t get social welfare but a small monthly allowance.
We’ve seen this same strategy many times. Remember Pia Kuma and her baby carriage claim? Another one that comes to mind is Perussuomalaiset MP Veikko Vallin, who took pictures secretly of children and employees of a Helsinki nursery.
Like Pylväs today, so did Kauma and Vallin apologize.
Center Party parliamentary group leader Juha Pylväs went on the rampage Wednesday: “We certainly need in Finland skilled foreigners who can live off their work,” he was quoted as saying in Helsingin Sanomat. “We don’t need surfers and parasites that seek a better standard of living.”
While we could consider Pylväs’ statement in foul taste, Center Party chairperson, Annikka Saarikko, only worsens matters by stating that the large amount of asylum seekers who did not get a residence permit is proof that they aren’t fleeing strife but looking for a better standard of living.
So?! Isn’t that what millions of Europeans did when they emigrated from Europe in the nineteenth and first half of the last century?
Is it a crime to seek a better life? According to many Finnish politicians like Pylväs and Saarikko it is a crime.
Pylväs is a member of the Center Party that uses the same language to label asylum seekers such as the far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS)*. PS MP Mauri Peltokangas, charged with ethnic agitation, calls asylum seekers “surfers” who seek a better standard of living.
Even if the media attributes Pylväs’ xenophobic description of asylum seekers to Peltokangas, the term “welfare shopper” or “surfer” was coined in 2015 by then PS party secretary Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo.
Pylväs knows he’s said the right thing when PS MP Sebastian Tynkkynen, who is being charged for a third time for ethnic agitation, compliments him for his words.
If he were fair, the Center Party MP could tell us what studies he bases his insult on asylum seekers and our ever-growing culturally diverse community.
Considering the news coming out of Afghanistan these days, Pylväs’ words are especially insulting and expose what has always been wrong concerning the debate on asylum seekers and migrants.
Pylväs, and others of his ilk, are nothing but opportunists, bullies, even cowards for targetting and picking on the most vulnerable and defenseless people of our society, who are asylum seekers. Since asylum seekers are not eligible for social welfare except for the little financial aid they receive monthly, Pylväs directs his insult on Finland’s whole migrant community.
In the face of these types of inappropriate statements that are possible thanks to Finland’s white political system and media, one could ask why even parties in the government continually fuel suspicion, the hostile environment, and hatred of Finland’s new residents.
Even if the answer is complex, its roots are evident: Finland’s big “R” problem and nationalism.
In the meantime, I can vouch for most asylum seekers, migrants, and minorities living in this country that we are proud of our roots and our accomplishments in this country.
I don’t know if you feel the same way about helping Afghans after the Taliban took over the country. Listening to politicians and the media, two words reveal the present state of things: hypocrisy and crocodile tears.
Such deception is not only coming from Western leaders but from the Taliban as well.
Below are some examples of the hypocrisy and crocodile tears we are hearing and seeing now:
Hypocrisy 1: We went to Afghanistan to bomb the Taliban to the stone age for what al-Qaeda did on 9/11. During the past twenty years, however, the West spent two trillion dollars, killed tens of thousands of Afghans, and left the country in the hands of those that they were supposed to send back to the stone age. President Joe Biden said that he has no regrets about the messy US exit from the country.
Crocodile tears 1: Even if we don’t mean it, we are ready to take only small numbers of women and children in the West. Let the men be fed to the Taliban and let Afghan mothers raise their children in the West as single mothers and broken families.
Hypocrisy 2: Even if we claim that we are serious in the EU about helping women and children from the clutches of the Taliban, we are very serious about sending Afghan refugees to countries like Iran and Pakistan, which already house two million Afghan refugees. This is called subcontracting the human calamity you created.
Crocodile tears 2: We aimed to build a centralized democasy in Afghanistan but failed because it was a lie. The real profiteers of the war were the arms industry and disingenuous politicians who misled the public.
Hypocrisy 3: Taliban insists it will not shelter al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and respect the rights of women. Taliban insists it will not shelter al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and respect the rights of women. This promise is a lie, like when the Islamophobic Perussuomalaiset* of Finland state that they are not a racist party.
Crocodile tears 3: We are so sad about the “poor” people of Afghanistan. Our thoughts and prayers go out to them. The truth? Your lives mean little to us.
The west should stop the theatrics and get real.
The last thing that the people of Afghanistan need are your broken promises and indifference.
Silence and complacency are some of the reasons why xenophobia and the rise of an anti-immigration party have been possible in Finland. While there are many common citizens and activists in Finland who have been fighting against parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, chairperson Riikka Purra’s interview on Yle’s Ykkösaamu is a definite reminder that we cannot stand idle.
Riikka Purra offered a view of her political fantasies charged with populism. See the interview here.
Here is a list of how Purra and the PS plan to disenfranchise migrants and minorities if they can:
Produce changes in the constitution so migrants can directly be discriminated by doing away with Section 6, which guarantees that everyone is equal before the law;
Raise the requirements for citizenship from five to 10+ years;
Force migrants to take or be graded by “pseudo integration” tests to prove that they are servile and docile enough and no threat to white Finnish privilege;
Fuel the hostile environment and maintain an atmosphere of suspicion and hatred for diversity.
All of these dangers should not only be a wake up call but a call to struggle against toxic politicians.
They also prove that if the PS ever got into power, they would not solve the problems of our ever-growing culturally diverse community but worsen them a million times.
Consensus, sucking up to racists and fantasies by the likes of Purra will not save us from our peril.
