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.
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.”
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.”
Purra did not answer my question in 2019.
Finland must get real about the spread of racist and white supremacist ideology that are a threat to national security.
The whole BS about the great replacement is an insult as well to non-white Finns from diverse backgrounds.
My answer to the PS’ lies:
