Apart from being the most right-wing government in a hundred years, Prime Minister Petteri Orpo’s government is doing everything possible to disenfranchise migrants and minorities. We can mention raising the citizenship requirements from five to eight years and excluding Russians from having dual citizenship as indicators of how xenophobia is driving Finnish politics.
One Russian dual national explained the situation in the following words:
“How can a presidential front-runner [like Alexander Stubb] even start to discuss the deprivation of basic human rights of a group of citizens [like the Russian-speaking community]? Stubb has no backbone. When Finland’s relations with Russia were good, he encouraged people to go there to make money, now he claims that Putin can use dual nationals and that we are a security threat, even though there is absolutely no evidence or justification for this: Totally irresponsible politics and a terrible person as a human being.”
The whole dual citizenship debate kicked off with President Sauli Niinistö in 2014. when he expressed the possibility of tightening dual citizenship laws.
One may ask what is the aim of such restrictions. One, I believe, is to exclude migrants and minorities from politics.
Read the full story (in Finnish) here.
Häkkänen is well known for ihi Islamophobic views. During 2011-2013, he was president of the Youth League of the National Coalition Party, which idolizes US capitalism and the Republican Party. His
predecessor was Wille Rydman, a well-known anti-immigration hardliner, and his successor was Susanna Koski. Under Koski’s leadership, the Youth League of the National Coalition Party aimed at doing away with legislation that prohibited hate speech and that would make redundant the then Ombudsman for Minorities Office.
As councilperson for Mäntyharju, a small town in Eastern Finland, Häkkänen reported to have declined to offer, as a show of solidarity, his small meeting fee to newly-arrived quota refugees.
Moreover, if Finland plans to take away or prohibit Russians from having Finnish citizenship, the step will be a black spot on the country’s history. Imagine, Finland, a country that respects human rights, excludes Russians from having dual citizenship.
This is only the beginning. It will be interesting to see where such action by the government will lead to other restrictions like prohibiting dual citizenship altogether.
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