The Perussuomalaiset (PS)* and Interior Minister Mari Rantanen got bitten hard by her own and some of the party’s racist statements on A-studio by host Marja Sannikka.
Rantanen’s ignorance and loathing of migrants, especially Muslims and people of color, shines through as usual. The PS is the first modern party in Finland to capitalize on xenophobia.
The A-studio interview reinforced a lot of matters about Rantanen’s and the PS’s xenophobia. Rantanen claimed that the PS had the right to change migration policy “democratically” even if such changes exclude and discriminate against migrants.
Rantanen like her party, incorrectly believes, that they have a carte blanch to say and do almost what they want with migrants, who don’t have the right to vote them out of power.
Social Democrat MP Nasima Razmyar (left) and Interior Minister Mari Rantanen. Source: A-studio
Below, is one of the highlights of the talk show:
Marja Sannikka: “You have a long track record of racist talk…with somppu (a derogatory term for Somali) boys, brown dicks, calling dark-skinned politicians pigs, and urging the burning down of Red Cross [asylum] reception centers. You campaigned yourself in the last election saying,’We must not be blue-eyed [Rantanen uses sinisilmänen, or blue-eyed, which means naive in Finnish] that soon we will not be blue-eyed. The party’s vice-president [MEP Sebastian Tynkkynen] said that brown must not become the new white. This is not being critical of immigration but racist speech. Why do you talk this way?
Rantanen: “Are you referring that these comments can be linked to what happened [in Oulu with the two stabbings]?
Sannikka: “No, I’m only asking why you speak this way if we know that this type of talk spreads hatred?”
Rantanen: “We don’t talk this way. I do not recognize all the things you raised.”
Sannikka: “You don’t know the [hate] speeches of the [PS] chairperson [Riikka Purra]? I don’t know all of them. What is clear is that things can be expressed more civilly.”
We have said it before and will say it again: Rantanen is incompetent and should resign.
