THE STORY WAS UPDATED
Today is a politically charged day In Turku, where neo-Nazis, other far-right members like the Perussuomalaiset (PS) will join hands to remember the second anniversary of the Turku stabbings when a then eighteen-year-old Moroccan went on the rampage killing two and wounding eight.
One of our writers, Reija Härkönen, will give a talk at the event.
Terrorism, as we saw last weekend in Norway, is nothing to take lightly. When, however, far-right pundits and parties like the PS us it to further their racist political agenda, then we have a problem.
Should we be surprised that an MP, Vilhelm Junnila, of the PS will give a talk at the far-right rally today in Turku? Why should we be surprised? Last year, PS MP Ritva Elomaa and two members of the party participated in the neo-Nazi event.
Do you believe that Finland is doing enough to challenge the encroachment of far-right ideology and nip racism in the bud?
Not at all. As we have mentioned in previous posts, Finland’s biggest challenges are far-right ideology and racism; being a too white society, one where cultural and ethnic diversity are seen as threats.
Let’s take a look at the latest example of hypocrisy: A sign on the door of the Turku Main Library is a perfect example of how Finland is reluctant to challenge racism and the far right.
A tweet (see below) by Tiago Silva notes: “Taking into account that @TurkuKirjasto [Turku City Library] offers tomorrow [Sunday] at the main library to some #äärioikeisto:
laiselle [far-right organizations] the opportunity to spread white replacement conspiracy theories, the sign on the library’s door is a bit ironic.”
Could not agree more with Silva’s tweet. It is not only ironic but hypocritical.
Diversity is one of the best medicines that Finland can take today to cure itself of its ever-growing far-right populism and racism.
* The far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13, 2017, into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. In the last parliamentary election, Blue Reform has wiped off the Finnish political map when they saw their numbers in parliament plummet from 18 MPs to none. A direct translation of Perussuomalaiset in English would be something like “basic” or “fundamental Finn.” Official translations of the Finnish name of the party, such as Finns Party or True Finns, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and racism. We, therefore, at Migrant Tales prefer to use in our postings the Finnish name of the party once and after that the acronym PS.