Enrique Tessieri
The growing face of far-right Finland exposed itself Monday when some hackers succeeded at breaking into www.patriootti.com’s membership-request list. One of the red faces to appear was Tuomas Okkonen, a Perussuomalaiset (PS) party board vice president in Oulu.
Okkonen states on Facebook that he was “drunk” when he sought membership in the neo-Nazi association.
While the PS’ favorite excuses for their gaffes has been misinterpreted “satire” or “humor,” Okkonen has taken such excuses to a new level: “I was drunk.”
Okkonen got caught lying: He said on his Facebook he sent his membership application a year ago when if fact it happened in summer.
UPDATE: Ulla Pyysalo, far-right PS MP Juho Eerola’s aide, was on the Suomen vastarintaliike (SVL) membership list as well, according to Ilta-Sanomat. Pyysalo apologized in July after making a racist and homophobic joke about Green MP Jani Toivola.
Eerola, who is vice president of the PS, how shown his far-right colors on a number of occasions. The Suomen Sisu association member has praised Benito Mussolini’s economic model because there was no unemployment.
This is what Okkonen wrote to the far-right association, SVL: “I am a city council member of the Perussuomalaiset party and I understand your ideology. You have my support!!!…After you hear what we (Perussuomalaiset?) have planned, (you’ll see that) we are both fighting for the same thing…I sent you my contact information. Please do not distribute it if you are fighting for the fatherland.”
Even though SKV is seen by some as a marginal extremist group, far-right extremism should never be underestimated.
Ossi Mäntylahti writes an interesting blog about the list that hackers got from www.patriootti.com. He reveals (in Finnish) the messages that these would-be members sent to SVL.
SKV is like many neo-Nazi ogranizations in Europe, who live in a delusional world about racial purity that date back to Germany and Europe of the 1930s.
This is the Tiwaz organisation.
Okkonen confirms again that the more rabid PS members cannot identify any point of policy on which they disagree with Kansallinen Vastarinta, though many lack the nous to realise this or to understand what it means to move like a toad, smell like a toad and look like a toad.
JusticeDemon, why do you think that an establishment like Plevna can openly advertise that their emlplyees are all Finns? Isn’t this illegal?
Okkonen got his hand caught in the neo-Nazi cookie jar. This is proof as you mentioned of the far-right thinking of some PS members. While there may be small differences between Kansallinen Vastarinta and Suomen Sisu, they are from the same ideological place. One is probably more openly Nazi than the latter; both associations, however, want to keep Finns “white” and are against visible immigrants from moving and marrying Finns. In my book that is far-right ideology.
This has been discussed at length elsewhere. It’s not strictly unlawful to advertise in this way, but the Advertising Standards Authority considers such practices to be contrary to good advertising custom.