Are you ready for the following news? New Reform MP and former Perussuomalaiset* social and health minister, Hanna Mäntylä, is going to be named as a special advisor to the European Council. Her expertise will be used to challenge youth radicalization and marginalization.
Yes, right. I too fell on my back when I read the news on YLE.
If we look at Mäntylä’s past record as minister and her former statements on cultural diversity, it’s clear that they fuel inequality and radicalization and don’t lessen them.
Should we be surprised that Mäntylä will form part of such a European Council committee? I wonder what former New Reform Foreign Minister Timo Soini had to do with Mäntylä’s naming?
One of her plans as social and health minister was to pass new legislation that would grant migrants less social welfare than native Finns. Fortunately, such a law did not see the light of day since it was unconstitutional. This was part of an 80-point government plan to tighten immigration laws.
Migrant Tales wrote in 2015:
“The government now hopes with the 80-point plan to not only make life difficult for asylum seekers, and in turn for all migrants and minorities in this country but introduce policy changes that are unconstitutional. PS Social Welfare Minister Hanna Mäntylä has been eager to lower subsidies to asylum seekers that get a residence permit.
Read the full story (in Finnish) here. Subsitute MP Visa Riskilä will replace Mäntylä.
Another important question we should ask if Mäntylä qualified for the job?
Spreading anti-immigration rhetoric and polarizing Finnish society don’t make you an “expert” on how to stop youth radicalization.
Moreover, Mäntylä was a suspect in a social welfare fraud case. but was saved from going to court thanks to statute of limitations, which had expired.
Mäntylä resigned as minister in 2016 due to “family problems.”
She has been largely absent from politics in her northern Lapland province.
* After the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13 into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. Despite the name changes, we believe that it is the same party in different clothing. Both are hostile to cultural diversity, one is more open about it while the other is more diplomatic. 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 thereafter the acronym PS.