Finnish Perussuomalaiset (PS)* parliamentary group leader Sampo Terho wrote a decade ago in Kanava an essay with the classic far-right populist rhetoric about the threat of migration. His point of view in the essay is not only sinister but was a central argument used by parties like the PS to attract voters and that their racism was “normal.”
UPDATED (20.3): By publishing this baloney in a respected publication like Kanava, Terho’s aim is to substantiate his racist points of views.
Many politicians who wrote racist things in the past and which helped them get elected want us to forget.
We cannot and should not forget for the sake of decency and respect for future generations.
Terho is not just any PS MP with racist views, but one that is vying to become chairman of the anti-immigration party after Timo Soini steps down in early June.
In a letter to the editor to Helsingin Sanomat, Terho claims that his or Halla-aho’s election to the helm of the party will not force it a path of “sheer darkness and evil.”
Columnist Yrjö Rautio wrote in Helsingin Sanomat Friday that if either Terho or Halla-aho become chairman of the PS it would not only mean the end of Soini’s populist project but a slip into “sheer darkness and evil.”
We disagree with part of Rautio’s analysis. The PS was always a party of “sheer darkness and evil” and its main architect is Soini.
Who is Terho anyway and what are his thoughts about migration and cultural diversity?
Even if the PS MP has tried to hide what he wrote in Kanava, it is a classic example of the racism and ethnocentrism that is spread by far-right and right-wing populist anti-immigration groups at the time to instill fear, hostility and racism against migrants and minorities.
Let’s look at some of the main points of Terho’s essay headlined, “European’s past and future.”
Read full essay here.
- Terho groups humans in the essay into three racial groups: “Negroid, Mongoloid and Caucasian;”
- The European population of Africans will grow three-fold by 2050;
- White Europeans are a shrinking minority in the world and in Europe;
- Terho asks what we can learn in the face of our shrinking population and low birth rates when looking at other parts of the world;
- He compares the situation of white Europeans to “Mongoloid” groups like Native Americans, which were the victims of genocide by white Europeans;
- The same matter that is going on in Europe – according to Terho’s – is happening with the white USAmerican population due to blacks and Mexicans;
- He stated that Africa and Asia solve their overpopulation issues by sending such people to Europe “as refugees, migrants, adoptees etc;”
- Terho stresses that “the cold hard fact” is that white Europeans are going to become marginalized in their own continent due to Africans and other non-white European minorities;
- Terho concludes in the essay: “Accepting these facts [of becoming a minority and marginalized in Europe] doesn’t make you a race hater or racist against other groups, but our strong culture of political correctness should not hinder us from talking about this [matter].”
What can we say about what Terho claimed in Kanava a decade ago?
Answer: unfounded racist hogwash.
If either Terho or Halla-aho are elected to lead the PS, I have no doubt that the party will slip even further into an era of darkness and evil.
This is fine by many since it is what the PS deserves after spreading so much hatred and bigotry against migrants and minorities for so long in this country.
The video below shows what Terho claimed is totally unfounded and why he doesn’t want us to read his white supremacist essay that is full of errors but that had a political aim at the time to attract voters to the PS.
To watch more Migration Matters videos go here.
* The official translation to Finnish of the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party is the Finns Party. In our opinion, it is not only a horrible translation, but one that is misguided. A direct translation of Perussuomalaiset in English would be something like “basic” or “fundamental Finn.” Such terms like the Finns Party of True Finns promote as well in our opinion nativist nationalism and xenophobia. We, therefore, at Migrant Tales prefer to use in our postings the Finnish name of the party once and thereafter the acronym PS.