On December 1, 1955 the late Rosa Parks refused to give her seat to a white passenger on a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama. That historically important incident was for many the spark that ignited the Civil Rights Movement in the United States.
In Finland something similar had happened today, when around 15,000 people demonstrated against racism and Perussuomalaiset (PS)* Olli Immonen’s Facebook post, which encourages Finns to fight against “the nightmare of multiculturalism.”
Well, that battle cry that Immonen made has got him and his party in hot water and didn’t produce the reaction he was hoping for.
Center Party Prime Minister Juha Sipilä condemned what Immonen said.
“I want to develop Finland as an open, linguistically and culturally international country,” he tweeted on Sunday afternoon, according to YLE. “I cannot accept Immonen’s remarks.”
National Coalition Party (NCP) MEP Henna Virkkunen Was quoted on YLE as saying that her party together with the Center Party want to be members of a government with a party that is openly racist and fascist.
Today’s anti-racism rally in Helsinki attracted 15,000 people, according to the organizers.
Reaction to Immonen’s comment has been noticed by the international media as well.
Writes the Financial Times: “An extremist diatribe by a Finnish politician (Immonen) has provoked national outrage and laid bare the perils of including a rightwing populist party in Finland’s governing coalition.”
If the PS were a serious party and against extremism, it would sack Immonen in the same way as it did in 2013 with former far right MP James Hirvisaari.
Will the PS sack Immonen? Will the anti-racism demonstration on Tuesday be the first of many sparks that will ignite national outrage and shame against racist politicians and their parties that remain indifferent to their hostility towards migrants and minorities?
Was Tuesday July 28 Finland’s Rosa Park moment?
It certainly looks like that!
* The Finnish name of the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The English-language names adopted by the PS, like True Finns or Finns Party, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and xenophobia. We therefore prefer to use the Finnish name of the party on our postings.
Typical horse feathers from this site….. If you wish to utilize historical fact then use the fact of record…. Claudette Colvin was the first black woman to be arrested for breaking bus segregation…. So!! Who’s the person of colour who has been kicked off a Finnish bus or tram??(for being a person of colour!!)….. Hmmmm …[crickets] …… I thought so…. Hasn’t happened….. I see what’s going on here on Migrant Tales…. it’s the pointed end of a movement to modify host country native behaviour to suit you and your goals…. If that’s what you insist on then…. we, as the ‘offending’ party have every right to know what is going on and being said in the Mosques around Finland …. (how come so many have gone off to join ISIS/Al Shabaab???)…. I will lobby for their losing all resident and citizen rights upon return… You wish to foment joining Terrorist orgs and committing outrages against innocent people (even if they are just KUFAR!!!)…. Fine… but you don’t come back…. Stay there and commit your entire life to it….. I have a feeling that despite all your yowling to the opposite … the majority of Finns will support this ….. and rightly so….
I haven’t posted on here for a couple of years but I’ve been reading regularly and I’ve noticed your constant trolling attacks against Enrique and the other serious issues posted on here. I feel compelled to respond because this seems like game to you.
> Who’s the person of colour who has been kicked off a Finnish bus or tram??(for being a person of colour!!)….. Hmmmm …[crickets] …… I thought so…. Hasn’t happened…..
The person or persons in question is anyone addressed by Immonen in his “Manifesto”. He’s very vague about this “multiculturalism” but as you clarify it here for him as one of his main cheerleaders, he actually means Somalis.
> I see what’s going on here on Migrant Tales…. it’s the pointed end of a movement to modify host country native behaviour to suit you and your goals…. If that’s what you insist on then…. we, as the ‘offending’ party have every right to know what is going on and being said in the Mosques around Finland ….
Are you mentally ill? Are you on medication? Is Migrant Tales in government? Does Migrant Tales make government policy? Who is this “we, as the ‘offending’ party”? Do you have guilt about something? Your views don’t represent Finland. PS views are minority views in Finland. Less than 5000 people voted Immonen into parliament. More than three times more people people went out to say NO to his straight up Anti-Finnish statement today.
> (how come so many have gone off to join ISIS/Al Shabaab???)…. I will lobby for their losing all resident and citizen rights upon return… You wish to foment joining Terrorist orgs and committing outrages against innocent people (even if they are just KUFAR!!!)
BULL FUC%#ING SH#T!!! Nobody on this blog condones or promotes terrorism!!! The only people promoting it are the likes of Immonen and Halla-Aho who’s texts were used by Breivik to justify his terrorism. Immonen was recently seen posing with his NAZI buddies who are convicted terrorists who have bombed gay pride parades and stabbed writers they don’t agree with with knives. This is the ONLY terrorism we fear inside Finland.
> …. Fine… but you don’t come back…. Stay there and commit your entire life to it….. I have a feeling that despite all your yowling to the opposite … the majority of Finns will support this ….. and rightly so….
Majority of Finns don’t support PS ideology and never will. Keep living in dreamland. Finland has been multicultural for hundreds of years.
Majority of Finns don’t support PS ideology??….. Really? Why and how did they attain 2nd spot in the last elections…. admittedly by only 1 seat…. but a win is a win, regardless…. Speaking of meds, seems to me as if you’re waiting for ALKO to open….. and you’re shivering like a dog shitting razor blades from DT’s …. If you’re not in favour of, or even quietly cheerleading your favourite terrorist group….. Who would know…. Muslim terrorists are very adept at covering their intentions (as allowed by the Qur’an) by playing nice with their intended victims……As for someone (Breivik) using someone’s texts to justify an attack is then the writers’ fault???…. Really??…. that can both ways…. All I see here is your fervent wish to shut up any sort of written/oral/media opposition to what you want …. whatever that may be…. fair treatment for all??…. My ass, that’s the last thing you and your ilk want…. You want legislated behaviour for people you don’t like due to their politics…. In a nutshell it’s…. I have to shut up and tolerate your activity…. and you don’t have to tolerate mine… curious form of democracy but it’s more prevalent than we know….. It’s everywhere…. “We want tolerance for everything except you (opposing stance)…. that should be your war cry…. at least it would be honest…..
> Majority of Finns don’t support PS ideology??….. Really? Why and how did they attain 2nd spot in the last elections
Do you know how mathematics works? 17% of the votes is far from the majority.
>As for someone (Breivik) using someone’s texts to justify an attack is then the writers’ fault???…. Really??….
YES!!! Those inciting terrorists are just as responsible as the terrorists themselves. This is why hate preachers both religious and right wing are banned from many countries and why even being found with extremist magazines or found in possession of certain publications is ILLEGAL in many countries. Germany and other countries still have laws against holocaust denial and displaying swastikas exactly for this reason. Even musicians are banned from certain countries because their music incites hatred or violence.
Of course when it comes to your pet terrorists and your great Mestari, you see no connection between inciting people to intolerance, hatred and violence and the terrorist violence itself. You turn a blind eye to the convicted terrorist Nazis Immonen parades around with from the Finnish Resistance Movement (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_Resistance_Movement) who one can only assume are his “fellow fighters” he is addressing in his “manifesto”.
Hi BlandaUpp! It’s great to hear from you and thank you for your insightful comments. I hope everything is well with you my friend!
Thanks Enrique. All is well with myself and my “multicultural” family. Seeing Immonen’s statement was the final straw that made me come back here. You are way too lenient with the amount of insults you allow trolls like MattiR2106 throw your way.
Indeed BlandaUpp…. any opposition to your tyranny by the minority is considered an insult…. I don’t know how many times I can say or put it out there….. If you’re an immigrant to any country (Finland in this case) and you’re employable, contributing to society rather than taking from it…. Welcome, Tervetullut, ????? ??????????, Bienvenu etc ….. but if you’re here to cause problems in Finnish society, bugger off … go to Sweden …. If that is an insult to the highly esteemed Enrique Tessieri and offensive to his narrative….. then so be it…. If that is being a troll, then I wear the term as a badge of honour…. Rather than disliking what I say/write, what is it that I have said/written that is offensive other than being contrary to whatever is the flavour of the day for the whiners on this blog…. It seems you feel you have the right to gleefully offend anyone you wish….. but woe betide the individual who doesn’t see it your way??…… Matti ‘the Troll’……
> If you’re an immigrant to any country (Finland in this case) and you’re employable, contributing to society rather than taking from it…. Welcome
That goes contrary to everything you spew on here on a daily basis. All you do is spread hate. Being contrary for the sake of being contrary doesn’t make you smart or add anything to the discussion, it just makes you a troll. A sad troll unwilling to learn something new.
Also just FYI, I’m a native Finn married to an integrated foreigner with teenaged mixed race kids who were born and raised here and know no other homeland or culture other than being Finns. They need to deal with the racist garbage that you and your ilk keep spreading in our society when they go to school every other day. You don’t see how the garbage you spread affects normal people like us, the pain it causes when racist words and stereotypes are thrown at young kids by their classmates who are taught to hate anyone who is not white by their PS supporting parents. You can deny your complicity in this all you want but you share responsibility for what happens to them. “Multiculturalism” is the politically safe term in fashion at the moment to describe anyone who is not white in Finland. This is my real life experience, not some delusional fantasies I read about on some forum.