Staying on the topic of Perussuomalaiset* presidential candidate Laura Huhtasaari, I took the liberty to ask her a question on Messenger. To no-one’s surprise, she didn’t care to answer my question.
I wrote: “Hey! You speak a lot about ‘Finns’ but who are these ‘Finns’ [you so often speak of]. Are they all those who were born in Finland? Black Finns? Muslim Finns? Argentinean Finns? Could you explain and state clearly what you mean by ‘Finns.’ Thank you.”*
A question arises from these types of “us” and “them” labeling: Where are they supposed to lead us? First, it was uncommon in Finland to have politicians like Huhtasaari openly label and blacklist migrants and minorities. Today, her hateful speech is “normal.”
If you want a harrowing answer, check out this blog post. If we study the pyramid of hate, the final stage is genocide. It’s an escalation of hatred that leads to the annihilation of a group.
One example was the scapegoating and outright hatred against the Jews and other minorities in Germany in the 1930s.
The final stage of racism and hatred is genocide.
Is this where politicians like Huhtasaari and her band of Perussuomalaiset [1] want to lead Finland?
While it is outrageous that in a country like Finland, which claims to uphold human rights, social equality, and social justice, has a candidate like Huhtasaari spreading hatred, it is the near-silence of the politicians and other parties that surprises the most. Moreover, we have a party in government that promotes social exclusion and social inequality.
I am confident that in the future we’ll look at this period with shame and dismay. We’ll ask how we were able to stoop so low.
* Hei! Puhut paljon “suomalaisista.” Keitä ovat nämä suomalaiset? Ovatko he kaikki Suomessa syntyneitä? Mustia suomalaisia? Muslimi suomalaisia? Argentiinalais-suomalaisia? Voitko selittää ja täsmentää mitä tarkoitat kun puhut “suomalaisista.” Kiitoksia.
[1] 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 factions 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 after that the acronym PS.