Bashy Quraishy made recently a very valid point on his Facebook wall: “Active political participation, voting in large numbers and support for the friendly politicians is Alpha and Omega for the protection of ethnic minority rights in Denmark.”
And adds: “We need to wake up, confront the far right movements in politics and defeat them.”
This cartoon depicts the DPP’s (and even the PS’) answer on how to deal with refugees fleeing civil wars.
The biggest challenges and threat facing Europe and countries like Denmark and Finland is the lack of democratic participation by migrants and minorities.
Xenophobic parties like the Danish People Party (DPP) and Perussuomalaiset (PS)* have it too easy because they compete unfairly.
How’s that?
Easy. They use all the inbred prejudice, systemic racism and every form of intolerance that have existed mainly unchallenged in our societies to spread their racist agendas in our faces.
If Europe is going to save itself from its own far right and nativist ultranationalistic peril, which will lead to wars as in the past, voting rights and democratic participation must be much faster and inclusive than now.
Disagree?
Why then are parties like the DPP and PS so much against expanding voting rights to migrants and are so keen in discouraging migrants from voting?
Because, ionically, democracy threatens their power base and their narrative of “us” against “them.”
Time to wipe the sleep from your eyes Europe.
* The Finnish name for the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The English-language names of the party 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.
So … let me understand this correctly…. Anyone who sets foot on terra firma Finland, in this case will have the instant right to vote in all issues…. Then, don’t call it a democracy… laws in all countries, almost exclusively, state that only/only citizens of that country have the right to vote on selecting who and how they are to be governed. How can anyone even consider any alternative…. It’s a recipe for chaos…. at best.