As Migrant Tales correctly pointed out, it didn’t take long for the new party secretary of the Perussuomalaiset (PS), Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo, to show her far right anti-immigration credentials. Interviewed by YLE’s 8:30 pm news, Slunga-Poutsalo “demands” Finland should tighten immigration policy further.
Migrant Tales wrote Saturday that one of the aims of the PS annual congress in Joensuu was to make the party the biggest in Finland by 2015 with the help of an anti-EU and anti-immigration campaign. Finland will hold parliamentary elections two years from now.
“We shouldn’t commit the same mistakes [in immigration] than Europe but learn from them before it’s too late and when we’ll be in the same boat as them,” she said.
PS chairman Timo Soini played down as usual the role of intolerance and anti-immigration sentiment in his party.
“This is a myth that the media cranks out [constantly],” he said. “Crank it out [all you want] so the Perussuomalaiset will get more publicity.”
He denied that the anti-immigration wing of the party led by PS MP Jussi Halla-aho had got an important foothold in the party leadership thanks to Slunga-Poutsalo and Juho Eerola, who was elected third vice president.
In one of her first major policy statements as party secretary, Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo “demanded” that Finnish immigration policy should be tightened further.
The 8:30 pm news reported – as did Migrant Tales – that Slunga-Poutsalo is an anti-immigration hardliner who not only signed the Nuiva Manifesto but has taken part in anti-immigration chat forums like Hommaforum.
The new party secretary finds herself in good anti-immigration company with Eerola, who likes Mussolini-style fascism, Halla-aho and James Hirvisaari, both of which who have been sentenced for hate speech.