Just the way Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s government can give a tacit pat on the back to far-right groups like Suomi Ensin (Finland First), the police give the green light to extremist vigilante groups, or President Sauli Niinistö give the thumbs up to the Finnish version of the Okie from Muskogee, all of them if they wanted could land a big blow to such racist groups by stating that they are unacceptable and out of touch with our Nordic values.
Too much complacency and mixed signals from government officials and the president of Finland only feed the ogre and the trolls.
The recent French presidential election was a positive example of how to challenge racism spread by far-right politicians.
Read the full story here.
Emmanuel Macron did not hide his views of Marine Le Pen. He accused her in a national debate of “feeding off” French people’s unhappiness and called her a “parasite” by manipulating voters’ anger usually against minorities and Muslims.
We’ve seen it over and over again. If you are too complacent and try to compete with far-right anti-immigration parties by stealing their rhetoric you are going to lose. Why would a voter vote for a copy if he or she can get the real thing?
Thus the only way to challenge the onslaught of populist anti-cultural diversity rhetoric polluting Europe these days is by facing it and challenging it head on with little diplomacy, if necessary.
Finland is less of a sad example today of how traditional parties like the Social Democrats tried to use the populist rhetoric of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* before the April 2011 election. Add to the latter a national media that couldn’t tell the difference between racism and its own Nordic Western values and the historic victory of the PS was sealed.
It has taken us in Finland over five years of PS rhetoric and populist arguments since 2011 to understand that the party is nothing but a smokescreen for our own prejudices and racism.
