It would be wrong to just blame the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* for Finland’s racism problem. The rise of the PS after the 2011 election would not have been possible without the direct and indirect support of other political parties, the media, and the public.
When results of the 2011 election started to appear on television screens, which placed the PS in the major political leagues after 39 MPs were elected versus five previously, a perilous watershed was crossed. Back then, Migrant Tales was one of the few voices in Finland warning about the rise of the PS.
But let’s go to the original question in the headline: Are we waking up to our country’s racism problem?
As mentioned, it would be misleading to just blame the PS for the growth of this problem.
Finland’s racism problem, which is a pretty serious social ill, has grown thanks to denial and playing down the problem. If Riikka Purra’s writing was concerning, they will be small fries when compared with the hostility our culturally diverse communities will endure when we grow bigger and demand our rights and public spaces, which rightfully belong to us, too.
The only matter that Prime Minister Petteri Orpo’s embattled government will gain if it does not go under after its chaotic start on 20 June, is a Pyrrhic victory. In today’s press conference with journalists, Orpo defended Finance Minister Riikka Purra’s apology for her violent and racist comments made in 2008 when she was a 31-year-old researcher at Turku University.
The long-overdue meeting with the media was to clear up Purra’s apology for her past writings where she commonly used the n-word, spoke of Africans as subhuman and even threatened to kill migrants.
One of these was written on 25 September 2008 about young people of migrant origin on a train: “If they gave me a gun, there’d be bodies on a commuter train, you see.”
Apart from the Vilhelm Junnila resignation and scandal, far-right conspiracy theories and views of Perussuomalaiset (PS)* ministers like that of Interior Minister Mari Rantanen, Justice Minister Leena Meri, Foreign Trade and Development Minister Ville Tavio, Foreign Trade Minister Wille Rydman and Jussi Halla-aho, the speaker of the parliament, the government has proved to be a liability to Finland and its international image.
At the press conference, Prime Minister Orpo continued to sound like a broken record assuring us that the government is committed to social equality and against racism. On Monday, it went as far as to put out a joint statement to this effect.
Helsingin Sanomat columnist Jussi Pullinen asks a good question that rips wide open the official façade of the government:
“The [scandalous] chain of events led to a government statement reaffirming its commitment to universal human rights principles and renouncing racism. For a Western [European] government to have to make such an assurance is highly exceptional and raises many questions.”
Incredible, no? The government, a Finnish government, has to put out a statement that it supports human rights and is against all forms of racism and discrimination.
Purra tweets: “Or are the activities of the Perussuomalaiset based on extremism, racism, or incitement of hatred, but on promoting the interests of Finns and Finns themselves? Our immigration policy is legitimate and legal and there is nothing wrong or suspicious about it.”
Purra’s defence of the government’s severe immigration policy is preposterous. Andrew Stroehlein, Human Rights Watch European media director, offers below Purra a stinging rebuke:
Coverage by the international media hasn’t been rosy for Prime Minister Petteri Orpo’s government. Munich-based daily, Süddeutsche Zeitun, christened it the Chamber of Horrors while Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung called the government’s start “a fiasco.”
Of the seven Perussuomalaiset (PS)* ministers, including the speaker of the parliament, Jussi Halla-aho, five have shady histories littered with racism, far-right conspiracy theories, sexual harassment, and neo-Nazi links and sympathies.
Even if National Coalition Party (Kokoomus) Prime Minister Petteri Orpo’s government started on June 20, it has been rocked weekly by scandals and revelations. The first on the chopping block was former minister for foreign trade, Vilhelm Junnila, who had a long history concerning links to neo-Nazi and far-right groups.
Even if Junnila survived a vote of confidence in parliament, he resigned two days later.
Every week there has been a scandal that eats away at Orpo’s government.
The MPs of the PS have given Finland its “Chamber of Horrors.” Source: Eduskunta
Irak on taipunut EU:n kovaan painostukseen ja alkaa ottaa vastaan kaikki kielteisen turvapaikkapäätöksen saaneet kansalaisensa, asiasta perillä oleva lähde vahvistaa verkostollemme. Tietojemme mukaan EU on uhannut Irakia pakotteilla.
According to our sources EU starts to deport rejected Iraqi asylum seekers, after threatening Iraq with sanctions.
Jos sinulla on turvapaikkaprosessi kesken, ota yhteys lakimieheesi ja tiedustele tilannetta. Jos sinulla on uusia todisteita ja uusia perusteita, jätä uusi turvapaikkahakemus. Jos pystyt hankkimaan passin tai sinulla on passi, pyri viipymättä laillistamaan oleskelusi ja hae oleskelulupaa työn, opiskelun tai perhesiteen perusteella.
Vuonna 2015 Eurooppaan tulleet irakilaiset ovat kotoutuneet ja länsimaistuneet, kouluttautuneet, perustaneet perheitä ja työllistyneet. Satoja lapsia on syntynyt ja kokee itsensä suomalaisiksi. On järjetöntä ja julmaa EU-politiikkaa ajaa Euroopassa pitkään asuneet ihmiset takaisin epävakaaseen ja väkivaltaiseen Irakiin, jota hallitsevat uskonnolliset puolueet ja militiat. Korruptio rehottaa maassa, työttömyys on korkea ja hallitusta vastustavat nujerretaan tai tapetaan. EU-päättäjät tietävät tämän. Turvapaikanhakijat ovat pakoon lähtiessään usein myyneet omaisuutensa eikä heillä ole kotimaassa mitään mihin palata. Entiset vainoojat sen sijaan ovat yhä vastassa.
Suomi kiristi vuosina 2015-16 rajusti turvapaikkapolitiikkaansa ja irakilaisille tehtailtiin kielteisiä päätöksiä. Maahanmuuttoviraston prosessit romahtivat ja alalle tulvi osaamattomia tulkkeja ja lakimiehiä. Maahanmuuttovirasto jopa jäädytti irakilaisten turvapaikkapäätökset lainvastaisesti, jotta humanitaarinen suojelu saatiin säädettyä laista pois. Maahanmuuttovirasto on muun muassa perustellut mallipäätöksissään, että vainoa kokenut turvapaikanhakija voi palattuaan pitää matalaa profiilia ja siten välttää vainon.
Thanks to the leadership of Prime Minister Petteri Orban, Finland’s international image has suffered a devastating blow. In a matter of over two weeks, the country’s reputation has swung from having a forward-looking and charismatic prime minister like Sanna Marin to one that denies and wants to do business with a radical-right party.
The government has been rocked by scandals and the source of these scandals is none other than the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*. Far-right conspiracy theories, ministers with shady far-right backgrounds like with the case of Vilhelm Junnila, inappropriate relations with minors, and malicious targeting of journalists by MPs, among many other issues.
The opinion piece by Helsingin Sanomat journalist brings some good points on why the media has been blind to what numerous PS politicians who publish regularly far-right and racist posts on social media. The opinion piece sheds light on the daily’s blind spot of racism and the far-right. Source: Helsingin Sanomat
The latest snub to the embattled prime minister was the naming of Wille Rydman as the replacement for Junnila, the former minister for economic cooperation.
Rydman, who has built his political career on racism and hard-right talking points, quit the National Coalition Party (NCP) and joined the PS months after Helsingin Sanomat revealed his inappropriate relationship with minors. No charges were brought against Rydman, although the case left him scarred and embittered.
If the government’s example is anything to go by, one can be named minister as was with the case with Junnila despite having a long history of posting far right, neo-Nazi and anti-Semitic posts. With Rydman, you can attack and call on social media lynch mobs to attack journalists like Ida Erämaa and the next week be appointed minister.
Not only have all these scandals and revelations made NCP Prime Minister Petteri Orpo look weak and vulnerable, they have robbed his government of the most important resource: credibility.
An immigration policy founded on racism and suspicion is bound to fail.
Prime Minister Petteri Orpo’s government has gotten off to a disastrous start that exposes how much out of touch it is with our Nordic values. Thanks to the radical-right Perussuomalaiset (PS) and their ties to neo-Nazi and far-right groups, Prime Minister Orpo is desperately trying to heal the government’s wounds with denials and political fairy tales.
The government is mortally wounded. It will only be a matter of time when the government will collapse.
PS MP Jani Mäkelä (left) and my badge of honor (right). Mäkelä claims that he wants to talk about the problems that migration brings. Sources: Yle and Twitter.
When listening to the PS and the National Coalition Party, one wonders if politicians like Orpo believe that people can’t see through their lies. How can you promise to uphold human rights, press freedom, and the rule of law if your policies expose the opposite?
In Finland, you can publish racist blogs, ask MPs to be raped, shoot gays, downplayed the Holocaust and end up as speaker of parliament, like Jussi Halla-aho.
It’s amazing, if not magical, how quickly far-right politicians of the Perussumalaiset (PS)* party can whitewash and deny their far-right and neo-Nazi sympathies. I am not talking about fringe politicians, but ministers in Prime Minister Petteri Orpo’s government.
You may ask how it’s possible to joke constantly, and for years, about the Holocaust, spread freely the great replacement theories and other ugly far-right things, and expect that everything is ok?
It may work most of the time, but it can backfire as happened with PS Minister of Economic Affairs Vilhelm Jussila, who resigned after eleven days of being minister.
The latest scandal to hit the PS only two days after Junnila resigned, are three PS ministers, party chair Riikka Purra (Finance Minister), Mari Rantanen, (Interior Minister), and Leena Meri (Justice Minister). All three tweeted that they do not believe in the great replacement theory.
Halla-aho, who has never apologized for his racist writings, is also in hot water.
If Rantanen, Purra and Meri don’t believe in the far-right conspiracy theory that led to the death of 77 people in Norway in 2011 and the Christchurch massacre, among others, why are they now denying it?
Interior Minister Rantanen, who is a nurse and has had police training, is one of the most active Islamophobes in the government. She has relied on the great replacement theory to attract voters. Before the April election, she infamously stated on her webpage that, “We mustn’t be so naive [naive in Finnish means being blue-eyed] that soon we won’t be blue-eyed.”
The original post by Rantanen can no longer be read on her Facebook and webpage.
Why can’t we read Rantanen’s posting anymore on Facebook?
“Exactly as you said. Let me be clear: I do not believe in conspiracy theories. Nor do I believe in the great replacement of the population. I believe in numbers and statistics. And I believe in democracy, where you influence things by changing laws.“
If Rantanen didn’t say what she said, why does she so strongly deny the far-right conspiracy theory? Why does she even go as far as to point out that she believes change can only happen through democratic institutions?
If you read her tweet carefully, she does not renounce the great replacement theory but now talks about “numbers and statistics,” which back her original replacement theory.
Moreover, Rantanen does not offer us any statistical information, never mind any links, to back up her ludicrous and racist claim.
Rantanen, like Purra and Meri, crapped in her pants after what happened to Junnila. Their about-turn and new denials are a sign of cowardice.
Historian Jussi Jalonen summarizes in a tweet the three ministers’ change of heart.
Perussuomalaiset (PS)*Minister of Economic Affairs VIlhelm Junnila was in office for just 11 days, making him one of the shortest-serving ministers in Finnish history. Junnila’s downfall is attributable to himselfand his long trail of neo-Nazi sympathies and “jokes.”
The fact that the National Coalition Party (Kokoomus) went to bed with a radical-right party like the PS shows poor judgment. It also reveals Prime Minister Petteri Orpo’s lack of leadership and his blind spot to the far right.
Even if opposition politics and activists may contribute to the eventual downfall of Orpo’s government in the months ahead, its biggest headache is itself as Junnila demonstrated.
Before the April general election, she wrote: “We mustn’t be so naive [naive in Finnish means being ‘blue-eyed’] that soon we won’t be blue-eyed.”
A nurse with police training and very xenophobic opinions, she continued to defend her claim on how Europe is changing ethnically before our eyes. Despite her claim, Rantanen has not shown us any statistical information backing her great replacement theory in Sweden, never mind Finland.
Rantanen tweets: 1/2 Regarding today’s news: I don’t believe in conspiracy theories (sic). The statistical pressure placed on Europe’s population and the resulting demographic change is a fact. The consequences of immigration must also be discussed in this context without stigmatization.
2/2 Many would like to see a strong acceleration of [migrants to the country]. In the run-up to the [April] election, there were serious proposals to admit 1.4 million immigrants to Finland. The PS took a firm line and received a strong mandate from the Finns. In politics, it must be possible to raise objections for or against.
What a show we saw in parliament Wednesday when radical-right Perussuomalaiset (PS)* Minister of Economic Affairs Vilhelm Junnila survived a no-confidence vote! The first visible cracks in National Coalition Party (Kokoomus) Prime Minister Petteri Orpo’s government became evident.
One of the questions that some may be asking is why does Kokoomus want to do business with a party that it turned down in 2017. The PS had imploded into two factions after the party elected Jussi Halla-aho as its new leader.
“Halla-aho’s Perussuomalaiset… their base values are so drastically different from ours,” he said. “They go against our most sacred values, human dignity, human rights, the concept of humanity, openness, and internationalism.”
Helsingin Sanomat asked Orpo five years after why the party had now qualms about sharing power in government with the PS. “The current Perussuomalaiset party, as it has evolved under Halla-aho and [Riikka] Purra, is such that I see no reason why we cannot negotiate a government program [with them],” he was quoted as saying.
Orpo’s assurances do nothing more than fuel mistrust because they are based on lies like what he said about Junnila. “Of course we do not accept any type of extremism, Nazism, Stalinism, or other ideologies that are dangerous to society or people,” he said in Helsingin Sanomat. “This is quite obvious. Everyone in Finland must be able to live a good life in safety.”
I wonder what minorities, migrants and asylum seekers think about Orpo’s statement.
We have read about the numerous anti-Semitic, racist, neo-Nazi, and far-right comments that Perussuomalaiset (PS)* Minister of Economic Affairs Vilhelm Junnila has made throughout the years. He now regrets these hateful comments and claims that they were all done humorously.
UPDATE: Finland’s parliament gave a 95-86 vote of confidence to the government program and Minister Junnila.
Prime Minister Petteri Orpo’s government wants to reassure us that there is no room for extremism in his coalition.
Do you believe him? Not.
Below is a good six-point guide on how to insult victims of the Holocaust, support neo-Nazis, the far-right, and racists, and end up as a minister.
Six-point guide on how to become a minister despite your controversial views: 1. Double-talk. 2. Deny everything. 2. Tell your enemies that you like humor or are a bad comedian. 3. Lie and act spineless (your fat monthly check will help you forget) 4. Tell your followers that you are serious. 5. Apologize with your fingers crossed. 6. Work with parties who think like you but are still in the closet about their extremist views.
