I couldn’t believe what Perussuomalaiset (PS)* speaker of parliament, Maria Lohela, said in a speech today at a flag-raising ceremony in Helsinki commemorating independence day. Apart from being an MP, Lohela is an Islamophobe with a proven track record against gay and migrant rights.
She is one of the thirteen persons that signed the Nuiva manifesto in 2010. Some of the signatories of the manifesto include three PS politicians (MEP Jussi Halla-aho, former MP James Hirvisaari and Kotka city councilman Freddy van Wonterghem) who were sentenced for ethnic agitation as well as others who have made their political careers by attacking migrants. Some of these are MP Juho Eerola, MP Olli Immonen, Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo, PS party secretary, and seven others.
Finland suffers from amnesia, especially the Finnish Broadcast Company (YLE), and Lohela of two-faced dishonesty.
Maria Lohela is not my speaker of parliament.
Speaking today at a Finnish flag-raising ceremony in Helsinki.
At the ceremony, Lohela reads a letter that Snellman wrote to his 16-year-old daughter Hanna in 1862:
“Try to be thoughtful and respectful of all people, to the old and young, to the poor and rich. It’s not a good matter that you are a good person only when it’s worthwhile or when it pops into your mind. Real goodness comes from the heart and when we forget our own interests, try to make the lives of others easier, and when you don’t classify people differently.”
What?! Did you hear and read right?
Here’s the speaker of parliament who has made Islamophobic, homophobic and xenophobic statements but who is a member of a party and a government that has made the lives of asylum seekers harsh thanks to the tightening of immigration policy and fueling of hostility towards our ever-growing culturally diverse community.
If Lohela has changed her views on migrants and cultural diversity, she should apologize for all the horrible urban tales she has spread about Others.
Politicians with a racist track record will say and do anything to get and keep power.
Lohela is a perfect example.
* The Finnish name for the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The English 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. The direct translation of “Perussuomalaiset” is “basic” or “fundamental Finn.”