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.
Remember what Orpo said back then?
Source: Helsingin Sanomat
“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.
Certainly we know that the latter isn’t the whole truth. If we look at the PS’ immigration rhetoric, it has become more radical. What has happened, however, is that Kokoomus has become more radical since 2017.
With the PS in the government, it’s clear that Kokoomus does not care for the welfare of migrants living in Finland. It is the same gentlemen’s agreement that JuhA Sipilä’s government (2015-2019) made with the PS: Support our austerity measures, and we’ll support the tightening of immigration policy.
One of the factors propelling Kokoomus to go to bed with the PS is fear that it will be eaten up by that party. The fear of losing elections against the PS suggests that Kokoomus will become more radical in the future by bullying migrants, who cannot fight back because they do not have voting rights.
It explains why many mainstream conservative parties in Europe are taking a tougher stance on immigration. In Denmark, we saw how the Social Democrats destroyed the Danish People’s Party (DPP) by becoming even more xenophobic than them.
In 2019, the Social Democrats, under the leadership of Mette Frederiksen scored a huge victory, with the DPP losing 21 seats. In November, the DPP dwindled to a party of 5 seats, which is a far cry from the 37 seats it won in 2015.
Even if Kokoomus will increase its anti-immigration rhetoric to keep the PS in check, the party has a weakness: Prime Minister Orpo, who has shown poor leadership and weakness as the Junnila debacle laid bare.
