And that is not all that Orpo said in Helsingin Sanomat: “We are doing everything in our power to eradicate racism and discrimination,” he continued, “We are doing more [on this front] than any government before us.”
In light of the scandals that have rocked Orpo’s government from the start, there appear to be an endless amount of denial in the face of a chronic loss of credibility of the government.
Source: Twitter
Fomer Prime Minister Sanna Marin warned that Orpo’s government is ready to “erode the fundamental values of a democratic society.”
Orpo naturally disagrees with Marin and will throw out some of his favorite catchphrases repeated ad nauseam: “The government program is good and that there is nothing racist or discriminatory.” Even if worker rights will be hit and the right to strike limited, everything is fine. Trust me, migrants don’t care if they are treated as third-class members of society, he’d probably want to say.
The saddest, but not surprising matter, about the ongoing debate about Finland’s every-growing culturally diverse society is the lack of voices from such communities. Politicians like Orpo, parties in government, and those who take part in the debate as white Finns, reinforce the near-total exclusion of racialized people in the conversation.
If you were to believe those very white voices and their one-sided views, migrants don’t want equal rights and are more than happy to be exploited; it applies to workers as well, whose rights are being trampled by the government as those of vulnerable groups like the unemployed and single mothers, who will see their social welfare slashed.
It is a pathological relationship.
A bit like the tortured who was forced to fall in love with the torturer.