Prosecutor General Raija Toiviainen announced Friday that she will not file ethnic agitation charges against Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Juho Eerola, according to Helsingin Sanomat. Toivianen said in a statement that no charges will be brought against Eerola due to “a lack of evidence,” according to YLE.
Eerola is also the PS’ third vice president.
UPDATED (April 7 at 13:05): Kyösti Roth, a well-known voice of the Roma community, was surprised by the Prosecutor General Toiviainen’s decision.
“By not charging [PS MP Eerola of ethnic agitation] means in practice that anyone who wants can condemn publicly as drug dealers and criminals the Roma and Roma beggars. Is this what social equality means in Finland?”
Rikhard Blomerus, a member of the Roma minority and a substitute councilperson of Savonlinna for the Blue Reform party, filed charges last year against Eerola for ethnic agitation after he made some denigrating comments on Facebook about Roma beggars from Romania and Bulgaria.
Apart from stating that he would spit at them and take out his bank card as a form of payment, he wrote as well that the Roma are criminals. “[They are] drug dealers and criminals,” he wrote on Facebook. “If you don’t give them money they treat you aggressively; they [then] disappear.”
Sira Moksi published a cartoon (below) of what Eerola wrote.
The fact that a member of the Roma community had filed charges against Eerola caused Blomerus to get hate mail.
“A lot of them are angry with me,” Blomerus told Migrant Tales in August. “One was even angry because he considered it an insult that a Roma would bring charges against a white Finn.”
Here is an important question about this case: Did Blomerus’ ethnic background have any bearing on the state prosecutor’s decision not to raise ethnic agitation charges?
The above question is valid since it shows at least that the state prosecutor, who is a white Finn, lives in a different world than Blomerus, who is a member of the Roma minority.
It sadly reveals as well how little power the Roma still have in Finland and how much animosity towards this ethnic group lives on in Finland.
* After the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13 into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. Despite the name changes, we believe that it is the same party in different clothing. Both factions are hostile to cultural diversity. One is more open about it while the other is more diplomatic.
A direct translation of Perussuomalaiset in English would be something like “basic” or “fundamental Finn.” Official translations of the Finnish name of the party, such as Finns Party or True Finns, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and racism. We, therefore, at Migrant Tales prefer to use in our postings the Finnish name of the party once and after that the acronym PS.
You forgot that those are comments against on organised drug dealing they do. Not all of them but drug dealers.
You support that?