Statements about tightening immigration policy by the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* elected chairperson, Riikka Purra, exposes her cowardice and the complacency of the Finnish media.
The cowardice comes from bullying people who are powerless to challenge her hostility. The complacency of the Finnish media comes from seeing no wrong in Purra’s and the PS’ hatred of migrants and minorities.
Purra, an ethnonationalist who fears brown and black Finns taking over the country, reiterated today at her victory speech that she is ready to lead the country as prime minister and would not enter a coalition government unless it takes a hard line on immigration.
“If a party is not ready to tighten immigration policy, then that’s game over, and we don’t have a possibility of co-operating [with them],” she was quoted as saying in Yle News.
There is so much poppycock and hypocrisy in Purra’s statement that it implodes with ease.
Just because Purra is doing her Ph.D. studies does not mean anything if you lack empathy for others.
Many Nazi German leaders had Ph.D. degrees like Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels that did not stop him from murdering his six children and becoming one of the architects of the Holocaust.
While some Nazis had one PhD.degree, others, like Emil Otto Rasch, had two doctorate degrees in law and political economy. Rasch, like others that led the Einsatzgruppen on the Eastern Front had Ph.D. degrees and were responsible for murdering two million Jews and other enemies of the regime.
Have politicians like Purra ever stopped to think that migration has always walked side by side with human history? Even Finland, saw over 1.2 million Finns emigrate during 1860-1999.
Some of us, like me, have been on the move for four generations: My great grandfather emigrated from Italy to Argentina, my father from Argentina to Europe and the United States, and me back to Argentina and Finland.
Once you begin such a momentous journey, you are affected not only during your lifetime but also your children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren will feel the power.
There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that Purra and the PS can do to stop the growth of Finland’s cultural and ethnic diversity. They can put obstacles in our fight for social equality but we will overcome them.
