Perussuomalaiset (PS)* Jussi Halla-aho’s heir-apparent appears to be the party’s first vice-president, Riikka Purra. While Halla-aho has swung the party to the far-right and encouraging xenophobia, Purra has parroted the PS leader’s racist soundbites but with questionable results.
Like Halla-aho, Purra loathes Muslims and people of color. So much so, in fact, that she warned about ethnic replacement hogwash and how Finland’s population was becoming more diverse. In her book, brown, Afro Finns and other visible minorities are a threat to white Finland.
You don’t need to have a lot of knowledge on politics to understand that most of the catchphrases used by the PS have their origin from other xenophobic groups in Europe. One of these used in the last municipal elections was “take Finland back.”
Writes the Finnish Security Police (Supo) in its last-year report: “One of the most noteworthy ideological motives of far-right terrorists is known as the Great Replacement conspiracy theory based on the idea of a fundamental threat posed by immigration and multiculturalism to the white population of Western countries. Views reflecting the idea of a Great Replacement have been highlighted in several far-right terrorist attacks.”
Two factors that make Purra unsuitable to lead the country as a future prime minister are her thumbs up for Finland’s withdrawal from the eurozone and opposition to the use of foreign labor in Finland.
Like many xenophobic politicians of the PS, Purra sees migration and diversity as threats. Finland will neither solve under her leadership its social problems due to institutional racism nor find its true potential under diversity.
Trust me: Purra’s xenophobic worldview will force Finland to regress economically and revert to populist lifesavers that sink.
As Finland loses competitiveness under Purra and others of her ilk, she can always claim that she is taking Finland back.
But to where?
Further reading:
RTE: World’s happiest country’ seeks immigrants
