If I am honest with you, I tried to stay as far away as possible from the toxic speeches at the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* Congress. In those speeches, like the one by the party’s leader Riikka Purra, you wondered in what alternate reality the radical-right party lives.
Those speeches by Purra, Matti Purkonen, who slammed the media as “spineless liars,” and others are tragic because for those of us who have lived many years in Finland, have seen a complete about-turn in politics and society. What was considered unthinkable before, like racism, is now normalized. It’s all about hate of difference with a huge “H.”
Contrary to what people wanted to believe, the threat does not come from abroad but is homegrown and sits and grows right under our noses.
Take for instance Purra’s speech Saturday, when she concentrated on attacking the media for doing their job and publishing her racist posts from 2008 and 2019.
Iltalehti published (in Finish) all of “riikka’s” 185 posts. In them, she threatens to shoot migrant youths on a commuter train, her posts are homophobic, Islamophobic, sexist, and outright racist.
Upper left: “The problem isn’t that WE speak like racists or that we are racists.“
Upper right: “The problem is that you call us racists.“
Lower left: “The problem ends when you stop [calling us racists].“
Lower right: “YOU are the culprits.” Source: X (formerly Twitter)
Imagine, she was a 31-year-old adult PhD student who, I imagine, should have known better.
Even if one of here defense arguments is that the posts were written before her political career began, how many of us would write such racist and violent posts?
One of the matters that the PS is known for is that it is an expert at playing the victim.
Said Purra in her speech: “Bad. Racist. Fascist. Nazi. Evil, evil, evil, evil, evil person. The mass hysteria of the media was born, based on a worldview familiar from children’s programs.”
Surprisingly, there was nothing in Purra’s speech. except playing down the scandals but with strong doses of bravado and defiance. She went as far as to claim that the publishing of her racist posts in the Trumpian fashion was tantamount to a “witch hunt” that would be a dark smear on Finnish journalism history.
If Purra claimed that the racism scandals have strengthened the PS, we can ay with all confidence that it has strengthened press freedom and anti-racism activism. For
Further reading: Finnish racism, the PS, and the duck test: Nobody knew, but suddenly everyone now knows
Placing all the populist chatter and claims aside, another interesting point from the PS congress was how the party plays down racism. One of their favorite arguments of the government’s harsh immigration policy is that it isn’t racist.
“If someone thinks that is racism, then ‘s’il vous plaît’, they can call us racist, but this is not how I understand racism,” PS Speaker of Parliament Jussi Halla-aho was quoted as saying to Reuters.
/3 The Perussuomalaiset claims that the government’s immigration policy isn’t racist and therefore ok. But what about if we said that the immigration policy is discriminatory, inhumane, evil, and treats people like third-class citizens? Is this the Finnish way?” Source: X (formerly Twitter).
The PS claims that the government’s immigration policy isn’t racist and therefore ok. But what about if we said that the immigration policy is discriminatory, inhumane, evil, and treats people like third-class citizens? Is this the Finnish way?”
It is clear by Purra’s and Putkonen’s speeches and that of others that the PS holds Finland’s media in contempt.
In the face of the scandals, the party has reverted to avoiding the media and publishing one-way posts with quaint pictures. Ministers like Purra are public servants and the public has a right to know through the media what is happening.
Finland’s media and its democratic institutions are under threat by a party that only received 20% of the vote and that would be more than happy to turn the country into a Hungary.
We must do everything possible to stop the spread of the PS from further poisoning our country’s good people and name.
