Perussuomalaiset (PS)* Finance Minister Riikka Purra’s defense rests on playing the victim and underplaying her racist and hostile blog postings she wrote on Scripta in 2008, where she used the n-word, Turkish monkey, threatened to kill youths of migrant origin on a commuter train, among other anti-social postings.
On the right, a self-confident Riikka Purra. After the scandal broke, her image changed (left).
Scripta is a blog written by Jussi Halla-aho, who was convicted in 2012 for ethnic agitation and for breaching the sanctity of religion. Halla-aho was appointed in June speaker of parliament.
You can access some quotes from Halla-aho’s blog here.
A warning: Scripta is littered with Islamophobic, racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, and misogynist writings.
A good example of how an Islamophobic party like the PS covers its hatred for Muslims. In the top picture, the PS claims that Muslim women are oppressed because they wear certain Muslim attire. In the second cartoon below, the PS gives its real opinion: “Why don’t you go back to where you came from? That dress has no place in Finland.” Purra made a comment in 2019 of a woman with a “black sack” which she hasn’t apologized.
One of Purra’s main defenses of her racist, homophobic, and hostile writings is that they were written 15 years ago and eight years before she entered politics. She wrote that the writings were “15-year-old comments made on the Internet 15 years ago.”
If I had to break down her defense:
One third playing the victim
One third blaming others like the media
One third defiance
Even if Purra doesn’t mention it in her blog, she was 31 years old in 2008 and a university researcher.
Her second defense argument is that her racist postings were done as “insider humor and sarcasm.”
According to her, it was common in 2008 to write racist and hostile posts in such tones. “In those days, sarcasm was still allowed in communication and did not cause as much unintentional or intentional misunderstanding as it does today,” she wrote.
In one part of her blog post, Purra pushed back. Her statement makes little sense and obfuscates her hatred of others who are not like her.
The only truth to her claims below is the last sentence.
“Contrary to what has been claimed in the media, there is no glorification or incitement to violence in my comments. I have never advocated violence or extremism of any kind. I have always opposed it. I have never advocated discrimination on the basis of color or ethnicity. I have never opposed sexual minorities. I have never denied the dignity of everyone. I can speak and write in foul and harsh language and show my feelings, but that is all you should find in those comments.”
Purra points the accusing finger at the media: “Iltalehti writes bullshit and I can hardly be bothered to send corrections. Some of the media have sunk so low that the bottom has been punctured.”
Despite numerous requests for an interview, Purra has refused to speak to Helsingin Sanomat.
Even if the PS has links to far-right groups and some MPs speak highly of Viktor Orbán and Donald Trump, Purra states that she has always been against totalitarianism. She assures us that “the government is fully committed to democracy, equality, human rights, and non-discrimination.”
“Although I am often portrayed in the media as an emotionless monster, I am anything but [such a person],” she writes. “I am very sensitive, and I stand up for justice. The mudslinging in politics and the media is hard to tolerate. Especially for people who thought they could do better.”
Even if Purra claims “to stand up for justice,” the government’s migration policy, spearheaded by the PS, will severely disenfranchise the rights of foreigners in Finland.
Claiming that she and the PS don’t have a racist bone in their bodies, Purra said that her party does not spread conspiracy theories like the great replacement theory (sic).
