Watching the A-studio debate between Sampo Terho and Jussi Halla-aho, the two candidates vying for the leadership of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, was a good example of how low Finland has stooped as a nation.
These two politicians, which have made good careers with the help of social media by spreading hatred, mistrust and hostility towards certain ethnic and religious groups in Finland, parroted their hardline stances on an even tougher immigration policy for the country.
It does seem incredible that a nation like Finland, which claims to be a Nordic welfare state built on social equality, has representatives of a government party speaking of asylum seekers, migrants and cultural diversity as if it were political canon fodder to secure their own political careers and that of the party’s.
Watch full debate here.
Terho mentioned that the most important issues facing Finland was the “crisis” brought on by asylum seekers and slow economic growth. Halla-aho was no different: He was worried about EU federalism, immigration and entrepreneurship.
The message of both politicians is clear: Let’s keep Finland white.
Both of them went on record saying that all asylum seekers should be put in detention centers like in Viktor Orbán’s Hungary, make Finland officially a monolingual country at the cost of Swedish, and close the borders to asylum seekers even if it meant breaching international agreements.
If these two politicians were able to lead Finland, it wouldn’t take long for it to join the same club as Hungary and Poland, where basic civil rights are being challenged.
There has never been white Finland. We native Finns have been considered white less than 100 years (even our country is older). Before that we were called as yellow swedes, mongoloids, asians etc.
Also not long time ago when the Frozen was released there was discussions in USA about how Sami people (our finno-ugric cousins) are POC and why the movie Frozen doesn’t represent them correctly.
Hi Juhis88 by “white” I mean that ethnic group that has power and privilege in Finland.
OK, Juhis88, fair deal.
I didn’t say otherwise. I was only speaking against Halla-Aho’s and Sampo Terho’s political call to keep Finland white because the Finnish people (and our finno-ugric cousins) have been historically seen as non-white by other white people in Europe and America and this was truth even as late as until Hitler’s decision to call us honorary aryan even while at first he classified us as lesser people.
So enrique what you would say if i gather 10,000 finns and move to some reservation in US/CA/AU?
We are cherokee/inuits/aboriginals or whatever according to you just by moving there.
Today i decide im cro-magnon and whole southern europe is my home (btw i have that little bump in back in my head what means i have some cro-magnon genes)
Hannu, you don’t get it. There is no such thing as a “real” Finn. Finns come in every color, ethnic background and shape.
If you suggest differently, you are just using your white privilege and power to impose and exclude others.
Hannu, less race, more humanity, empathy, and solidarity. Hommaforum and that crowd have poisoned your view of the world.
Migrant Tales, lets forget all the white privilege and power. In fact i could say that you are using your white European privilege to downplay Finnish people which have historically been discriminated against by white Europeans who believed that Finnish people aren’t white and in fact are lowly sub race of mankind and by that unable to control their own nation or lives. Stop oppressing us!
And what comes to the topic; there’s two tier of Finnish people. There’s those who have citizenship of Finland who can be from any ethnic background etc, but “real” Finnish people in ethnohistorically is mainly white (by whom? We all know that ethnohistorically Finnish people were not considered white at all) and speaks Finno-Ugric or Baltic Finnish language.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finns
Finnish by citizenship is not any less real by law or at least shouldn’t be, but that doesn’t make our ethnic group any less real and i don’t see anything bad to distinguish these two different types of Finnish people of Finland. Only thing that matters is that everyone must be equal.