After being named one of the nine scariest parties to be elected to the European parliament by Huffington Post, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the global Jewish human rights organization that challenges anti-Semitism, issued a statement where it names the Perussuomalaiset (PS) as one of ten parties it will monitor closely for spreading xenophobia, nativist nationalism, anti-immigration rhetoric and anti-Semitism.
Placing the PS in the political company of France’s National Front, the neo-Nazi and far-right NPD of Germany, Greece’s Golden Dawn and Jobbik of Hungary, shouldn’t come to a surprise. What is, however, surprising how uncritically the Finnish media has treated the PS, especially when it comes to its anti-immigration and anti-Islam views.
Concerned by the rise of xenophobia and anti-Semitism in Europe, the Simon Wiesenthal Center called on in early May EU Vice President Catherine Ashton to condemn the entry of “hatemongers into the European Parliament, launch an investigation into their source of funding” and “urge the parliamentary faction blocs to ostracize them.”
Read full statement here.
The interesting question we should be asking is why have publications like the Huffington Post and now the Simon Wiesenthal Center listed the PS? Why has the Finnish media been more “understanding” and commonly let off the anti-EU, anti-immigration, homophobic and especially anti-Islam party easily off the hook for its hostility against migrants and visible minorities?
The answer is pretty clear since the Finnish media is part of the problem. It gives too often racists inflated respectability and importance.
Opposition to the PS and politicians who spread racism and hatred, and who have been sentenced on top of it for ethnic agitation, should never be considered “normal” politicians but outright extremists that are a threat to our way of life.
The PS has members who are Holocaust deniers and who play down the atrocities committed by Nazi Germany.
One of these is newly elected PS MEP Halla.aho.
In October, PS MP James Hirvisaari got sacked from the party after he took a picture of a friend making a Nazi salute in parliament.