Tag: Far-right parties

By Enrique Tessieri

Helena Eronen, the parliamentary aide who suggested armbands for foreigners, is what Malcolm X once said about racism and Cadillacs:  “They make a new model every year.”* The Perussuomalaiset (PS) party’s far-right anti-immigration wing led by MP Jussi Halla-aho have a new model: Helena Eronen.

Hirvisaari was fined in December for hate speech, which explains why he chose Eronen as his aide to write and be his ideological alter ego.

Taking into account the outright rejection by the media especially after the election of the Counter-Jihadist writings of Halla-aho, Olli Immonen and Juho Eerola, it’s pretty clear that this group needs a fresh new face, and a new writing style to get across the same anti-immigration message. That person is none other than Eronen.

Even if Eronen claims no political affiliation, she used to advertise her affiliation to the far-right Muutos2011 on her Uusi Suomi blog. Many of her blog entries confirm her anti-immigration views, such as the last one published in Uusi Suomi and headlined, “What on Earth would you do about exotic- [skin-] colored rapists.”

Hirvisaari shines through in the text, and Eronen also mentions MP Olli Immonen, who inquired in Parliament about rapes committed by immigrants.

Eronen fails to share one absolute figure with the reader about how many rape cases have occurred. This is for obvious reasons, because we are talking about tens of cases and not discussing the white Finnish males who commit the lion’s share of rapes in Finland.

At the end of her blog entry she warns that two dailies, Turun Sanomat and Karjalainen of Joensuu, may not quote the text unless they want to pay a 100,000-euro fine. This shows how little Eronen understands and her utter ignorance of the media. It’s a pretty ludicrous warning: how can you write a public blog and forbid someone from quoting you?

We mustn’t forget that PS MPs Hirvisaari, Halla-aho and Immonen – and Eerola herself – are all social media creations.

Noting how much their racist writings and victimization of certain immigrant groups brought them money and a ticket to Parliament, it’s clear that they will not abandon social media as a platform for getting their anti-immigration message across to their followers.

*Thank you Sasu Xinkang Ölander.

By Enrique Tessieri

Scandal-ridden Perussuomalaliset (PS) party MP, Teuvo Hakkarainen, has stuck his foot in his mouth again. This time  he has taken the law in his hands and instigated a social-media lynch mob against two minors found guilty of rape, according to Keskisuomalainen. The Jyväskylä-based daily reports that Hakkarainen published on his Facebook page a link to court documents that give the accused names, identification numbers, addresses and even their parents’ names.

“The court case can be found by anyone,” he was quoted as saying. “It’s not a problem. The link is there and that’s that. I don’t protect rapists. If someone wants to protect them it’s their business but I don’t protect them.”

A person apparently belonging to a far-right association tried to post the full text of the court case on Migrant Tales, which acted promptly to take them down thanks to our associate editors JusticeDemon and Mark.

Hakkarainen writes on his Facebook page, where all the posts on his wall have been now removed, the following from Singapore:  …I pleasantly  found out [in Singapore] that first and foremost immigrants that come to live here work and respect the local culture and people. It’s unfortunate that not everyone that goes there [to Finland] doesn’t share the same positive attitude, especially those in this case [below he shows a link to the court documents] of gross lack of respect…”

In his shortlived Facebook statement, Hakkarainen defends what he did by publishing the court documents because the media doesn’t do its job. Part of the court documents have been made secret until 2072. In Finland, the names of those that have been accused of crimes that carry over two-year prison sentences are not published by the media.

While a crime like rape must be strongly condemned by society, it is equally unacceptable that a public official like an MP takes justice in his hands.

Hakkarainen’s social-media call to lynch the sentenced minors reveals two disturbing matters: The PS MP from Viitasaari is unrepentant about his many former racist gaffes; by scapegoating people with non-white Finnish backgrounds he tries to absolve his past problematic behavior.

Migrant Tales wrote the previous month how anti-immigration groups like the PS plan a vicious campaign against immigrants and minorities in order to boost their sagging popularity. The Helena Eronen-James Hirvisaari scandal is one recent example as is the present ploy by Hakkarainen to publish hitherto-secret court documents.

Another case is far-right hardline anti-immigration PS MP Olli Immonen, who suggested that East European Roma beggars should be deported from Finland in the same way that the fascist Lapuan liike movement (1929-32) did to its enemies to the former Soviet Union.

Taking into account the recent and present scandals that are rocking the PS, one could ask if its chairman Timo Soini has lost control over the party and what we are seeing in fact is a power struggle between two rival groups: the Rural Party and far-right anti-immigration wing.

A column published by Yrjö Rautio on Apu magazine makes the same conclusion as Migrant Tales. That is exactly what is taking place at this moment.

By Enrique Tessieri

Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP Jussi Halla-aho said on a popular talk show that he stands by everything he said and doesn’t regret anything. He does, however, admit that sometimes the timing of what he said was wrong. He then tells us that ghettoization is taking place ” full steam ahead” in Finland’s biggest cities.

As Migrant Tales has warned and as scandals continue to rock the PS whiile opinion polls show voters turning their backs on the right-wing populist party, the anti-immigration message of the PS will start to pick up.  Halla-aho didn’t lose such an opportunity on the talk show, claiming that our biggest cities are turning into ghettos.

Some analysts see, however, that his far-right anti-immigration rhetoric are the problem that will cause social exclusion and ghetoization.

With the usual poker face, Halla-aho tells us that all he want to do is avoid the problems that immigration brought to Sweden. He says on the [Tom Enbuske talk] show that Anders Breivik, the Norwegian mass killer is a mentally ill lone wolf, despite the fact that he quoted Halla-aho in his anti-Islam manifesto.  Certainly it’s convenient for Halla-aho to single out Breivik as a madman because it permits him to wash his hands of the probable impact his xenophobic rhetoric may have on others.

On a more positive note, the anti-immigration message that spread like wildfire in Finland before the parliamentary election appears to have met greater scrutiny today by the media, some politicians and the general public.  A case in point is the Helena Eronen scandal that suggested   “armbands” for foreigners.

One typical debate and public-relations stunt used by Halla-aho and his far-right group is profiling themselves as white Finland’s saviors and victims of the media.  He claims that in Finland one cannot have a different opinion concerning immigration despite the fact that it was his anti-immigration message got him elected to parliament in the first place.

Below are two classic videoclips that Halla-aho doesn’t regret. On the one immediately below he warns “most Finnish cities will be surrounded by a ring of burning ghettos.”  Finland’s foreign population in 2010-11 totalled 167,954 people, or a mere 3.1% of the total poulation.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=fvwp&NR=1&v=30SSbpq-o_A]

Here is another one that was used in last  year’s parliamentary election. The campaign ad asks if multiculturalism is a “too hot potato” for Finland? Note the turban on the potatoe. Isn’t it from India?

Multiculturalism means for Halla-aho an immigration policy that permits Muslims and Africans from moving to Finland and Europe.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=L0zgxL8l_xg]

These videoclips were taken from Jussi K. Nieminen’s Facebook page.