Tag: Far-right parties

HS in English: Europe’s true populists

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Comment: It’s refreshing to read the work of a journalist like Lisa Bjurwald, who published on Monday her book, ”Europe’s Shame – Racists on the Rise.” Migrant Tales hasn’t let the Perussuomaliset (PS) party off the hook even if its leader, Timo Soini, and countless others assure us that they are a normal party that does not exploit and incite xenophobia, racism and fear. 

Writes HS in English: “Even though the True Finns are regarded in Finland as different from other populist parties, it is not true, Bjurwald claims. According to Bjurwald, it is typical of populism to appear ‘special.’ For example, in Hungary it is always argued that the right-wing Jobbik Party, which is calling for special separated-off areas for the Roma minority, has to be seen in the Hungarian context, as there the Roma are quite a special case.”

How one should treat a party like the PS in the media should not be difficult. Even so, we have had countless debates on Migrant Tales on what to call Suomen Sisu, which is more extreme than the PS. 

Migrant Tales does not have to cite the secret police or any other source to decide what describes an association like Suomen Sisu best. If we look at the racial views of the association, it can be described as “Nazi spirited” or even “Klu Klux Klan spirited.”  

HS in English continues quoting Bjurwald: ”Then we hear these statements like ”When in Rome, do as the Romans do”, which do not have any concrete content, but they increase the feeling of insecurity among a certain part of the population, for example immigrants.” 

The Swedish journalist is right by saying that there is high moral standard and leadership lacking in society. We are talking about a black spot on our democracy, she says. 

“Everyone can decide for themselves whom to vote for,” Bjurwald concludes. “But if the decision is made on the basis of false information and inspired with fear, someone has to say ’Stop.’” 

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By Anna-Liina Kauhanen in Stockholm 

The True Finns’ victory in Finland’s general elections gives Sweden and the entire European Union a lot to digest, says journalist Lisa Bjurwald from Stockholm, who watches the populist far-right parties.

Read whole story.

How to confront anti-immigration parties in the Nordic region

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

The societies of the Nordic countries are still models for the rest of Europe and the world when it comes to social justice, equality, and inclusion. Slower economic growth is not the only threat that they face today, but an ever-growing minority that believes that exclusion of certain groups is acceptable.  

Is there such a thing as selective suspicion or hatred? Can you hate one group and claim to be not hate another? What happens to us if we begin to exclude some and include others in our society?

Far right and right-wing populist parties like the Perussuomalaiset  of Finland, Danish People’s Party, Progress Party of Norway, and Sweden Democrats have grown in recent years thanks to their anti-immigration rhetoric.

If there is a threat to the Nordic welfare state system and the values that uphold it, it is these parties’ anti-immigrant message that goes much deeper and further than meets the eye.

For one, and if we permit it, their view of society creates a paradox that will end up checkmating those values we hold so dear to us. You cannot further the cause of  social equality while on the other hand you aim to make other groups unequal.

Martin Luther King Jr. dealt with centuries of hatred and suspicion when he led and inspired others to the US Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

Even if anti-immigration groups are hostile in their approach to their imagined and real enemies like immigrants, we must never succumb to their brand of hatred. We must remember King Jr. words: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

It should be one of the rallying cries of our cause.

Supo: Suomen Sisu is an extremist group

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Kari Harju, Finnish secret police Supo regional security chief, classified Suomen Sisu as an extremist organization. He made the statement Monday in Ylen A-studio. 

As Migrant Tales readers know, there has been some debate about what kind of organization Suomen Sisu is. Citing Supo, Finnish Criminal Police (KRP) and an academic, the Council for the Mass Media (JSN), has called the association “Nazi spirited.”

Harju said that while he did not consider Suomen Sisu “Nazi spirited” but he did see it as an extremist group.

Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP Juho Eerola, who is a member of Suomen Sisu, denied in Ylen A-studio that the association was extremist.

He played down on Uusi Suomi what Harju said about the association.  “Some consider the police an extremist organization,” he said.

What would you describe an association that believes in “racial hygiene” and recommends against Finns marrying foreigners? Migrant Tales would call that racist, extremist and Nazi-spirited due to its racial views.

Nazism is the antithesis of cultural diversity.

A-studio 7.11.2011 TV1 klo 21:00: Onko perussuomalaisilla yhteyksiä äärijärjestöihin?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

It would be interesting to have a debate on Migrant Tales after the A-studio report today at 9pm that asks if the PS has connections to far right groups.

If this question were asked of Migrant Tales the answer would be a definite yes. Some extremist organizations that come to mind are Suomen Sisu and blogs like The Gates of Vienna, where PS MP Jussi Halla-aho written.

Even though far right associations are bonded ideologically by anti-EU, anti-immigration and especially anti-Muslim sentiment, they are the same beast that roamed the political landscape in the before and after 1930s. Some call these groups Counter-Jihadists whose ideas were used by mass killers like Anders Breivik in Norway.

guardian.co.uk: Far right on rise in Europe, says report

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Comment: A long-awaited study published today by Demos think tank asks if populism is the future face of Europe. 

The guardian.co.uk writes: “The study reveals a continent-wide spread of hardline nationalist sentiment among the young, mainly men. Deeply cynical about their own governments and the EU, their generalised fear about the future is focused on cultural identity, with immigration – particularly a perceived spread of Islamic influence – a concern.”

When asked to mention what factors they disliked most about the EU, the respondents stated: waste of money (59%), not enough control over external borders (58%), loss of our cultural identity’ (56%), more crime (46%) and bureaucracy (36%).

If we look at PS Facebook respondents, they scored higher than average than the rest. Seventy-four percent considered the EU a “waste of money,” 62% said there wasn’t “enough control over external borders,” and 69% stated “loss of cultural identity.” PS respondents scored the highest  together with Die Freiheit of Germany on “loss of cultural identity.”

Concerns over immigration and Islamic terrorism were the respondents two main concerns. The highest score was by France’s far right (Bloc Identitaire, 67% and National Front 57%) compared with an average of 37%;  PS scored 33%.  Fifteen percent (25% on average for the whole group) of the PS saw Islamic terrorism as a threat.

While the PS claimed in September that preliminary findings of the Demos study claimed that the party is violent, the think tank has denied such allegations.

Do you agree that the populist and far right parties that base their campaigns on anti-EU, anti-immigration and anti-Islam sentiment will continue to grow in Europe?

You can download the full report here.

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Peter Walker and Mathew Taylor

The far right is on the rise across Europe as a new generation of young, web-based supporters embrace hardline nationalist and anti-immigrant groups, a study has revealed ahead of a meeting of politicians and academics in Brussels to examine the phenomenon.

Read whole story.

Multilingual Mania: Dehumanizing Immigrants-Lies and More Distorted Lies

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Comment: Here is an interesting column on Multilingual Mania that could be a good wakeup call to us how anti-immigration matters could turn nasty in Europe and Finland.

What would happen if we substituted some words in the blog entry below terms like Arizona  for Europe or Finland? Do these statements sound eerily familiar today in our part of the world, even if they were said in another continent? 

“We’ve seen it over and over–measurement of the skull incompatible cultural traits to prove that African Americans people from outside Europe were inferior and deserved to be enslaved  treated as third-class citizens, the depiction of indigenous Native Americans Muslims and Africans as wild savages living in the stone age who needed to be ripped away from their cultures and re-educated assimilated, and the idea that all Arabs are either radical terrorists or culturally inferior, and far too many other instances.”

And: “The lies paint a portrait of immigrants as drug dealers, child molesters rapists, leaches, thieves, murderers, and other big, bad, evil monsters. This video discusses and confronts some of the lies, mistruths, and distortions of information that are coming out of the mouth of authority figures regarding immigration.”

The spreading of lies and exaggerations by Finnish anti-immigration politicians have been handsomely rewarded by the way of votes. It has helped a party like the Perussuomalaiset to become the second largest in Finland. Alejandro Chávez, the son of the famous United Farm Workers activist César Chávez, said: “People will suffer not the politicians (spreading these lies).”

 Do you think that media and people in this country should be more outspoken against those politicians that are using the anti-immigration card to reap political benefits?

Are we too soft on them? 

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It’s a classic trick of the racists to paint a portrait of a people so horrible that it makes anything that is done to them to be justifiable. It’s quite a brilliant idea, really, to be able to paint such a nasty picture of someone in the mind of the public without many people hardly even catching on to the trick. This strategy serves to dehumanize people, stripping them of their humanity and making them into objects that deserve to be tamed, oppressed, and controlled.

Read whole story.

The PS’ lame stance on neo-Nazism

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

The resignation of Perussuomalaiset (PS) party aide, Ulla Pyysalo, didn’t come as a surprise. One of the most incredible matters about the Pyysalo case is the silence of the party and how PS MP Juho Eerola played down the Nazigate affair. Has Eerola and the PS made it clear that they will not tolerate neo-Nazi organizations? One wonders. 

Let’s look at the sequence of events.

At first Eerola, who belongs to far-right associations like Suomen Sisu and who has praised Benito Mussolini’s economic system, plays down the whole affair by claiming that Pyysalo joined the neo-Nazi associaiton, Suomen Kansallinen Vastarinta (SKV), when she was a member of the Center Party.

The PS’ Nazigate scandal takes on a new twist on Thursday when Pyysalo decides to “sacrifice” herself by resigning as Eerola’s aide only if she finds a new job, according to YLE. Irrespective of her apparent neo-Nazi sympathies, she plans to remain a card-carrying PS member.

Does the Pyysalo case draw a clear line between neo-Nazi associations the the PS?

Sadly it does not, even Ossi Mäntylahti asks in his Uusi Suomi column if its ok to be a Nazi and a PS member.

The “big far-right fish” are still members of Timo Soini’s party and in parliament. Even though these PS MPs like Eerola may not directly belong to a neo-Nazi association, they do belong in Nazi-spirited ones.

The whole Pyysalo case reinforces as well that the PS is a wild card ideologically that can transform itself, self-destruct or inspire others to far-right causes.

Eerola’s aide is no stranger to the racist and homophobic world, when she published a “joke” in July on Facebook about Green MP Jani Toivola, who is black and gay.

YLE Kymeenlakso: Juho Eerola ei tue Pyysalon erottamista

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Comment: Is it a surprise that Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP Juho Eerola, who has far-right ties to associations like Suomen Sisu, does not want to fire his aide, Ulla Pyysalo, for belonging to a neo-Nazi organization? 

Eerola was quoted as saying on YLE Kymeenlakso that the whole Pyysalo affair has taken “comical proportions.”

The PS board will take up Pyysalo’s case on November 19. It will be interesting to see what the party will decide.

If Eerola’s aide isn’t banned from the PS, what kind of a message does it send to others? The obvious answer is that it is ok to belong to a neo-Nazi organization and be a PS member. 

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Kotkalaisen kansanedustajan Juho Eerolan lappeenrantalainen avustaja Ulla Pyysalo haki 2 vuotta sitten kansallissosialistisen Suomen vastarintaliike -järjestön jäsenyyttä. Juho Eerolan sanojen mukaan olisi mieletöntä erottaa Pyysalo puolueesta vain sen vuoksi, että hän on tullut järkiinsä ja jättänyt liittymättä natseihin.

Read whole story.

Using Finnish “fatherland” patriotism to justify neo-Nazism

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

The Ulla Pyysalo case has turned some Perussuomalaiset (PS) party faces red. Her name came up on a membership list of a neo-Nazi organization Suomen Kansallinen Vastarinta (SKV) after hackers broke into the www.patriootti.com website over the weekend. 

When reading Pyysalo’s explanation on Uusi Suomi for being on the SKV membership list, it’s difficult to say what is more shocking: her membership in the neo-Nazi association or lame excuses.

Attempting to brush her SVL membership conveniently under the rug, Pyysalo asks on Uusi Suomi why she and PS MP Jussi Halla-aho are being punished but nothing ever happens to PS MP Teuvo Hakkarainen?

Her membership in SVL will be brought up at a PS board meeting on November 19, according to Nelonen TV.

Her boss, PS MP Juho Eerola’s explanation are just as ludicrous as his aide’s. He told the media that the case has no bearing since Pyysalo became a SVL member two years ago, when she was a Center Party member.

Eerola’s support for Pyysalo is understandable since he belongs to the far-right Suomen Sisu association. The MP from Kotka once wrote how he admired Benito Mussolini’s eonomic system because there was no unemployment.

Pyysalo is no stranger to the racist and homophobic world, when she published a “joke” in July on Facebook about Green MP Jani Toivola, who is black and gay.

Other politicians that have popped up on the SKV list are Tuomas Okkonen, a PS local politician from Oulu, and Nino Nevalainen, a Left Alliance (independent) councilman from the Häme region.

I am certain that sensible Finns are just as outraged as I am about how a far-right group within a right-wing populist party sits in our parliament.

There is nothing “patriotic” about racism and hating different minorities never mind glorifying Nazi Germany. Some 40 million people died in World War 2 due to Nazism.

It’ll be interesting to see how the PS handles the Pyysalo case. Will it slap her hand for being a member of SVL or show her the door?

The PS will never be a credible party as long as it houses extremists of the worst order.

People like Pyysalo have not only hijacked the term “patriotism” but have given it a bad name.

Hackers get far-right Kansallinen Vastarinta membership-request list

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Enrique Tessieri

The growing face of far-right Finland exposed itself Monday when some hackers succeeded at breaking into  www.patriootti.com’s  membership-request list. One of the red faces to appear was Tuomas Okkonen, a Perussuomalaiset (PS) party board vice president in Oulu.

Okkonen states on Facebook that he was “drunk” when he sought membership in the neo-Nazi association.

While the PS’ favorite excuses for their gaffes has been misinterpreted “satire” or “humor,”  Okkonen has taken such excuses to a new level: “I was drunk.”

Okkonen got caught lying: He said on his Facebook he sent his membership application a year ago when if fact it happened in summer.

UPDATE: Ulla Pyysalo, far-right PS MP Juho Eerola’s aide, was on the Suomen vastarintaliike (SVL) membership list as well, according to Ilta-Sanomat. Pyysalo apologized in July after making a racist and homophobic joke about Green MP Jani Toivola.

Eerola, who is vice president of the PS, how shown his far-right colors on a number of occasions. The Suomen Sisu association member has praised Benito Mussolini’s economic model because there was no unemployment.

This is what Okkonen wrote to the far-right association, SVL: “I am a city council member of the Perussuomalaiset party and I understand your ideology. You have my support!!!…After you hear what we (Perussuomalaiset?) have planned, (you’ll see that) we are both fighting for the same thing…I sent you my contact information. Please do not distribute it if you are fighting for the fatherland.”

Even though SKV is seen by some as a marginal extremist group, far-right extremism should never be underestimated.

Ossi Mäntylahti writes an interesting blog about the list that hackers got from www.patriootti.com. He reveals (in Finnish) the messages that these would-be members sent to SVL.

SKV is like many neo-Nazi ogranizations in Europe, who live in a delusional world about racial purity that date back to Germany and Europe of the 1930s.