Playing dumb or dead to the threat of far-right groups is a political statement or reveals you are either lazy, naive, or white..
While it is a positive matter that the Finnish media is shedding light on two long-time bedfellows: the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* and far-right groups, even so, the question we should ask is why now if this was common knowledge for a long time?
One reason could be our propensity to play dumb or silent to the growing threat of far-right groups.
Isn’t it shameful and a slap in the face to all of our noble social welfare advancements that the biggest opposition party, the PS, is a xenophobic radical-right party?
Who cares?
A lot of people in Finland who don’t want this country to be driven by xenophobia to the lap of a Finnish Viktor Orbán are rightfully worried.
Tero Ala-Tuuhonen, the attempted murder suspect who tried to kill Pekka Kataja, is posing with some far-right Kansallismielisten liitouma activists. The circled persons all have ties to the PS. Source: Twitter
Kansallismielisten liitouma was originally founded by the Soldiers of Odin, a far-right vigilante groups that the police and many politicians supported in the face of a record number of asylum seekers to Finland in 2015.
Yes, I am surprised that you may be surprised by this fact that the PS and far-right groups are bedfellows.
Those who claim that we should ignore the racist narrative of parties like the PS and their far-right buddies are leaving our country’s future to chance.
We cannot allow this to happen.
With your help we’ll stop it and nip it off the bud.
Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Petri Huru states in his Twitter account that his goal is to keep Finns safe. He is a chief fireman and a practical nurse.Noble professions but can trust Huru’s judgement?
A question: What are you, MP Huru, doing smiling in a picture below with far-right activist Tero Ala-Tuuhonden? Isn’t he the person who was arrested by the police on Friday for attempted murder?
PS MP Huru: You have poor judgment and I would never trust you with my life. You are also a big fan of PS MEP Laura Huhtasaari. Source: Twitter
Even if you want to forget, Ala-Tuuhonen is the far-right Kansallismielisten liittouma chairperson who hangs around with neo-Nazis and people of your party, like you. He even recently wrote that a culture war has begun in Finland.
Remember, who is Pekka Kataja? Of course, you do. He is the PS campaign manager whom Ala-Tuuhonen and Teemu Torssonen, a far-right politician that your party sacked 2019, brutally attacked.
The Finnish parliament voted Friday not to lift Juha Mäenpää’s parliamentary immunity, which needed a five-sixths majority; 121 voted in favor and 54 against. A total of 24 MPs were absent.
Those who voted against were 37 Perussuomalaiset Party MPs, 6 Center Party MPs, 5 Christian Democrat MPs, 4 National Coalition Party MPs, 1 Movement Now MP, 1 MP Ano Turtiainen.
The Finnish parliament (Eduskunta) showed once again its racism, bigotry, and fascism in an over four-hour debate on lifting Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Juha Mäenpää’s parliamentary immunity from prosecution.
Lst week, the constitutional law committee voted 12-5 to lift MP Mäenpää’s immunity after he compared asylum seekers last year with “an invasive species.”
Another worrisome matter that the debate about Mäenpää’s parliamentary immunity showed is the snail pace of justice. Prosecutor General Raija Toivianen’s decision to charge Mäenpää for ethnic agitation happened in January, about six months after Mäenpää’s infamous outburst.
One typical complaint by victims of racism, hate speech, and hate crime is that due justice takes too long in Finland.
While it appears that Mäenpää’s immunity will not be lifted on Friday, the likely vote will be another blow to the parliament’s credibility by Finland’s anti-racism, migrant and minority communities.
Mäenpää can lose his parliamentary immunity if five-sixths of parliament or 167 out of 200 MPs vote in favor. The PS can block the proposal with its 38 MPs.
Wednesday’s debate in parliament revealed as well how racism, especially Islamophobia, has deep roots in Finland. Left Alliance MP Paavo Arhimäki highlighted some of the excuses given by MPs for Mäenpää’s racist behavior.
According to Arhimäki, some of the excuses used by PS, National Coalition Party, and Christian Democrat MPs were, “choosing his words incorrectly, it was a gag, a joke, a slip [of the tongue], a bad joke, those who don’t understand [what he said] have no sense of humor.”
Social Democratic MP Hussein Al-Tee said that he hoped that members of parliament would stop using labels that Other people like himself.
“I don’t deserve it, nobody else deserves it, and this hall should be a place that unites Finns,” he said and continues later on. “I hope that this hall will not be used to Other people like myself and people belonging to my [ethnic] group.”
MP Hussein Al-Tee speaking bfore parliament on Wednesday. Source: Yle.
Al-Taee pointed the finger at PS Chairperson Jussi Halla-aho, who labeled him last week a fake refugee (partalapsi).
“He [Halla-aho] gave incorrect information about my [refugee] background and It felt really bad [what he said],” he added. “Finns are those people who are ready to commit to our laws, regulations, work and pay taxes. If they are unable to do so, society will help them get on the right road.”
Even if Mäenpää and the PS continue to deny that they didn’t mean to label any group with “invasive species,” few will disagree that he meant asylum seekers and Muslims.
In Finland, asylum seeker is code for Muslim.
According to the National Geographic, “An invasive species is an organism that is not indigenous, or native, to a particular area. Invasive species can cause great economic and environmental harm to the new area.”
PS MPs played down what Mäenpää said as did others of the Christian Democratic Party, National Coalition Party, and Center Party.
PS MPs like Kristian Laakso considered the whole parliamentary debate “nonsense” and a waste of time. “Is this debate worth it ?” he asked.
Another PS MP, Mauri Peltokangas, who is a member of Suomen Sisu, slammed the debate an “inquisition.” PS parliamentary group leader Ville Tavio went as far as to say that if we take steps to limit criticism of Islam, it is a step from being a civilized country to one that is “a stone-age Islamic state.”
Opposition Christian Democrat MP Päivi Räsänen said that lifting Mäenpää’s immunity is questionable since hate speech isn’t clearly outlined in the law (sic).
As mentioned, a number of PS MPs are members of the far-right Suomen Sisu association, which recommends white Finns not to marry outside their group.
Some PS MPs who are Suomen Sisu members include Olli Immonen, Jenna Simula, Mäenpää and Peltokangas, among others who were former members like Halla-aho and Juho Eerola.
Suomen Sisu chairperson Henri Hautamäki published on the same day as the debate in parliament a provocative blog entry titled “Total cultural war.”
While most of the text is a rant for Finnish white supremacist consumption, Hautamäki claims that the #BlackLivesMatter movement is a Marxist conspiracy by minorities to destroy Western culture and institutions.
Encouraging people to take action against such a conspiracy, the Suomen Sisu chairperson said that universities and the education system should be “cleaned” of non-nationalistic influences. Other institutions that should come under the control of the people is the media, the role of the state must be changed, according to him.
The only Finnish media to comment about Hautamäki’s column was Kansan Uutiset.
In one recent 2:36-minute monologue, which was taken down, Peltokangas used the following swear words every 20 seconds:
Shit (paska): 2 times
Fucked (perseestä): 2 times
What the hell, hell (mitä helevetti, helevetti): 2
The devil (perkele): 2
A Peltokangas monologue is like watching Benito Mussolini speaking from a balcony.
There are differences, however. One speaks Finnish and the other Italian; one wears glasses on his forehead while the other one does not wear glasses; one was in politics from the 1920s until he was hung lifeless by the feet in Milan in 1945, while the other one is building a political career today.
Check out the two videos and their loud-mouthed crude populist pomposity below and tell me if Peltokangas and Mussolini aren’t two peas in a pod.
For some strange reason, the video below where Peltokangas rants like Mussolini was taken down.
Since the PS are in government, they have been trying to clean up their acts. This involved whitewashing their racist rants.
Perussuomalaiset (PS) chairperson Jussi Halla-aho is on a roll: Heading south in opinion polls, he now wants Finland to ditch the euro “immediately.” That follows another demand: exit international refugee agreements so that no Muslims can seek asylum in Finland.
If Halla-aho, who is considered Finland’s number one racist politician, has his way, it will isolate the country in the same way as Hungary and help install a fascist state.
Trump’s biggest fans in Finland are Jussi Halla-aho and the PS. In the tweet above, he states that he digs Trump and believes that the US president is the best thing that happened to the United States and the Western World. Source: Twitter.
An old friend from New York who has lived in Finland for over forty years does not believe that the PS will ever have the opportunity to turn Finland into a Hungary.
“I look at it this way,” he said, “even if 17%-18% of people vote for this party it means that over 80% don’t.”
Moreover, for the PS to turn Finland into a fascist state based on ethnonationalism, they’d have to get a simple majority or 2/3 of the seats in parliament to change the constitution.
Even if people know that the PS is nothing more than racist and populist hot air, the ineptitude of the party will be their final judge and downfall.
The Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party decided today to found a new youth association after the previous one, PS Youth, was replaced by a new one called Perussuomalainen nuoriso, or unofficially Young Perusssuomalaiset, reports Helsingin Sanomat.
Last week, the former PS Youth turned down a motion from the parent party to change the bylaws and force its members also to be members of the party.
Six days before the vote on Saturday, former PS Youth second vice president Toni Jalonen admitted he is “an ethnonationalist, traditionalist, and fascist.”
Even if the PS party leadership likes to speak in code to convey to its voters that they support ethnonationalism and fascism, Jalonen’s candid statement was too much for the party.
PS MP Jenna Simula is the chairperson of the new youth association. In the city council elections in Oulu, she told voters that she planned to be a “nazi” after being elected councilperson. She proudly states that she is a PS politician that is against “harmful” migration. Simula’s far-right colors come from her membership in Suomi Sisu, a Nazi-spirited association. She was PS MP and Suomen Sisu chairperson Olli Immonen’s aide.
Surprise, surprise, the new vice president of the youth association is Asseri Kinnun, the former chairperson of PS Youth.
Asseri Kinnunen posing in front of a Suomen Sisu rollup in fascist attire from the 1930s Lapua Movement and Patriotic People’s Movement (Isänmaalinen kansanliike, IKL).
The new youth association of the PS is a farce. The only thing that changed is the control that the parent party has over the association.
The Toni Jalonen story of the former Perussuomalaiset (PS)* second vice president who resigned because he said he was a fascist, is an opportunity for Finland to take a long and deep look in the mirror.
Above all, it is an opportunity to look at the hypocrisy within the PS and political culture. It also reveals the lack of teeth of the media.
Jalonen gives the thumbs up to PS chairperson Jussi Halla-aho on keeping Finland white and Muslim-free and people of color-free.
Toni Jalonen is a hardcore ethnonationalist and a fascist. In the tweet, he “totally agrees” with Halla-aho that the PS does not want a Finland that is culturally diverse Finland. Source: Twitter.
Here is the question: How can a country like Finland find sympathy for a party that promotes ethnonationalism, far-right ideology, and fascism?
About 20% of Finland’s population are hardcore racists who like or agree with fascism;
We deny what the PS is because acknowledging it would be saying something ugly about ourselves. It’s like the story of the alcoholic who has a difficult time admitting that he has a drinking problem and must go to Alcoholics Anonymous.
Disagree?
Why, then, doesn’t the media put PS chairperson Jussi Halla-aho in the hot seat and ask him about his racist and far-right writings? Wasn’t he convicted of ethnic agitation and breaching the sanctity of religion in 2012? Yes.
And just a fast comment about PS Youth chairperson Asseri Kinnunen, who voted Saturday for a change in the bylaws of the youth association, is seen standing in fascist attire from the 1930s Lapua Movement and Patriotic People’s Movement (Isänmaalinen kansanliike, IKL).
Are you too a fascist PS Youth chairperson Asseri Kinnunen? What’s with the black shirt, blue tie and that Nazi-spirited Suomen Sisu rollup behind you? Source: Toopics.
If I had the opportunity to get an answer from these PS politicians, I’d ask them to elaborate on the following questions about their far-right political program:
The PS wants to bar Muslims and people of color from coming to Finland. Does this mean that you will ditch international agreements like the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, the European Convention on Human Rights and the UN Declaration of Human Rights?
Does the PS believe that these radical changes, which would imply Finland leaving the EU, are possible?
The PS wants to scrap hate speech laws. How will you assure that migrants and minorities won’t become victims of racist harassment and hate crime?
Could the PS define what is racism and social equality?
What does social equality mean? Is it only a white Finnish right?
Your party clearly states that it does not want Finland to be culturally and ethnically diverse. (Duh. It already is). If this is the case, and it is, what are you going to do about all those who are not white like you and live in Finland?
Is the PS going to put them in camps, islands and/or send them back to where they, their parents or grandparents came from?
When the PS speaks of making radical changes in immigration law, does this mean that migrants and minorities will become officially treated as second- and third-class citizens before the law?
Tell us specifically what would Finland look like if you had your way in changing immigration law and the constitution? What would you do to people who oppose such changes?
I suspect that the PS would only answer these questions totally off the record and anonymously.
Not obtaining the two-thirds majority needed to change the bylaws, the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* Youth turned down a motion from the party to change its bylaws 56 votes in favor to 45 against. The vote was a definite setback to PS chairperson Jussi Halla-aho.
Even if the party will make a decision in early March on how to proceed after the vote, it means that PS Youth will split from the parent party.
The only ones who appear surprised by the result is the PS leadership. Under Halla-aho, the party has promoted, even encouraged, ethnonationalism and fear-mongered about how white Finns will become a minority in their own country thanks to Muslim migrants.
PS party secretary Simo Grönroos, who is a declared ethnonationalist and a member of the fascist-spirited Suomen Sisu, confirmed after the vote that the party would establish a new youth association.
“Of course it is important that the party has its own youth organization,” he was quoted saying in Yle News, “so yes the party will found its own youth wing.”
Halla-aho is in the same quandary as former PS leader Timo Soini when internal power struggles were waged between him and the far-right Islamophobes led by Halla-aho.
Thanks to a media that is normally toothless in confronting PS politicians with tough questions, and other politicians who fear that opposing the PS’ racist policies may be counterproductive, Halla-aho and his cronies have had an easy ride in Finland.
Former PS Youth second vice president Toni Jalonen, changed that momentarily when he admitted over the weekend at a conference in Estonia that he is “an ethnonationalist, traditionalist, and a fascist.”
Some may believe that the big news from the weekend is that the former second vice president of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* Youth, Toni Jalonen, admitted publicly to being “an ethnonationalist, traditionalist, and a fascist.”
Reaction to what Jalonen affirmed came fast and hard after it hit social media. National Coalition Party (Kokoomus) leader Petteri Orpo stated that “Halla-aho’s circus is mixed up,” and all of the parties’ youth leagues pledged not to work with PS Youth only after they renounced ethnonationalism and fascism.
Jalonen fascist affirmation was followed over the weened by other PS outbursts from MP Ano Turtainen, who wrote that civil war was inevitable if Christian Democrat MP Päivi Räsänen is charged and convicted of ethnic agitation. European MP Laura Huhtasaari sent us to the twilight zone as well when she said in an interview that Kokoomus is a Communist Party.
Jalonen and the PS Youth’s third vice president, Tomer Souranto, resigned as well on Tuesday due to the scandal. Even if the PS tries to wash its hands of what happened, there are some unanswered questions lingering: Did Jalonen represent only himself or PS Youth) Did PS Youth pay for his and Souranto’s trip to the Etnofutur IV event in Tallinn?
If you look at the Etnofutur IV program below, Jalonen is listed as a Nazi-spirited Suomen Sisu and PS Youth representative.
Former PS Youth second vice president Toni Jalonen speaking on behalf of Suomen Sisu and Perussuomalaiset Youth. Source: Facebook. Top picture and in “good” company: Toni Jalonen (left) at the Etnofutur IV conference posing with the Estonian Minister of Finance Martin Helm of the far-right EKRE party, former PS Youth third vice president Tomer Souranto and EKRE party member Ruuben Kaalep. Bottom left photo: Kaalep and far-right French leader Marine Le Pen giving the white power sign. Bottom right: Helm and father, interior minister Mart Helm giving the white power sign in parliament. Source: Yle, ERR News, and Migrant Tales.Toni Jalonen and some PS Youth members from Satakunta showing the white power sign in a February 15, 2020 posting. Writes the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) about the white power sign: “In 2017, the ‘okay’ hand gesture acquired a new and different significance thanks to a hoax by members of the website 4chan to falsely promote the gesture as a hate symbol, claiming that the gesture represented the letters ‘wp,’ for ‘white power.’ The ‘okay’ gesture hoax was merely the latest in a series of similar 4chan hoaxes using various innocuous symbols; in each case, the hoaxers hoped that the media and liberals would overreact by condemning a common image as white supremacist.”Source: Facebook.
If we are fair, PS chairperson Halla-aho’s irritation with what happened isn’t what Jalonen said, but that he sees such statements by his followers as a challenge to his leadership.
We saw a lot of this when Timo Soni, the former chairperson of PS, led the party. The Halla-aho faction that made racism in the cornerstone of its political message finally succeeded at ousting Soini in disgrace.
There is one sentence in Tuesday’s Yle A-studio that reveals the latter when Halla-aho admitted that he was “surprised” by Jalonen’s statement and saw it as “a provocation.”
Where has Halla-aho’s stuck his head during the past years? How can he forget what he’s written and where he has published his far-right racist writings? Let’s not kid ourselves, fascism and other far-right nonsense are an integral part of the party’s message.
Usually, the message comes out in code, but now Jalonen decided to open up and spill the beans dressed with the colors of the 1930s Finnish fascist Patriotic People’s Movement (Isänmaalinen kansanliike): “Today I am an ethnonationalist, traditionalist, and a fascist [clapping].”
Jalonen’s scandalous statement isn’t the only matter that points to the PS’ liking of fascism. Check out the PS Youth logo. It also flirts with ethnonationalism and fascism. Risto Laakkonen once said that when you start to talk about Finns as a tribe, you start to flirt with racism.
What does this PS Youth logo evoke? White Finnish traditions, ethnonationalism, and racism under the guise of fascism.
If Finland is so much against racism and fascism as mainstream politicians and policy-makers want us to believe, how do you explain the popularity of the PS?
There are two explanations, in my opinion:
About 20% of Finland’s population are hardcore racists who like or agree with fascism;
We deny what the PS is because acknowledging it would be saying something ugly about ourselves. It’s like the story of the alcoholic who has a difficult time admitting that he has a drinking problem and must go to Alcoholics Anonymous.
There is no doubt in my mind that the PS is a threat to Finnish society and our way of life. Flirting with it or being a bedfellow will not change or tame the party.
If the PS had their way, Muslims and people of color would be treated worse than in the United States at the expense of neoliberal economic policies. The borders would be shut to non-EU asylum seekers. It would mean that Finland would ditch its international agreements and become a copy of Viktor Orbán’s Hungary. Welcome gross human rights abuses.
The PS is a nightmare that would become real if ever in government.
