Tag: Finland

Finland’s PM shows Halla-aho and his “new” far right Perussuomalaiset party the door

Posted on by Migrant Tales

It became clear in the afternoon that Halla-aho’s first day as the new chairman of the Perussuomalaiset (PS) ended with Center Party Prime Minister Juha Sipilä and National Coalition Party (NCP) chairperson Petteri Orpo showing the new chairperson the door.

Even if there was a question mark on Sunday if Prime Minister Sipilä and Orpo would continue to cooperate with the new chairperson of the PS, it became clear on Monday that such cooperation was impossible.

The trust that existed between the government and former PS chairperson Timo Soini had evaporated after Halla-aho’s election as chair of the PS.

Going to bed with Halla-aho would have been a roller-coaster ride that would have ended sooner or later.

A Somali who has lived in Finland as a child summed up what she thought about the “new” PS.

“[Timo] Soini’s departure from the PS clears up a lot of things,” said Nawal Mohamud of Helsinki. “For one, the party now shows its true colors and their attitude towards immigrants. Few Finns can say after Sunday that the PS isn’t a racist party.”

Juha Sipilä and Pettters Orpo announced in identical tweets that cooperation with the PS was over. “Talks are over. Our proposal to the parliamentary groups of the Center Party/National Coalition Party: there aren’t any conditions to continue cooperation with Halla-aho’s led PS.”

Some Finns have expressed fear that by excluding the PS from government will help prop up support for Halla-aho and his far right policies.

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The Finnish media gives a lot of space to Halla-aho and the PS but none to us

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It’s clear that the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* is a different party after this weekend, when Jussi Halla-aho, Laura Huhtasaari, Teuvo Hakkarainen and Juho Eerola were elected to lead the anti-immigrant and anti-EU party. Halla-aho spoke of in his policy speech of “nationalistic forces,” which is code for anti-immigration, anti-cultural diversity and anti-EU policies. 

Halla-aho said that the PS should align itself with such forces in the Nordic region, which means Islamophobic parties like the Danish People’s Party, Sweden Democrats and the Progress Party of Norway.

Halla-aho will meet at 10am with Center Party Prime Minister Juha Sipilä and National Coalition Party head Petteri Orpo about whether the PS will continue to be in government.

Read the full story here.

Considering that Halla-aho and PS second vice president Hakkarainen have convictions for ethnic agitation, and that Huuhtasaari and Eerola have a dubious reputation because of their acceptance of fascism and hostility towards cultural diversity, it is surprising that no newspaper in Finland asked a single Somali Finn, Muslim or visible minority what they thought about the “new” PS.

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The PS steers further right exposing its shameless Islamophobia, racism, bigotry and ultranationalism

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Like rubbing salt on Finland’s wound, Perussuomalaiset (PS)* newly elected chairman Jussi Halla-aho’s far-right anti-immigration policy got reinforcement after three Islamophobes were elected to lead the PS: Laura Huuhtasaari, Teuvo Hakkarainen and Juho Eerola were elected first, second and third vice-president, respectively.

Center Party Prime Minister Juha Sipilä stated Saturday that the election of Halla-aho meant that the PS is a different party when led by former chairman Timo Soini. ”The Perussuomalaiset is a completely new party with new policies now,” Sipilä was quoted as saying Saturday in YLE News.

 


The new chairman of the PS refusing to resign in 2012 because the sentence handed to him by the Supreme Court on ethnic agitation and breaching the sanctity of religion was “a personal interpretation.” Source: Migrant Tales.

 

The most interesting issue to watch isn’t what the next move of the newly elected board of the PS will be, but what will be the reaction of the party’s coalition partners, the Center Party and National Coalition Party. Will the PS exit or remain in government?

Will they let Halla-aho and his band of Islamophobes slide and will we see something politically toxic like in Denmark emerging? The PS has always had a semi-secret love affair with the Danish People’s Party (DPP). They have now come as close as ever to being that type of party in Finland.

The DPP thrives as we can see below on Islamophobia and spreading anti-immigration rhetoric in Denmark.

Source: Migrant Tales.

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Teivo Teivainen: How Finns Party’s Racist Turn Might Shake Government of Finland?

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Now it’s real. Finland’s government includes a party that just elected a person convicted for a racist crime (ethnic agitation) as its new leader. The question is obviously not simply about Jussi Halla-aho’s criminal record, but that the party has decided to take a turn away from its agrarian populist roots and toward racism.

What will happen next?

The leaders of other governmental parties have been unwilling to comment on this before the Finns Party election, but now they will have to start talking.

Read the original op-ed piece here.

Many eyes are on Kokoomus, the most traditional right-wing party of Finland and one of the three governmental parties. Its newly elected and quite popular Mayor of Helsinki, Jan Vapaavuori, has been one of the most explicit political leaders on this issue: Kokoomus should not be in the same government with Halla-aho. Will the desire to keep the government together make the leadership of Kokoomus opt for a more pragmatic solution?

The Centre Party has more to lose if the government breaks down. It has the prime minister’s post but would be unlikely to do all that well in a new election. One possible option is let go of Finns Party but find a couple of smaller parties to join the government and avoid new election.

Overall, most commentators do not seem to find new election very likely.

Whatever else happens, Finland is now likely to get a new Foreign Minister. Halla-aho has been very explicit that Timo Soini, the leader of the party for decades, has to step down also as a minister. Had Sampo Terho, Halla-aho’s main contender, been elected, Soini would probably have continued as minister.

More generally, the election of Jussi Halla-aho can be considered a sad end for the long and in many ways successful career of Timo Soini as the leader of Finns Party.

Among leftist commentators, opinions about the desirability of Halla-aho’s election have been divided. Some say that since both of the main candidates, Terho and Halla-aho, are almost equally racist or otherwise right-wing anyway, it is better to get the more explicitly racist person in front.

Compared to Terho, Halla-aho’s election is more likely to shake the current right-wing government of Finland and therefore cause trouble for the massive transformation (privatization) of health care that the government has been pushing through. Therefore, some leftists say, it is preferable to have Halla-aho in charge of the Finns Party.

These are simply some of the very first impressions immediately after the vote at the meeting of the Finns Party. The meeting still goes on, and Jussi Halla-aho is expected to give a major speech tomorrow Sunday. It is possible that the governmental coalition partners want to wait and see what he says. In any case, they will need to take a stand soon.

Read the original op-ed piece here.

This piece was reprinted by Migrant Tales with permission.

Jussi Halla-aho elected PS chairman. What happens next and will the party remain in government?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

While it’s no surprise that Perussuomalaiset (PS)* Jussi Halla-aho was the clear winner against Sampo Terho 949 votes against 629, the big question is how the PS’ government coalition partners Center Party and National Coalition Party (NCP) will digest Halla-aho’s victory.

Halla-aho will take over as chairman after Timo Soini led the party for 20 years.

A number of NCP politicians like forthcoming Helsinki Mayor Jan Vapaavuori was quoted as saying that his party cannot be in the same government where Halla-aho is PS chairman.  “It’s clear for me that the National Coalition Party cannot be in the same government with Halla-aho’s PS,” Vapaavuori was quoted as saying in tabloid Iltalehti. “It’s important to defend liberal democracy. The PS have to decide for themselves.”

Read the full story here.

NCP chairman Petteri Orpo has made similar statements about Halla-aho.

While Orpo and Vapaavuori have made it clear that it would be difficult to be in the same government with Halla-aho, don’t be surprised if everything will continue as normal after the new PS chairman meets Prime Minister Juha Sipilä on Monday.

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Nour Jamal’s art exhibition at the Asbestos Art Space: A journey to a safer life?

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Nour Jamal is one of the thousands of Iraqi asylum seekers who came to Finland in 2015. He came to Finland with his parents and sister in the hope of finding a better life free from war and where human rights are respected.

Jamal is holding an art exhibition from June 8-11 at the Asbestos Art Space located on Mäkelänkatu 45, 00550 Helsinki. 

Even if his parents were granted asylum, his sister’s and his application for asylum were rejected. They are appealing the decision by the Finnish Immigration Service.

“This art exhibition is all about struggle,” he said. “And about the uncertainty we face [as asylum seekers in Finland] because we still don’t know what is going to happen to us tomorrow.”

Jamal, who uses acrylic and ink in his paintings, said that he did these works of art “in less than a month.”

“It was really fast,” he said. “I painted in Iraq as well but I lacked the time and motivation.”

Jamal said that the painting above, “Faceless people,” is about asylum seekers crossing from Turkey to Greece. “They are faceless people because they can drown and nobody cares or wants to know who they are,” he said. On the upper left corner is Alayn Al-Kurdi, the three-year-old boy that became one of the most famous faceless people when his corpse was found washed ashore.

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Timo Soini (2013): “No. I’m a Catholic Christian by definition, I cannot be a racist”

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Check this interview dating back to 2013 in BBC’s HARDtalk when outgoing Perussuomalaiset (PS)* chairman plays down the party’s racism problem and defends MEP Jussi Hall-aho, who is going to purge him as foreign minister if elected as PS chairman. The PS elects over the weekend a new chairman with the two favorites being Halla-aho and Sampo Terho. 

Those who remember the HARDTalk interview can recall when Stephen Sacker grills Soini on his promise to fire any party member who is convicted for ethnic agitation. Soini backtracked and defended his decision not to sack Halla-aho, who had, according to him, suffered enough for his racist writings about Muslims.

Well, now, we’ve come full circle with Halla-aho appearing to be the favorite to become the next PS chairman. If elected, it spells trouble and humiliation for Soini.

A lesson to be learned?

For one, you cannot control racism and bigotry and keep it on a short leash, even if such a rabid dog attracts attention and lures voters.

Will we miss Soini as he bows out as chairman of the PS? Not at all. If you think of it, it’s him who gave Finland’s racist and anti-immigration groups a forum to lash out at our ever-growing culturally diverse community.

His rise and fall as PS chairman resembles the plot of the 1931 classic Frankenstein movie, where a monster is brought to life that later kills his creator.

Soini is Dr. Frankenstein and Halla-aho and a long list of others, the Frankensteins.

A good example of how journalists should handle politicians who use racism and bigotry to gain political power.

* The official translation to Finnish of the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party is the Finns Party. In our opinion, it is not only a horrible translation, but one that is misguided. A direct translation of Perussuomalaiset in English would be something like “basic” or “fundamental Finn.” Such terms like the Finns Party of True Finns promote as well in our opinion nativist nationalism and racism. We, therefore, at Migrant Tales prefer to use in our postings the Finnish name of the party once and thereafter the acronym PS.

 

 

Finland’s immigration policy is inhumane, ineffective, it shows our hostility towards asylum seekers from countries like Iraq

Posted on by Migrant Tales

It will soon be two years when large numbers of asylum seekers mainly from Iraq and Afghanistan came to Finland in hopes of moving to a country that would not only give them security but one that respects human rights and social equality. What they found, however, was totally different. 

Migrant Tales as well as others have written about the spiritual squalor of the asylum reception centers that aim to humiliate and destroy asylum seeker.

Disagree? How is it possible that an asylum seeker that faced peril on his or her journey to Finland ended up in an asylum reception center for a period that feels daily as indefinitely? On top of this insult to the asylum seekers’ integrity and a total slap in the face of our laws and values, the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) and Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s government wash their hands of the problem.

One asylum seeker explained his ordeal in Finland as an eternal nightmare he couldn’t wake up from.

Another one described his stay at the asylum reception center in the following words:

“Being at the asylum reception center has turned into a game of Russian roulette. You pull the trigger expecting the bullet to fire. But after a while, you notice that you’ve been fooled. There are no bullets in the revolver to put an end to [y]our suffering…”

One question that Migrant Tales’ Supermen, an investigative team, have been asking is if the long waiting periods for asylum seekers is part of a plan by the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) and Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s government to make life as miserable as possible for them. Are these people a part of Migri campaign to warn others not to come to Finland because “you’ll face hell.”

Although we still don’t know the answer, there is one matter that is certain: When a country like Finland treats asylum seekers in the way it does it reveals something very worrying about ourselves – outright hostility with a clear plan to kick as many as possible out from here.

The present government policy towards asylum seekers, which is seen in the tightening of immigration laws like family reunification, show that Migri and the government have lost touch with common decency and respect for asylum seekers. Allowing our hostility for asylum seekers to roam freely has made us much poorer as a society. 

In 2015, thousands of asylum seekers started to come to Finland. Source: The Finnish Immigration Service.

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Interior Minister Paula Risikko and National Police Commissioner Seppo Kolehminen are the great pretenders about racism

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I seem to be what I’m not you see.

The Platters – The great pretender

The recent scandal that came to light of a secret racist Facebook group comprising of about 2,800 police officials reveals everything about what racism is and how it survives in Finland. A big chunk of that racism is denial and playing down the social ill by public officials.

The Platters published a classic song in the 1950s called “The great pretender.”

While the lyrics of the song apply to a person in love, it applies perfectly to how Interior Minister Paula Risikko and National Commissioner Seppo Kolehminen “pretend” that racism and bigotry aren’t issues in the Finnish police service.

The Platters’ song is about a lover that lives in a bubble. Risikko and Kolehminen live in bubbles about Finland’s racism and bigotry problem in the police service.

Interior Minister Paula Risikko giving the thumbs up in February to a group of far-right Finland First demonstrators.

Most of the Finnish media pretends as well. A classic example of that denial is even if one third of the police force was a member of the secret Facebook group, racism isn’t an issue in that institution.

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The Finnish police service’s deep denial of racism among its ranks is no surprise

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The publishing of the racist comments in a secret Facebook group for the Finnish police by online news site Long Play shouldn’t surprise us, even if Interior Minister Paula Risikko  and National Police Commissioner Seppo Kolehminen suggest the contrary. 

A Somali Finn, who spoke on condition of anonymity, wasn’t surprised at all by the news of the secret Facebook group.

“The news doesn’t surprise me at all because the police in Finland are racist,” he said. “They can be racist and nothing happens to them. Who can you trust?”

According to Helsinki Times, some racists comments on the secret group’s wall include ridiculing the asylum seeker who attempted to commit suicide by hanging himself from a tree at Helsinki Station Square in March. The comment claimed that the hapless asylum seeker couldn’t even succeed at hanging himself.

Other comments argued that black people are inferior due to their culture and genetic makeup. The policeman substantiated his claim by stating that blacks hadn’t succeeded in any country.

The Facebook group shared articles from anti-immigration and racist groups like online magazine MV-lehti, far-right groups Suomen Sisu and Britain First.

The Facebook group consisted of over 2,800 members, or about one third of Finland’s police force of 7,000,according to Long Play.

Read the full story here.

Despite the Minister Risikko’s and National Police Commissioner Koleheminen’s constant assurances that the police service has zero tolerance for racism, the exposure of the secret Facebook group reveals much wider problems like denial and disrespect towards our ever-growing culturally diverse community.

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