The government of National Coalition Party (NCP) Prime Minister Petteri Orpo looks like after a year like a wrecking ball of Finland’s social welfare state. We have already seen how his government actions have undermined the labor market, social welfare, and emboldened hostile migration policy.
The next big step is the government’s plans to pass the pushback law, which would in effect trash Human Rights, the Constitution, and international law.
Despite these radical changes, voters offered a surprise: The Left Alliance placed second after the NCP with 17.3% in the recent MEP election.
The Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, relied on its anti-immigration message to get votes. It failed. The PS came in sixth place with only 13.8%.
The recent opinion poll by Yle revealed that the Left Alliance gained 11.6%, up 2.1 percentage points, which is a record for te party.
National Coalition Party MEP Henna Virkkunen is hoping to become an EU commissioner. However, there is a question: Is a person qualified if he or she would care less or very little if people die when coming to Europe?
In the 2019 MEP election, she responded in the Alma Meter election compass in the affirmative to the question 13*: “The EU must save all those migrants who are at risk of drowning attempting to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.”
Virkkunen “disagreed” that the EU must save those migrants crossing the Mediterranean from drowning.
In the 2024 election compass, Virkkunen still showed little regard for people crossing into the EU. Question 11 of Yle’s election compass asked a yes or no answer: “A person trying to reach Europe can be turned back at the border, even if it would put their life in danger.”
Virkkunen responded in the affirmative, yes, it was ok to push back the person even if his or her life were in danger.
Her response and possible naming as EU commissioner shows how low we have stooped in Europe.
How can the government be so worried about “national security” if you are ready to trash our most sacred rights like Human Rights, the Constitution, and international agreements?
The Draft Act on Temporary Measures to Combat Instrumentalised Migration, or the so-called pushback law, is not only concerning how the constitutional committee can sidestep our most sacred values as a society based on Human Rights, the Constitution, and international agreements but how politicians who should know better are demanding such changes.
It’s clear that the pushback law is not only a move to undermine our rights, but will lead to other changes by using the pretext of “national security.”
I lived in Argentina during one of its most violent military régimes. The way the military could throw Human Rights and the rule of law in the trash can was “defending national security.” To do this they committed atrocities that led to the disappearance of over 30,000 people.
After they got rid of their enemies, the left-wing guerrillas, they looked for “potential” terrorists. You read right. People who could become terrorists.
Finland’s shameful politicians of the pushback law are President Alexander Stubb, National Coalition Party (NCP) Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, Constituional Committee Chairperson Heikki Vestman, Perussuomalaiset (PS)* Interior Minister Mari Rantanen, Finance Minister Riikka Purra, Aministrative Committee Chairperson Mauri Peltokangas, and Justice Minister Leena Meri.
The above list is NOT conclusive. We can name many PS, NCP, and Center Party politicians who would fit the bill. One of these is former President Sauli Niinistö, who has had an ambiguously hostile view of asylum seekers and Russian dual citizens.
Upper left to right: President Alexander Stubb, Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, Constitutional Committee Chairperson Heikki Vestman (lower row left to right) Interior Minister Mari Rantanen, Finance Minister Riikka Purra, Administrative Committee Chairperson Mauri Peltokangas, and Justice Minister Leena Meri.
What anti-Human Rights “merits” do the following politicians have?
Alexander Stubb: After being elected president, Stubb has shown how little he regards Human Rights, the Constitution, international agreements, and minority rights. Apart from holding such values as suspect whenever it is convenient politically, his support of the pushback law can also be seen as payback to Petteri Orpo, who supported him as the NCP’s presidential candidate. His statements are political and lack the credibility of a statesman. One of these was toMTV, when he mentioned that the asylum seekers at the border are not “real” refugees.
Erna Bodstöm tweets: “In recent years, according to Migri, Yemenis and Syrians have practically always been granted asylum, and Iraqis and Ethiopians in at least half of the cases. So these people are genuine asylum seekers and many are likely to be eligible for protection.”
In the 2019 European Parliament election, Henna Virkkunen of the National Coalition Party agreed that the EU was not obligated to save people from drowning in the Mediterranean. She was in good company with the likes of Perussuomalaiset MEPs Laura Huhtasaari and Teuvo Hakkarainen.
Virkkunen reasoned that we should stop traffickers, even if it means allowing people to drown and die at sea.
After five years of being in the EU parliament, she still believes that people should die after being pushed back at the border.
Question 11 of Yle’s election compass: “A person trying to reach Europe can be turned back at the border, even if it would put their life in danger.”
The good news is that only five of Finland’s 15 MEPs would care less id people died trying to cross the border. These are three from the National Coalition Party (NCP), one Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, and one from the Center Party, which has a wishy-washy track record on immigration.
The Center Party MEP and then finance minister, Katri Kulmuni, posted in 2019 an Internet poll asking if repatriating “[Finnish] children only” or “children and [Finnish] mothers” from the al-Hol camp in Syria.
Tynkkynen, who was convicted three times for ethnic agitation, likes to give the image of a “tolerant” politician since he is gay and married to an African. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The last two, Mika Aaltola and Pekka Toveri, are fuelled by bravado and opportunism.
Aaltola is a media creation and Toveri is a general who likes to talk tough.
How to make a zero-tolerance winter recipe for boiled rocks in a pot, spreading fear and throwing the elderly, disabled, and low-income people into the woods.
Get fresh carefully planted governmental hate seeds and a handful of conspiracy-based theories.
Add to them as many social media posts and photos encouraging discrimination based on racial, ethnic, and religious background.
RWell grounded in your portfolio, a deep-rooted pinch of racial superiority to attract as many voters as possible.
Once it is ready, it doesn’t take long to cook, do not worry if you get far-right terrorism and racist crimes – it’s only collateral damage.
The recipe and prize for ‘Her Blue Eyes’ is a stench strong enough to cover up unfulfilled yellow promises of the Perussuomalaiset.*
Enough to cover up the unfulfilled yellow promises of Blonde Edward Scissorhands’ parody and the incompetence (didn’t do, can’t be blamed) of Mr. Blue, Blue Blue (code name 00 Zero tolerance).
If this recipe is done properly, it can affect your appetite to ask for more. For example, you can blame the victims, not directly of course, but by using them all in the same pot to promote ethnic profiling, body searches, and more (the thing with the badger symbolism-doctrine or way of being).
A naïve person’s question: Would Timo Vornanen be stopped, searched, or even suspected?
Would the 15-year-old suspect of the second Oulu stabbing at te Valkea shopping center be suspected?
Would Juhani Sebastian Lämsä , who was involved in the activities of the banned Nordic Resistance Movement, stab a 12-year-old child with a foreign background in almost the same place.
In the face of the far right in government, the only thing that Prime Minister Petteri Orpo can parrot is that we have a good government program.
The recent MEP election revealed how little credibility Prime Minister Petteri Orpo’s government has. The Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, suffered a stinging blow. The National Coalition Party (NCP) was spared by the good showing of three candidates, Mika Aaltola, Pekka Toveri, and Henna Virkkunen.
The election changed a lot of matters. For one, did it weaken the support of the pushback law getting the needed two-thirds majority? Has the PS’ stint in Orpo’s government shortened? Did the poor showing of the PS embolden some MPs not to give their vote of confidence Tuesday to PS Minister of Economic Affairs Wille Rydman?
Two stories with legal experts, university professors and other social influencers speaking out against the pushback law drafted by the government in Helsingin Sanomat and Yle.
The Draft Act on Temporary Measures to Combat Instrumentalised Migration, or pushback law is now at the constitutional committee. I am certain that its chairperson, Heikki Vestman of the NCP, would not think twice at throwing Finland’s Human Rights, international agreements and constitution under the bus. He does so because he falsely believes he’ll never become a refugee.
Moreover, and taking a look at other EU borders, it’s clear that in Finland will see violence, suffering, and death.
If we look at the brainchild and cheerleader of the pushback law, Interior Minister Mari Rantanen and the PS with the support of the NCP, we only have to look at her social media history to conclude that she is the last person we should be listening to.
Looking at Rantanen’s and the PS’ racist history can be found in social media. It is there, trying to desperately hide from the public’s view.
Below, are some of Minister Rantanen’s most racist and infamous quotes:
Just before the MEP election on 9 June, the PS reached up the fear-mongering of asylum seekers in its campaign brochureby picturing them as hoards.
After Perussuomalaiset (PS)* Finance Minister Riikka Purra was forced to eat her words after falsely claiming that the stabbing of a 12-year-old in Oulu was the work of youth gangs, few if any analysis is being made about the government’s hard-right immigration policy and its spread of conspiracy theories like the great replacement.
In racist code, “youth gangs” means non-white youths.
A twelve-year old boy, “who is a Finnish citizen but with a foreign background, was stabbed in Oulu Thursday. Source: Yle.
Fiancne Minister Purra and Interior Minister Mari Rantanen disguise far-right conspiracy theories like the great replacement as “statistics.” The most recent example was a talk a little over a week by Purra and Rantanen.
Migrant Tales has published many stories exposing how parties like the Perussuomlaiset (PS)* use migrant crime to attract support and votes. Finance Minister and PS Chairperson Riikka Purra jumped the gun Thursday by blaming a terrible stabbing in Oulu on “youth gangs.”
“Youth gangs” is code for black and brown youths.
Masters at making storms in tea cups, especially when it involves migrants and asylum seekers, Purra wishes in the first tweet a speedy recovery to the victim. In the second tweet, where she is forced to eat her words, Purra does not even wish a recovery apparently because the victim is a so-called “person with a migrant background.”
On Thursday, Purra tweeted (formerly Twitter):
“In broad daylight, in the middle of a shopping center, a young man is stabbed. I hope the victim survives. With street crime, gangs, etc., we are unfortunately following the same trend as in other [European] countries. The government is working, but it’s horrible, what have we arrived to in this country!”
On Friday, Purra was forced to eat her words.
Note that in the first tweet she blames “youth gangs” at the top but mentioned the suspect’s far-right ties at the end of the second tweet.
“Extremism, drugs, robberies, gangs – the problems are growing. We must take the deterioration in security seriously, increase penalties, and stop shying away from all kinds of violence. The victim in Oulu is 12 years old, the perpetrator has a background in the far-right movement, according to the police.”
These two tweets demonstrate how desperate the PS is after its stinging election defeat on Sunday.
I still remember clearly the 2011 general election when the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party saw the number of MPs surge to 39 from 5 previously. Some thought that the PS would implode as the Rural Party did in 1972.
It took over 13 years for the PS to suffer its worst election loss in the European parliamentary election, when it saw its support dive from 13.8% in 2019 with three MEPs to 7.6% to one MEP.
The shock of the MEP election result was written all over Riikka Purra’s and PS secretary Harri Vuorenpää’s faces. Source: Iltalehti.
Before the election and if opinion polls are to be believed, PS chairperson and Finance Minister Riikka Purra thought that the party would end up in third place with three MEPs.
The secret to the PS’ success would be its favorite scapegoat: migration. Purra and her party poured it on before the election by villifying migrants and supporting a Rwanda model to send asylum seekers to Africa.
Four days before the election, Interioir Minister Mari Rantanen and Riikka Purra hosted a talk about how migration means trouble for society. It was an opportunity to step up on the xenophobia gas pedal and spread the conspiracy theories like the great replacement.
Interioir Minister Mari Rantanen, copies Nigel Farage and depicts migrants as “swarms.” Source: Perusuomalainen
Two critical questions emerge after the MEP election: – Was it a knock-out blow that will send the PS flying back to the minor single-digit political leagues? – With growing dissent against Purra and her party’s austerity policies, will it force the party to split like in 2017?
If the political price that the PS will pay for its defeat on Sunday was a massive political blow, it’s clear that 2011-2014 was a lost decade when Finland flirted with racism and fascism.
Just like a junkie craving for a shot, the campaign by the far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS)* showed revealed their immigration dependency problem. Like a gas pedal, the PS has stepped on the immigration topic to attract voters.
Immigration is a highly politicized topic in Finland as well and directly related to the success of the PS over the last decade. During all the last four parliamentary elections, the PS has successfully used an immigration crime topic to attract voters.
The European parliamentary election was a fiasco for the PS. Source: Yle
As a non-white Finn, the campaign by the likes of PS Chairperson and Minister of Finance Riiikka Purra, Interioir Minister Mari Rantanen, and Simo “Rwanda Model Now” Grönroos, was enough to make your stomach turn.
