Tag: James Hirvisaari

Nazi salutes and the growth of far-right ideology in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

In two weeks, two Perussuomalaiset (PS) politicians got their fingers burned badly after one made a Nazi salute with a Hitler mask while another took a picture of another one who made the same salute in parliament. One of the reasons why some Finns can do this in public is because they have a blind spot for the Holocaust and the atrocities committed by the Nazis in World War 2.

Turku University historian Markku Jokisipilä agrees. He was quoted as saying on Iltalehti that some people in Finland don’t see Nazism the same way as elsewhere in Europe because they don’t grasp its connection to the Holocaust.

It’s been quite a week for the PS but what can you expect if too many of its members have a fascination with Nazi Germany.

In the first case, Kangasala councilman Jani Viinikainen, resigned from the PS after it became clear that it was him wearing a Hitler mask and making a Nazi salute below.

Viinikainen, a far-right politician who has a close ideological ties with Hirvisaari, first denied he was in the picture. He tried to play down his role by stating that the Nazi salute he made wasn’t at a 45° angle and done with his left arm.

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Former PS councilman Jani Viinikainen on the right with Seppo Lehto on the far left.

Finland still has a problem with Nazism because it has never debated openly its role with Hitler’s Germany during the Continuation War (1941-44). Debating it would be opening a can of worms that would put into serious question the credibility of some of our most important historic leaders like Marshal Carl Mannerheim.

The excuse, which impairs our understanding and condemnation of the atrocities committed by the Nazis in World War 2, is our hatred of the former Soviet Union and the Russians.

The same reasoning we used to go to bed with Nazi Germany works to promote far-right ideology today in Finland. Since we loathe Muslims, the new enemy, it’s fine to join and vote for a right-wing populist party like the PS and make Nazi salutes.

This ideological juggernaut that conditions our world view usually gets the last say and permits some to be tolerant of intolerance. It has given birth to far-right politicians like Hirvisaari, Jussi Halla-aho, Juho Eerola, Olli Immonen and many others. How do you explain a party like the PS that rose from relative obscurity to the country’s third-largest in parliament in 2011?

You can belong to a legally registered party in Finland and still wear a brown shirt under your suit. It’s not shameful and permits you to come to terms with “jokes” like the one below by Lehto.

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Seppo Lehto, who was sentenced to a 2.5-year prison sentence for ethnic agitation, gave a Nazi salute in parliament on Friday. He was PS MP James Hirvisaari guest.

Analysis: Is sacking MP Hirvisaari the beginning of the end for the PS?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

One of the interesting questions that the sacking of MP James Hirvisaari raises is if it is the first visible crack that will force the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party to implode, eventually. Is Timo Soini’s PS a ticking time bomb and Hirvisaari a time counter indicating that we’ve got ten seconds to seek cover before the bomb explodes?  

Even if it is still too early to say, the Hirvisaari episode is an indication of the festering ideological sickness that the party suffers.

Miska Rantanen of Helsingin Sanomat believes that while its still to early to say if the party will suffer the same fate as the Rural Party in the 1970s, the PS looks like a tired team of players that are fouling out.

The Rural Party, which evolved into the PS in the 1990s, won the 1970 election with 17 seats from one in the previous election. The party, however, imploded due to internal bickering and differences.

Since intolerance, xenophobia and prejudice exist thanks to hot air comprising of inflated exaggerations and gross generalizations, anti-immigration politicians like Hirvisaari need to continually raise the bar to keep their followers entertained. Like dictators, they eventually lose touch with reality and fall from political grace.

While politicians like Soini are trying to wash their hands of Hirvisaari, we shouldn’t forget that it was he who helped Hirvisaari to get elected. Not only did Soini help Hirvisaari he left the PS door ajar for other far-right nationalists and racists.

Like Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja wrote, Soini made a pack with the devil when he brought them on board.

 

 

 

 

The Perussuomalaiset plan to sack MP Hirvisaari from the party

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Inviting Seppo Lehto to parliament, where a picture of him making a Nazi salute, was the last straw for Perussuomalaiset(PS) chairman Timo Soini, who was quoted as saying on MTV3 that PS MP James Hirvisaari will be sacked from the party. 

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Read full story here.

The decision to expel Hirvisaari was made by the five-member working committee of the PS governing board.

PS party secretary, Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo, said that Hirvisaari had hurt the party’s credibility and therefore would be expelled, writes Helsingin Sanomat.

Following Hirvisaari’s rocky and controversial political career, where he doesn’t hide his far-right credentials, Migrant Tales asked in July when the PS would sack the MP, who was convicted for ethnic agitation.

Even if this is a step in the right direction, it’s too little too late.

Hirvisaari has not only damaged the credibility of Finland’s legislature, but spread hatred and suspicion of immigrants and minorities living in this country.

He will not be missed.

A guest of the Finnish PS gives a Nazi salute in parliament

Posted on by Migrant Tales

We all know how a political party like the Perussuomalaiset (PS) has declared war against immigrants and other minorities in this country. The latest attack by the PS was against the Finnish parliament by a guest of MP James Hirvisaari, who was pictured giving a Nazi salute. 

UPDATE: Hirvisaari confirmed Thursday that it was him who took the picture of Lehto below.

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Seppo Lehto, a guest of PS MP James Hirvisaari, gave a Nazi salute on Tuesday in parliament.

The picture of Seppo Lehto,* a far-right anti-immigration activist who was sentenced to a 2.5-year prison term for ethnic agitation, to support Jussi Halla-aho’s Euro MP candidacy, was widely distributed in social media and reported by the national media.

Halla-aho, who was sentenced for ethnic agitation like Hirvisaari, said that he had nothing to do with what Lehto published on his blog.

Dailies like Helsingin Sanomat speculate that the picture of Lehto making the Nazi salute could have been taken by Hirvisaari. The PS MP refused to confirm or deny this to Finland’s largest-circulation daily. 

Hirvisaari described Helsingin Sanomat’s attempts to get in touch with him as ”bullying.” As a general rule, the PS MP only answers journalist’s queries by email.

In an odd style of journalism, Helsingin Sanomat refused to publish Lehto’s name in the story.

What is probably the most incredible matter about the whole affair is the silence of the PS leadership.

Why is it so difficult for Finland’s third-largest party in parliament to openly condemn such publicity stunts? Is there silence a reinforcement of their declaration of war against immigrants and minorities in this country?

Absolutely.

*Seppo Lehto has visited and commented on Migrant Tales a number of times. His views are pretty clear: anti-Islam and anti-multiculturalism. Since we believed that it would be useless to have a meaningful debate with a person like Lehto, we decided to ignore him. The comments by him stopped and we never heard in writing from him ever again.

Why doesn’t Timo Soini make a clear split with its PS racists? Answer: political hara-kiri

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Columnist Yrjö Rautio of Apu magazine writes that if Perussuomalaiset (PS) chairman Timo Soini doesn’t make a clear split with PS MP racists like Jussi Halla-aho and his followers, the party should make official that it supports the following values: “paranoia, hatred and human evil.” 

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Read full story (in Finnish) here.

Rautio makes a valid point. The real question, I believe, is why Soini hasn’t rid its party of its racists, especially those that have been sentenced for ethnic agitation.

The answer to the latter question is self-evident and clear: The PS would commit political hara-kiri if it rid its party of its racists.

We all know that intolerance is learned and based on ignorance, lies and prejudice.

Another PS MP, James Hirvisaari, who was convicted for ethnic agitation like Halla-aho, posts a story written by Aalto University lecturer Kyösti Tarvainen. He’s the person, who using a pocket calculator, predicted that the Muslims would become a majority in Finland due to their high birth rates.

Since many of these type of arguments are exaggerated lies whose aim is to fuel hatred against certain groups like Muslims, it’s not clear when Tarvainen posted the blog entry. Hirvisaari doesn’t give us a clue either because his aim may be to show something that was written last year is still topical and new.

Tarvainen expressed concern in February 2011 by sending an email to prominent Green Party politicians protesting Hussein Muhammed’s candidacy. He said that the Greens have made a mistake by allowing Muslims to stand as candidates in the Green Party.

Just because a person has a PhD or is a lecturer at a university doesn’t mean that he doesn’t house racist ideas.

If you disagree, check out the academics that were member of the Nazi party and SS.

 

 

Death threats and the PS threat to our Nordic way of life

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Perussuomalaiset (PS) chairman, Timo Soini, reveals in a recent blog that he got four death threats recently. Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen’s Christian Democratic party received a bomb threat as well, which was reported by tabloid Iltalehti. The death threats are similar to what Swedish-language journalists received a while back. Migrant Tales has been a victim of death threats as well. 

The question that we should ask in light of the latter is what these threats say about Finland and where we’re heading today as a country.

One matter it says loud and clearly is that our response to intolerance is far from satisfactory. Those that fuel ethnic hatred, racism and make it their business to polarize society between “us” and “them,” believe opportunistically that hate speech can be their political servant.

How wrong they are! Mass murderer Anders Breivik of Norway is one recent example of how you cannot keep xenophobia and racism on a short leash because it can bite back at its owner, and hard.

Ali Esbati, a survivor of 22/7,* when Breivik murdered 77 innocent victims on his Islamophobic rampage in Norway in 2011, was quoted as saying on The Local, which cites an op-ed on Aftonbladet,  that Norway had learned little from the massacre. He claimed that the “undergrowth of hateful rhetoric” had recovered from the attacks by Breivik.

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Read story here.

While anti-immigration parties in the Nordic region suffered election losses due to Breivik, the approval rating of the anti-immigration Progress Party (FrP) of Norway has swelled today to 20% in the polls.

An editorial on Oulu-based daily Kaleva writes about the death threats against Soini.

”Hate speech has been raging for a long time, and there are among Perussuomalaiset MPs people who have been sentenced for ethnic agitation. From the mouthes of the Perussuomalaiset we’ve read uncensored text that is written off as humor.

Death threats show that the hate speech can travel the other way. The party’s figurehead Soini is the victim of such a situation.”

To use a recent example of how the PS fuels hatred in Finland, one of its MPs, James Hirvisaari, published on Facebook the wonderful time he spent with Seppo Lehto, a far right agitator who was  imprisoned for inciting ethnic hatred.

On the same weekend, he said in a tweet that a reporter working for tabloid Iltalehti ”masturbated wildly” when he was interviewed by him on the phone.

Add to the latter the near-constant hate speech against gays, elites, immigrants, and groups like Muslims from parties like the PS and a broader worrisome picture emerges of the problem.

Intolerance breeds more intolerance until it snaps like on 22/7 or turns into something more sinister like Germany 1933.

*I was surprised to see The Local use 22/7 to describe the mass murders that took place in Norway in 2011. Using a date for a tragedy is a way to honor and respect the victims. 

When will the PS sack MP James Hirvisaari?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Recent tweets and Facebook comments by Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP James Hirvisaari reveal how racism, fascism and right-wing populism have spread like a cancer in Finnish society. Hirvisaari now praises  Seppo Lehto and claims the ultimate far right narcissist, like him, is a nice person. 

Would you praise a man who gives Nazi salutes, likes swastikas, insults immigrants and longs for the days of World War 2, when Finland was Hitler’s ally?

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Seppo Lehto as he sees himself when he was a candidate. Source: tiede.fi

It’s odd that the PS hasn’t said a word about Hirvisaari tweeting on Saturday that a journalist “masturbated wildly” during a telephone interview and now his praise of an extremist clown like Lehto.

Seriously folks, would you trust a party like the PS in government? One that has MPs who insult journalists, immigrants, praises far right extremists and likes to talk about skid marks in the toilet bowls of parliament?

A party that doesn’t have the guts or is incapable of putting one of its MPs in line, or sack them if necessary for making racist and far right statements, is a party that should never be in government.

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Go to Hirvisaari’s Facebook page here.

 

Migrant Tales (September 30, 2010): Populist chatter and a tale of elk flies

Posted on by Migrant Tales

MT comment: This is Migrant Tales’ first story on Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP James Hirvisaari published on September 30, 2010. The extremist anti-immigration politician was spreading is views back then. Like today, his pet topics were rape and far right nationalism. 

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There is a True Finns candidate in the April 2011 elections that spreads elk flies every time he opens his mouth to bash immigrants. His multicultural name, James Hirvisaari,* gets a lot of free publicity whenever blogs like mine comment on his extremist views.

Hirvisaari has a problem: He is another True Finn that has been charged for incitement of ethnic hatred.

His campaign catchphrase is: Finnish language, Finnish spirit, Finnish nature, Finnish flag. This phrase, in my opinion, shows how low xenophobic groups in Finland have stooped. They now use our sacred icons to drive home their racist views.

Hirvisaari’s first campaign promise, I support a Finnish Finland in a European Europe, is a phrase that looks sound at first glance but after closer study it raises disturbing questions. If he is so Finnish, why is his first name, James?

His second campaign promise, I support Western and Christian values, is another kick in the groin that leaves you with a question mark: What does he mean? Yes, true, James, spreading hatred, strife and insulting other European ethnic groups are part of our Western and Christian heritage.

If you go back to the Nazi Germany era, he may have a point.

Hirvisaari states in his third campaign promise that he is for local democracy and against European federalism.  I am totally confused now: Why doesn’t he speak straight and state that he wants Finland to leave the EU?

I really “love” his fourth promise. He supports a selective immigration policy but would he, seriously, hand on heart, give a residence permit to a person person like himself from another country who shared the same extremist views?

In order to simplify things, why doesn’t Hirvisaari state in plain Finnish that he loathes a certain religious group? That his whole political ideology is based on this and nothing more.

* If you want to read some funny comments about Hirvisaari’s political ideas visit Facebook. His real names is Erkki Kalevi. 

PS MP James Hirvisaari claims journalist “masturbated wildly” in phone interview

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP James Hirvisaari is the best gift that anti-racists could have in this country. If there is a loose cannon in parliament, it’s Hirvisaari. The PS MP has a pretty one-track mind. When he opens his mouth, he usually talks about Muslim rapists, skid marks on toilet bowls and now his latest topic, masturbation. 

Here’s a tweet on Saturday by the PS MP: “I sensed during the telephone interview that the boy journalist masturbated wildly.”

The journalist that Hirvissari refers to is Mikko Vesa of tabloid Ilta-Sanomat.

The Ilta-Sanomat journalist asked Hirvisaari about another tweet on July 14, where he suggesting that n-word kiss chocolates should be changed to baboon kisses.

Folks, this is not a prank. Hirvisaari is an adult, an MP elected by voters to represent them in the Finnish parliament.

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The European Court of Human Rights turned down in July a request by Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP James Hirvisaari to review a conviction for ethnic agitation in December 2011 by the Kouvola Court of Appeals, which was upheld last year by the Finnish Supreme Court.

The PS aims to become the biggest party in the 2015 parliamentary elections.

European Court of Human Rights will not review PS MP Hirvisaari’s conviction for ethnic agitation

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The European Court of Human Rights has turned down a request by Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP James Hirvisaari to review a conviction for ethnic agitation in December 2011 by the Kouvola Court of Appeals, which was upheld last year by the Finnish Supreme Court.

There was no doubt that far right PS MP Hirvisaari stood a chance of having his conviction reviewed by the European Court of Human Rights after it was upheld by a Supreme Court decision earlier.

Migrant Tales applauds the decision.

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Lahti-based daily Etelä-Suomen Sanomat wrote about the European Court of Human Rights’ decision. Hirvisaari has declared war on the daily by boycotting it.

In his usual style, Hirvisaari lashes out against the decision not to review his conviction as ”bowing to Mecca.” On a Facebook thread he slams the president of the Kouvola Court of Appeals, Pertti Nieminen, as the ”Great Satan.”

Hirvisaari, who would never have stood a chance of being elected to parliament without the help of Timo Soini, who commonly plays down racism in the party, has been embroiled in numerous scandals during his two years as MP. Some of these include complaining about skid marks on the toilet bowls of parliament to blaming Anders Breivik’s murderous rampage in Norway on immigration policy.

Some of his most infamous remarks aren’t his homophobic views and plans to control what the Finnish media writes,  but hiring Helena Eronen as his aide.

Eronen, who is a member of the far right anti-immigration Muutos2011 party, resigned in August after she wrote a scandalous blog entry that foreigners could help the police in ethnic profiling by wearing sleeve badges.

The reaction of the Finnish and even international media to her blog entry was a clear sign how far out of touch Eronen’s “sarcasm” was with common decency and respect for immigrants and visible minorities.

The last time ethnic groups like the Jews were required to wear identifying badges was during the Nazi regime in Germany.