A good example of how the media maintains the myth of Finnish innocence and its exceptionalism is how it plays down the impact of the Perussuomalaiset* (PS) party on the country’s far-right journey.
Helsingin Sanomat’s Marko Junkkari appears a lot on TV talk shows to give his opinion of current events. He recently appeared on Yle with media researcher Anu Koivunen. In their analysis of former PS leader Timo Soini, neither of them said anything about how the former PS leader was instrumental in giving the far right a platform to expand its political agenda.
Yle talk-show host Heikki Valkaman talking to Anu Koivunen and Marko Junkkari. Source: Yle.
Moreover, neither Koivunen or Junkkari explained the impact that the PS has had on Finland, especially on Muslims, people of color and minorities in general.
It appears that the best analysis that Junkkari could offer about the PS was when the party was under Soini’s leadership.
“I have explained a hundred times to foreign correspondents that the Perussuomalaiset under Timo Soini is a different populist party than those in France and Sweden,” said Junkkari.
True, but why didn’t you give us your opinion on how the PS has shifted further to the right under Halla-aho and what was Soini’s role in the latter?
The only explanation I can find is how too many Finnish journalists and the media mirror Finnish innocence and exceptionalism.
Is the PS today a far-right party? History researcher Oula Silvenoinen has some academic views about this.
Not all far-right parties are the same but they are bonded ideologically by their Islamophobia and anti-immigration rhetoric as well as their anti-EU stances.
One matter is clear: Opinion polls, which place the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* as the most popular party, have not only encouraged the party’s far-right stance but given it the hubris to spread and implant with its hatred social ills like racism.
Finland is, alas waking up to the threat of the PS.
In his New Year’s speech, President Sauli Niinstö pointed the finger at Halla-aho’s party, which prompted a knee-jerk reaction from the PS’ head. He stated that the president should mind his own business.
“Online shaming and hate speech are new concepts in public debate,” said President Niinistö. “However, our legislator has been far-sighted. For example, incitement to ethnic hatred and offenses against personal reputation, dignity or privacy of the individual are already criminalized by law.”
Halla-aho, who was convicted for ethnic agitation and breaching the sanctity of religion in 2012, wants to scrap Finland’s hate-speech laws.
Finnish white privilege #68
One of the least-acknowledged ideological love affairs written in the Finnish media is the relationship between the PS and Danish People’s Party.
That is why it should not come to any surprise that Halla-aho said in Politiken, one of Denmark’s most important dailies, that he’s not interested in becoming a minister or even prime minister. The only reason why he is in politics is to change the “scheme and system” of the way Finland’s immigration policy operates.
The aim is clear: Halla-aho and the PS want to turn Finland into one of the EU’s most restrictive countries concerning Muslim and non-EU immigrants, especially from the Middle East and Africa.
Copenhagen-based daily Politken is one of the biggest newspapers in Denmark.
Reading code is one way of understanding what the PS has up its sleeve.
When the PS mentions it is against humanitarian migration, it is most likely suggesting that Finland should turn back asylum seekers from the Middle East and Africa;
Even if the number of asylum seekers, or humanitarian immigration, totals a few thousand, the PS does not see size as a factor. In Nazi Germany, there were half a million Jews before 1933, accounting for a mere 0.75% of the population. As the Holocaust proved, it wasn’t the size of the Jewish community but that hatred spread by the Nazis;
The PS rarely identifies its victim, or Muslims. It uses code words like “asylum seeker,” “person of migrant background or origin,” “social welfare loafers,” to mean Muslim or person of color;
The PS states that it is “nationalistic” (kansallismielinen), which can mean fascist, ethnonationalist or ultranationalist;
In the same way that the PS uses code to avoid getting in trouble with the law and get away with ethnic agitation charges, the media plays along by giving inflated respectability and validity to their racism.
Even if the PS has a long-range plan to adopt the Islamophobic policies and mindset of Denmark, it explains why Halla-aho is hellbent on changing permanently “the thinking and system” of Finland’s present immigration policy.
Perussuomalaiset kertovat tänään vastauksessaan hallitustunnustelijalle, että osallistuvat vain hallitukseen, jossa kaikki puolueet sitoutuvat rehellisyyteen ja vaativat ministereiltä totuudessa pysymistä. Vaatimus on sinänsä hyveellinen ja oikea, mutta muuttuu naurettavaksi kun se tulee puolueelta, jonka politiikka kokonaisuudessaan perustuu valehteluun, huijaukseen ja vääristelyyn.
Otetaanpa esimerkiksi yksi viimeisistä näytöksistä. Perussuomalaiset keksivät kuukausi sitten alkaa tehtailla rikosilmoituksia vanhoista TV-huumorin pätkistä ja elokuvista työllistääkseen ”punavihreää poliisia” ja osoittaakseen, kuinka tyhmä on heidän usein tuomiolla kohtaamansa laki kiihottamisesta kansanryhmää vastaan.
Usutusta asiaan nähtiin persupomon seinällä.
Euroopan parlamentistakin osallistuttiin talkoisiin.
Kansalaisille pyrittiin myös osoittamaan, että huijaus- ja kiusantekomielessä tehdyt tutkintapyynnöt olivat peräisin jostain ihan muualta. Perussuomalainen kansanedustaja ja Ylen hallintoneuvoston jäsen Jari Ronkainen kommentoi 22.11. persujulkaisussa:
”Voi tätä loukkaantumisen määrää! Tuntuu siltä, että tiettyjen ihmisten ja ryhmien sietokyky on hävinnyt kokonaan ja hymy yritetään häivyttää ihmisten kasvoilta”.
Jussi Halla-aho pisti vielä paremmaksi ja käytti tekaistujen tutkintapyyntöjen kampanjaa hyväkseen eduskunnan täysistunnossa 27.11.2019 keskustelussa lakialoitteesta, jolla persut yrittävät jälleen muuttaa lakia kiihottamisesta kansanryhmää vastaan:
”Niin poliitikot kuin toimittajat ja oikeusoppineet ovat viime päivinä ihmetelleet kymmeniä vuosia vanhoihin sketsiohjelmiin liittyviä rikostutkintoja. Kuitenkin vielä hetki sitten samat ihmiset olivat sitä mieltä, että kiihottamispykälä on aivan riittävän selkeä. Kuitenkin lakiteksti mahdollistaa juuri tällaiset tulkinnat, jos tulkitsija on riittävän fanaattinen.”
Yle uutisoi 29.11.2019, että poliisi ei, kuten arvata saattoi, aloita esitutkintaa persukampanjan perusteella. Iltalehti kertoi, että ilmoituksia oli tehnyt ainakin yksi persutaustainen mies sekä muita ns. kansallismielisiksi itsensä identifioivia kansalaisia. Toimitukselle kommentteja antamaan kyseisillä isänmaan sankareilla ei ollut uskallusta.
”Kyyninen leikinteko on puolueelle hyvin tyypillinen tapa tehdä politiikkaa”, kommentoi persukampanjasta hyvän jutun kirjoittanut Iltalehden Aleksanteri Pikkarainen. Kyynisyys on kuitenkin lievä ilmaisu, kun puhutaan puolueen johtohahmojen masinoimasta rikosilmoittelukampanjasta, josta sitten valehdellaan eduskunnankin edessä.
Toiset keskittyvät pitämään huolta yhteisistä asioista, kuten poliitikon kuuluu. Haittaisänmaalliset yrittävät kepulikonstein kaivaa kuoppaa demokraattisen järjestelmän alle, säätää omia lakejaan ja häiriköidä siinä, missä vähillä hoksottimillaan pystyvät. Toivotan jaksamista kaikille kunniallisille kansanedustajille ja ministereille!
Perätön rikosilmoitus ei ole rikos. Pitäisikö perättömän poliittisen rikosilmoittelukampanjan olla?
Finland will wake up too late when incompetent populist parties, their politicians and policies lead us to the doorsteps of hell just like what happened in Germany after 1933.
Even if Finland ranks second in the World Press Freedom Index after Norway, how high does it score when it writes about populism, radical-right nationalism, policies that fuel social exclusion, and racism?
The fact that Finland’s largest daily, Helsingin Sanomat, has not written an editorial denouncing racism and how damaging populism is to the country, tell us of the extent of our denial.
Why have no dailies investigated how Finland’s geopolitical isolation during the Cold War helps the country to fall prey to populist and racist parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*?
Since almost everyone, especially most of the Finnish mainstream media, is fascinated with opinion polls these days, it’s clear that dailies like Helsingin Sanomat will give parties like the PS space and the benefit of the doubt.
A media that turns a blind eye to a threat like the PS is leaving our future to chance. Fortunately, Finland does have – even if only a few – solid columnists like Yrjö Rautio, who offers well-rounded analyses of the PS in his columns.
A recent interview Saturday in Helsingin Sanomat of PS chairperson Jussi Halla-aho is a good example of uncritical journalism. Halla-aho built his political career by inciting hatred on groups like Muslims with Islamophobia, homophobia, and racism to name only a few.
In 2012, he was convicted of ethnic agitation and for breaching the sanctity of religion.
You can read some of his most racist quotes in English here.
This list is the DNA of the Perussuomalaiset party but is rarely asked about them.
It is unfortunate for our democracy that the Finnish media doesn’t do more to hold parties like the PS accountable for what they say and do.
A tweet by @TuomoKondie gives us a ten-point list of some questions that Helsingin Sanomat and other media could ask Halla-aho:
Racism spread by the PS;
Links with neo-Nazi groups;
Pipedream [and neo-liberal] economic policies;
Why they sympathize with Russian leader Vladimir Putin?
Scapegoating migrants for all of Finland’s problems;
Systematic lying;
Why PS politicians have the most criminal convictions than of any other party?
Harassing those that oppose the PS;
Climate change denial and naivety;
Unqualified politicians.
Here is something that every journalist in Finland should take into account when writing about the PS:
The Perussuomalaiset is not a normal party. It isn’t normal because it built its base on racism, far-right extremism, and neo-liberal economic and social models. It has an utter disrespect for our Nordic values. One of these is Section 6 of the Constitution that states: “No one shall, without an acceptable reason, be treated differently from other persons on the ground of sex, age, origin, language, religion, conviction, opinion, health, disability or other reason that concerns his or her person.”
Below are more examples and disappointments of how uncritically the Finnish media writes about the PS.
Too few of them put the PS in the hot seat and why they spread and support social discrimination, exclusion, racism, and scapegoat near-constantly migrants for all of the country’s problems.
Helsinki City Councilperson Abdirahim Husu Hussein has a lot of grit against racist parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* and its band of followers. The latest incident proves beyond any shadow of a doubt that the PS is a racist party.
Hussein is a courageous politician who gets stronger with every racist death threat and harassment hurled at him. In July, the white fragility of the party suffered a blow in summer when Hussein tweeted that the PS, those who voted and supported the party, are racists.
In their misguided and blind racism, politicians like PS leader Jussi Halla-aho, who was convicted of ethnic agitation and breaching the sanctity of religion in 2012, take constant snipes at Hussein. They ask themselves in anger how a black Finn can question their white supremacy and racism?
Hussein tweeted Monday that while he was driving his taxi, a passenger started to insult him in a racist manner. The councilperson decided that he had heard enough and told the passenger to get out of the car.
“He [the passenger] was quite surprised that I did not accept his money [for part of the ride]. I told him that I do not accept money from racists.”
Hussein asked in the tweet why the passenger thought he had the right to insult him in such a racist manner. “I would not go to your work an start to tell you off,” he ended the tweet.
Traffic law section 37: “A motor vehicle cannot stop on the motorway. We don’t want Somali taxi culture [in Finland], thank you!
Attempting to score political points and to satisfy his hatred of the Somalis, Halla-aho tweets that what Hussein did was wrong and that you cannot ask a passenger to get off a vehicle on a motorway.
Halla-aho even gives us that the section of the law that incorrectly prohibits motor vehicles from stopping on the freeway. Indeed, people on buses or in a taxi can get off on the motorway if there is a bus stop.
The PS under Halla-aho has shown clearly its far-right racist colors. Robin DiAngelo gives an excellent definition of racism that sits perfectly with the PS leader and his followers.
A racist is an individual, always an individual, who does not like people based on race – must be conscious – and who intentionally seems to be mean to them.
Blogger Saku Timonen offers some advice to Hussein.
“He [the passenger] could have been taken to the nearest police station [and charged with racist harassment and hate speech].”
*A direct translation of Perussuomalaiset in English would be something like “basic” or “fundamental Finn.” Official translations of the Finnish name of the party, such as Finns Party or True Finns, promote 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 after that the acronym PS.
Perussuomalaiset (PS)* chairperson Jussi Halla-aho gave us on Yle Ykkösaamu his usual anti-immigration blah blah and why Finland should relax its hate speech laws.
In the interview, Halla-aho, who was convicted of ethnic agitation and breaching the sanctity of religion in 2012, defended the Nazi-spirited Suomen Sisu association and played down PS MP Juha Mäenpää’s description in parliament that asylum seekers are a non-human “invasive species.”
Mäenpää is the same politician who stated in 2015 that “God had answered his prayers” after an asylum reception center was razed by fire.
While these types of counterarguments by Halla-aho, who has steered the party in into the far-right ideological lap of leaders like Lega’s Matteo Salvini and Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, have no significance because the PS leader would even find arguments to justify the rise to power of the Nazis and Adolf Hitler in 1933.
Helsinki University criminal law professor Kimmo Nuotio threw some cold water on Halla-aho’s claim that hate speech laws have no place in an open society. Apart from pointing out that the PS’ proposal is political, he did not consider the ongoing debate healthy for democracy.
Moreover, the number of ethnic agitation cases that reach the courts are still modest as the table below shows.
Ethnic agitation cases that were taken to court in 2018. Even if such cases rose by 138.5% last year to 31, it is still a tiny amount. Source: Justice Ministry.
“Personally, I find this type of discussion harmful,” Nuotio said, “it’s an attempt to undercut the basis for these laws.”
One matter that the Ykkösaamu journalist should have asked is why do we have laws against hate speech? The answer is obvious. Without them, it would be open season for racists and parties like the PS openly harass, attack, label and socially exclude vulnerable groups like Muslims for their political gain.
The argument used by Halla-aho to not open Finland’s labor markets to outside the EU is equally deceiving. Adding the usual fear-mongering that outside the EU there are half a billion people who could come to work, he claimed that such workers would drive down salaries.
Possibly valid to some extent, such people in our labor market like now would force our authorities to do a much better job in regulating markets and ensuring that exploitation does not become the norm.
* The far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13, 2017, into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. In the last parliamentary election, Blue Reform has wiped off the Finnish political map when they saw their numbers in parliament plummet from 18 MPs to none. A direct translation of Perussuomalaiset in English would be something like “basic” or “fundamental Finn.” Official translations of the Finnish name of the party, such as Finns Party or True Finns, promote 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 after that the acronym PS.
Abrirahim Husu Hussein tweeted that 27 members of the far-right Perusuomalaiset (PS)* party filed charges against the Helsinki city councilperson for tweeting in July that all the PS, its voters, and supporters are racists.
Abdirahim Husu Hussein states the 27 Perussuomalaise members charged the Helsinki city councilperson of defamation. The police decided no to press charges against Hussein.
Of all the Finnish political parties, the PS is the most racist. Under Jussi Halla-aho’s leadership, the party has steered to the far right.
The PS is also disingenuous. Halla-aho and the leadership of the PS want to do away with legislation on ethnic agitation. The PS leader believes that police resources are poorly allocated when they monitor the Internet for hate speech.
Halla-aho claims that people in Finland should be able to speak openly about immigration without the fear of being charged for hate speech and ethnic agitation.
Even if this is what Halla-aho and his ilk do all the time, they sure didn’t give Hussein the chance to speak openly in the same way that the PS speaks of Muslims.
* The Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13, 2017, into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. In the last parliamentary election, Blue Reform was wiped off the Finnish political map when they saw their numbers in parliament plummet from 18 MPs to none. A direct translation of Perussuomalaiset in English would be something like “basic” or “fundamental Finn.” Official translations of the Finnish name of the party, such as Finns Party or True Finns, promote 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 after that the acronym PS.
Migrant Tales will start publishing news about how the far-right, specifically the radical right, is dupping half a million Finns. I consider the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* as the biggest menace to Finland’s democracy, our Nordic way of life, and vibrant cultural diversity.
Former PS party secretary and MP, Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo, disagrees. She said on A-studio (31.8) that the PS is “middle of the road” and would not define her party neither as far-right nor radical right.
History researcher Oula Silvennoinen, who was also a guest on the program, stated that there are two types of far-right parties: radical right (see below for definition) like the PS, and extremist groups like the neo-Nazi PVL.
Slunga-Poutsalo was, however, adamant: “We are a conservative party but not far-right.”
Even if the PS likes to play own its ties to far-right extremist groups like Kansallismilisten Liittouma, the neo-Nazi PVL, and other likeminded groups like the Soldiers of Odin and Suomen Sisu, these relationships always pop up in the strangest of places.
At a summer camp in mid-July arranged by Kansallismielisten Liittouma, participants took potshots with bow and arrows and air-rifles at ministers like Prime Minister Antti Rinne, Minister of Education Li Anderson, and Minister of Employment Timo Harakka, all left-wing politicians.
One prominent PS official at the summer camp was Hannele Al-Hamzawi, a member of the far-right association, a Holocaust denier, and, surprise, surprise, chairperson of the Southwest Finland region PS women’s chapter.
Some hardcore member of this association are members or have close ties with the neo-Nazi PVL, Suomen Sisu and the PS. Hannele Al-Hamzawi is next to last person standing on the right.In this tweet, Al-Hamzawi, who used to be married to an Iraqi man, questions and isn’t sure whether the Holocaust took place. Dmitry Gurbanov states that Al-Hamzawi is a member of the far-right Kansallismielisten Liittouman and chairperson of the PS’ Southwest Finland women’s chapter.
If you Google the association’s chairperson, Tero Ala-Tuuhonen, you will find a picture of him wearing a uniform with a rank patch of an SS stumhauptführer. White terrorist Anders Breivik emailed Terhi Kiemunki, a former PS member and vice-chairperson of the association before he went on a rampage and killed 77 people in Norway on 22/7.
Just like the members of the Kansallismielisten Liitouma board, which have ties to or are members of neo-Nazi, Nazi-spirited groups like the Soldiers of Odin and Suomen Sisu.
Al-Hamzawi views on immigration were so radical that she was removed as a municipal candidate for the Christian Democratic party in 2017.
Radical Right 101
Thanks to the vital work of researcher Silvennoinen and others, Finns have learned more about the far-right and radical right and what are their political goals.
What are some of the political aims of a radical right party like the PS? How would they rule Finland if they got power?
Radical right parties are anti-establishment, anti-EU, anti-elitist, anti-globalization, anti-immigration and especially anti-Islam;
They lobby for stiffer immigration and naturalization laws;
Favor authoritarian and hierarchical leadership like Jussi Halla-aho of the PS, whom his followers call “the meister;”
Have close relations and cooperate with far-right extremist groups;
Overdosed on xenophobia and Islamophobia, ethnic replacement conspiracy theories abound and are a common theme of radical right parties like the PS;
They favor a two-tier society where only citizens enjoy access to social welfare, unemployment benefits, and civil rights in general;
The radical right wants to establish an ethnocracy instead of a democracy;
They believe in the romantic myth of the homogeneous nation;
In the face of their ethnic replacement conspiracy theories and romanticism for a white ethnocracy, are they planning to deport on a mass scale those they consider undesirable or send them to concentration camps?
Sexual identity is as strict as ethnic background.: man, woman, and heterosexuality;
It aims to gain power through the democratic system it wants to destroy Finland’s liberal democracy and copy what Hungarian strongman Viktor Orbán has done in Hungary.
* The far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13, 2017, into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. In the last parliamentary election, Blue Reform has wiped off the Finnish political map when they saw their numbers in parliament plummet from 18 MPs to none. A direct translation of Perussuomalaiset in English would be something like “basic” or “fundamental Finn.” Official translations of the Finnish name of the party, such as Finns Party or True Finns, promote 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 after that the acronym PS.
Racism is a rabid dog that racists walk using a short leash to get attention and votes. The dog, which knows no master except for hatred, can bite its master hard.
The tragic terrorist attack in a Wal-Mart in El Paso, Texas, by a white supremacist terrorist, tells us loudly why the lethal brew of racism and ultranationalism can rip society in two. What happened on Saturday in El Paso will, unfortunately, happen again.
The terrorist, Patrick Crusius, 21, published a manifesto expressing anxiety about his future in the face of the Hispanic invasion of Texas.
Just like far-right parties in Europe talk about how white Christian Europe is being taken over by Muslims, Crusius expressed in his manifesto how Hispanics will take control of the local and state government and pass laws to suit their needs.
Far-right parties like the National Rally of France, Germany’s AfD, FPÖ of Austria, Finland’s Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and others express the same concern as the El Paso killer: Being taken over and becoming a minority in their country.
PS politicians like Jussi Halla-aho, Riikka Purra, Laura Huhtasaari, and a long list of others like Olli Immonen of Suomen Sisu, PS Youth are spreading the same fear among Finns about being taken over by Muslims and people of color.
Spreading such lies in one of Europe’s whitest countries is not only irresponsible but reckless. It offers ammo to future terrorists.
The recent killings in El Paso and future ones tell us of the vital importance of building an inclusive society that is serious about tackling social ills like racism. Building a country based on social justice and respect for diversity is our best insurance for peace.
We can build such a society if we pull together.
* The Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13, 2017, into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. In the last parliamentary election, Blue Reform has wiped off the Finnish political map when they saw their numbers in parliament plummet from 18 MPs to none. A direct translation of Perussuomalaiset in English would be something like “basic” or “fundamental Finn.” Official translations of the Finnish name of the party, such as Finns Party or True Finns, promote 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 after that the acronym PS.
