Tag: Olli Immonen

Connect the dots between the Perussuomalaiset, a government party, and Neo-Nazis and other far-right groups

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Taking into account all the debate and pouring of outrage, some fake, some honest, at what happened last week, when a Neo-Nazi Kansallinen Vastarinta (SVL) member provoked the death of Jimi Joonas Karttunen, I am a bit worried about how we are taking our eye off the ball.

Is racism and bigotry in Finland only a Neo-Nazi thing?

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Take a look at the government of Prime Minister Juha Sipilä and connect the dots between the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party and far-right extremist groups like the SVL, Suomen Sisu, Soldiers of Odin, Rajat kiini! and Suomi ensin.

With members of the PS having direct links with Neo-Nazi organizations and extremist anti-immigration group, it is totally ingenious for Sipilä to tell us that he’s against racism.

All of what we are seeing in Finnish society today is an example of how we are backtracking from those exemplary laws we passed in the 1990s like the new Constitution, dual citizenship rights, Non-Discrimination Act, Integration Act, among others.

Blaming only Neo-Nazis and the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* for Finland’s ever-worsening anti-immigration atmosphere is only focusing on part of the problem. True, the PS is a populist party that has made its mark in Finnish politics thanks to their anti-immigration and especially anti-Islam message.

Spreading hatred and polarizing society by scapegoating migrants and minorities has worked wonders for the PS. In the 2007 parliamentary elections the populist party only won 5 seats but four years later, in 2011, they won 39 seats. Today, after coming second in the 2015 parliamentary elections, they are in government with the Center Party and National Coalition Party.

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Perussuomalaiset chairman and foreign minister Timo Soini, Center Party Prime Minister Juha Sipilä, and National Coalition Party Minister of Finance Petteri Orpo looking the other way as Neo-Nazis beat a man next door to the Helsinki Railway Station. Source: Facebook.

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Far right Olli Immonen is a thankless MP to the PS and Timo Soini

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Some politicians, like Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Olli Immonen, live in a bubble inflated by their rhetoric and delusions. We got a taste of his hateful ideology in July, when he declared war on “the nightmare of multiculturalism” and how he vowed “his fighters” will “fight until the end for our homeland.”

What on earth does he mean by “our” homeland?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: This country was never yours, Olli Immonen. It never was, isn’t, and will never be yours to claim. 

The far right politician is at it again pumping those foul gases in his bubble on a new Facebook post about a seminar organized today by Nazi-spirited Suomen Sisu.

Immonen now writes:

“The situation in Finland is at this moment catastrophic and we must think of ways in which (white) Finns can become more involved with our people, our culture and protect this country from the ever-growing threats it faces. It’s clear that just voting in parliamentary elections every four years isn’t enough to change course of how things are developing.”

Sure, Immonen, you go right ahead and have your “seminar” but don’t forget to thank the party and its head, Timo Soini, who made it possible for the likes of you and others like MEP Jussi Halla-aho and former MP James Hirvisaari to have a political platform for your racism and far right ideology. 

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Matti Putkonen takes the Perussuomalaiset to the Twilight Zone

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Here’s what happened Wednesday. Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Olli Immonen, who’s been pictured with neo-Nazis and recently declared war on “the nightmare of multiculturalism,” gave a press conference where he promised to write clearer text so that nobody could interpret them as racist or having neo-Nazi overtones. 

Immonen also announced that he’d step down until October from the PS parliamentary group, writes YLE in English.

But that’s not all, PS strongman MattiPutkonen went on to point his finger at a number of politicians, professors and editors who, according to him, were “slandering and taunting the Perussuomalaiset party as well as inciting people and the media to threatening hate speech.”

According to online publication Uusi Suomi, PS member Matti Putkonen announced the following people were guilty of “hate speech” against the PS. These were four Social Democratic Party politicians (Eero Heinäluoma, Annti Rinne, Tytti Tuppurainen and Erkki Tuomioja), Li Andersson of the Left Alliance, Green League chairman Ville Niinistö, National Coalition Party’s Henna Virkkunen, former Rural Party head Pekka Vennamo, two professors and three editors are guilty of hate speech against the PS.

The PS enter the Twilight Zone.

Once again we see how the PS twists words like a magician out of a hat. One of the most incredible ones used by the party recently was “illegal refugees.”

What is an “illegal” refugee anyway?  Continue reading “Matti Putkonen takes the Perussuomalaiset to the Twilight Zone”

Turncoats and the Perussuomalaiset of Finland

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Can you trust a party that says one thing and then does the other? If you look at the adamant stand that the the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* and its leader, Timo Soini, had against any bailouts for Greece, we have now witnessed one of the biggest turncoat performances in Finnish politics ever.

This link in Finnish will show you how Soini and the PS have had to eat their words big time as a result of the bailouts.

After using some of the most demeaning language against the last government, the PS unanimously voted in favor of the support package for Greece, reports YLE in English.

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Finnish PS MP Olli Immonen takes swipe at asylum seekers, migrants and minorities

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Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Olli Immonen is at it again after his xenophobic Facebook posting about “the nightmare of multiculturalism.” This time he is taking a swipe at asylum seekers. He uses terms like “uncontrolled” and “avalanche” to promote his brand of xenophobic and far right hostility not only against asylum seekers, but against Finland’s ever-growing culturally and ethnically diverse community. 

Yes, right, Immonen is the PS MP who posed in June with members of the neo-Nazi Kansallinen vastarintaliike (SVL).

Immonen is also chairman of Suomen Sisu, a Finnish white supremacist association. In a Finnish context, the association is ideologically  similar to the Ku Klux Klan and American Nazi Party.

Is it a surprise that Immonen is now pointing his xenophobic arsenal at asylum seekers? How could you not be surprised if his whole political career is based on racism, fascist and neo-Nazi ideology?

Or should we be equally surprised why a government party like the PS still hasn’t sacked Immonen from the party?

The longer the PS MP stays in the populist party the more incriminating will the evidence be that it has links to fascists and neo-Nazi groups like the SVL.

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The PS of Finland declares war against the media, researchers, and politicians

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Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party strongman Matti Putkonen said that the populist anti-immigration party with far right leanings will hire a lawyer and threatened to take people to court for claiming that PS MP Olli Immmonen and the party has links with Nazi groups, according to Ilta-Sanomat. 

“Those who use the Nazi-fascist card, politicians, researchers, professors, the media, editors-in-chiefs, journalists can come to prove to us if we have any links with the Nazis or not,” he warned.

PS MP Immonen posed in June with members of the neo-Nazi  Suomen vastarintaliike (SVL).

Members of the PS have in the past applied for membership in the SVL.

The SVL is a violent association. In 2013 it attacked a book presentation in Jyväskylä, where one person was stabbed. Most recently the SVL took part in a demonstration that turned violent and led to the detention of 32 people by the police.

Immonen’s pet topics are xenophobic like the supposed invasion of Europe by Muslims. The PS MP, who was a security guard before being elected to parliament in 2011, wrote in April about a nationalist revolution in Finland.

His most recent declaration of war came in July against the “nightmare of multiculturalism.” That led to a demonstration on July 28 where some 15,000 people showed their opposition to what the PS MP wrote.

Näyttökuva 2015-6-18 kello 10.04.27This picture was taken with PS MP Immonen and members of the neo-Nazi SVL. Putkonen claims that posing in the same picture with members of the SVL didn’t make Immonen a Nazi.

It would be naive to believe that Putkonen and the PS aren’t seeking political profit with their latest attack against the media and their enemies.

The strategy of the PS is the same as before: It threatens, whines and acts like the victim.

If it actually sued the media and went on a witch hunt against researchers, individual editors-in-chief, columnists and blogs like Migrant Tales, it wouldn’t surprise many even if that is the way dictators silence and deal with the opposition.

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Jussi Jalonen: Timo Soini ja suomalainen äärioikeisto

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Jussi Jalonen

    

Ulkoministeri ja peruspomo Timo Soini on tänään palaillut lomiltaan ja ottanut saman tien kantaa kohta pari viikkoa velloneeseen kohuun kansanedustaja Olli Immosen lausuntojen ympärillä. Samassa yhteydessä Soini tuomitsi jyrkästi myös kansallisen vastarintaliikkeen tuoreen mellakoinnin Jyväskylässä ja rinnasti rettelöinnin Tampereen toissavuotisiin itsenäisyyspäivän rettelöihin. Soinin sananvalinta on sikäli erikoinen, että kukaan ei ole varsinaisesti milloinkaan odottanut häneltä puolentoista vuoden takaisten Tampereen lätkämailarientojen tuomitsemista. Itse asiassa kaikille lienee muutenkin selvää, että Timo Soinin suhtautuminen Tampereen keskustan hajottamiseen on jyrkän kielteinen, eikä Timo Soini ole tiettävästi koskaan tehnyt mitään retorisia flirttailuja mustapukuisten anarkistien suuntaan. Irtisanoutumiselle siis ei ole varsinaisesti mitään tarvetta.

Sen sijaan Soinin suhtautuminen äärioikeistoon herättää paljon enemmän kysymyksiä, ja nimenomaan tämän vuoksi häneltä on odotettu selontekoa tästä aiheesta. Immosen monikulttuurisuutta koskevan kannanoton yhteydessä on jo lähes unohtunut Soinin viimevuotinen sepustus kulttuurimarxilaisesta salaliitosta, joka olisi sopinut miltei sellaisenaan kansallisen vastarintaliikkeen kotisivuille. Myös uusnatsiliike on hyökännyt tavan takaa “kulttuurimarxisteja” vastaan, ja nimenomaan tämän takia peruspomon kirjoitus oli retoriikaltaan ja otsikoltaan verrattomasti nuoren oululaisparlamentaarikon tekstiä rajumpi. Syystä tai toisesta se ei kirvoittanut vastaavanlaista protestia. Tuolloisen oppositiojohtajan tekstiä tyydyttiin käsittelemään Ruben Stillerin ja Janne Zareffin toimesta Pressiklubi-ohjelmassa, leppoisan setämäiseen tapaan ja hyvässä hengessä, kiinnittämättä mitään huomiota sananvalintaan tai sen heijastamiin aatteisiin ja arvoihin.

Soini on myös toivonut, ettei Olli Immosen tapaus nousisi enää puoluekokouksessa esiin. On jokseenkin yhdentekevää, mitä perussuomalaiset omassa kokouksessaan haastelevat, mutta varsinainen julkinen keskustelu perussuomalaisten arvomaailmasta on nähdäkseni vasta hädin tuskin alkanut. Kansanedustaja Immosen satunnainen facebook-päivitys on myös viime kädessä paljon vähämerkityksellisempi kuin hänen poliittiset yhteytensä. Perussuomalaisten pääpiiskuri Matti Putkonen vaati hiljattain selvää näyttöä perussuomalaisten kytköksistä äärioikeistoon, ja Verkkouutiset vastasi kiitettävästi huutoon nostamalla esille Immosen “suunnittelutalkoisiin” osallistuneen Kai Murroksen. Suomen sekalaisista valkoisen ylivallan apostoleista “professori” Murros edustaa koomisinta äärilaitaa, ja miehen tuotannon aatelia on tämä video, jossa hän julistaa taistelua Eurooppaa tuhoavia liberaaleja vastaan. Vastaavia mahtipontisia ulostuloja vierasmaalaisten mutavyöryä vastustavasta tuhoamistaistelusta hän on tehnyt Sarastus-lehdessä. Murroksen videolle laittaman symbolin merkitys on epäselvä, mutta se näyttää etäisesti siltä, kuin Chryslerin logo ja hakaristi olisi laitettu keskelle Bangladeshin lippua.

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Finland’s Rosa Parks moment and crossing the line

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For those of us who have been anti-racism activists for many years, Tuesday, July 28, offered us something we hadn’t seen before in Finland: A spontaneous 15,000-20.000-strong demonstration against racism and fascism in Helsinki. Was that very important demonstration a Rosa Parks moment and an important watershed to make Finland a more inclusive country? 

Was it a wake-up call that we have a racism and fascism problem in Finland and want to express our revulsion of such social ills?

“The reason why the I have a dream demonstration took place [of July 28] was because we Finns aren’t racists [and fascists],” a teacher told Migrant Tales.

Being a member of the migrant or visible minority community in Finland has been challenging to say the least during the past decade.

A party like the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, which rose from near-obscurity to become the third-biggest party in the 2011 parliamentary elections, successfully exploited xenophobia and Islamophobia.

Just like Islamophobia before Anders Breivik killed 77 people on 22/7, the PS too thought that it was unstoppable. It’s motto was a simple one: When the party’s popularity falls in the polls just add more xenophobic and Islamophobic juice in the campaign message to lure voters.

If the likes of some PS politicians like Jussi Halla-aho, Olli Immonen, Juho Eerola, James Hirvisaari, Teuvo Hakkarainen and a long list of others were to be believed, migrants and minorities in this country were being victimized by such politicians that we are a threat, social-welfare bums, criminals and rapists.

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Media researcher claims Finnish politicians don’t challenge racism strongly enough because they fear losing voters

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Media researcher Anu Koivunen believes that Finnish politicians don’t challenge racism because they fear losing voters, reports MTV3. Koivunen said that reaction would have been stronger in Sweden if the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Olli Immonen scandal would have happened in that neighboring country. 

Organizing a 15,000-strong demonstration at the end of June as a reaction to Immonen’s declaration of war against multiculturalism shows that Finns have the potential to react just as strongly as their neighbors in Sweden.

 

Koivunen reinforces what Migrant Tales has been saying for a long time: There is a lack of leadership among politicians to challenge racism in Finland. This explains why a party like the PS can rise from near-obscurity to become the second-biggest force in parliament with the help of xenophobic and anti-EU rhetoric.

While some politicians may fear challenging racism because it could end their careers, it’s clear that their complacent silence is more an indication of support for the xenophobic rhetoric of parties like the PS.

While Koivunen speaks of politicians, she should also mention the Finnish media, which has been part of the problem with its too often toothless reporting and by giving a voice to racist politicians from parties like the PS.

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MP Olli Immonen, Birkenau death camp, and the PS’ party convention in Turku on August 8-9

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puoluekokous

 See original posting here.

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