Tag: Perussuomalaiset

Halla-aho wants Juho Eerola to be his successor

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The Perussuomalaiset (PS) party never ceases to surprise us. Former administration committee chairman MP Jussi Halla-aho said he wants Juho Eerola to be his successor. The MP, who is second vice president of the PS, is Halla-aho’s close ideological ally and a member of the far-right Suomen Sisu association.

Appointing Eerola as the new chairman of the administration committee would be another blow to its credibility.

Another important question is if Eerola is qualified to chair the administration committee. He is a practical nurse who has worked at a refugee center in his home town of Kotka.

Juho Eerola

Eerola’s far-right and anti-immigration views are well-known. He once wrote in a blog entry that he liked Italian fascist Benito Mussolini’s economic system because there was full employment.

The PS MP does not seem to care too much if his aide, Ulla Pyysalo, wanted to join a neo-Nazi associaiton, Suomen Kansalinen Vastarinta (SKV).

SKV is a violent association that openly supports national-socialist values. This sticker claims that multiculturalism is hazardous to your children and grandchildren.

While some PS members demanded that Pyysalo should resign from the party, Eerola was against sacking his aide. Pyysalo said, however, she’d resign if she found a new job by the end of the year, which she didn’t.

Pyysalo published in July homophobic jokes on Facebook about Green Party MP Jani Toivola.

Writes Migrant Tales in January: “The Pyysalo affair demonstrates beyond any doubt that it is perfectly fine to be a PS member and belong to a neo-Nazi association like SKV as long as you were drunk while applying for membership or didn’t quite know what you were doing but thought it was a patriotic act.”

Jussi Halla-aho resigns as chairman of the administration committee

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP Jussi Halla-aho announced that he will resign as chairman of the administration committee, according to Helsingin Sanomat in English.  The decision comes after the Supreme Court charged Halla-aho on Friday for defaming a religion and inciting ethnic hatred.

A new chairman will be chosen by the committee on Tuesday.

Halla-aho published a statement at 1:30pm that he will bow out as chairman of the administration committee. The statement was published shortly after a commission, made up of all the parliamentary party leaders, voted unanimously that Halla-aho should step down as chairman of the administration committee.

PS parliamentary leader Pirkko Ruohonen-Lerner boycotted the meeting.

Jussi Halla-aho

Halla-aho’s problems got worse when he announced in a statement that he would not resign as chairman of the administration committee because the Supreme Court sentence was “a personal interpretation by a few people.”

Helsingin Sanomat said that some PS members see the row as a witch-hunt aimed at distracting attention from the euro crisis.

“Every time that the dissolution of the euro comes just a little bit closer, they focus on someone from the Finns Party group – often someone whose surname starts with the letter H – and try to bury the fact that the euro has not been a success story”, said the party’s deputy chairman Juho Eerola.

Eerola belongs to the same far-right Suomen Sisu anti-immigration wing of the PS as Halla-aho.

Social Democrat veteran politician Paavo Lipponen warned last year of the far-right threat in Finland and that parliament should isolate politicians like Halla-aho.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Halla-aho scandal raises disturbing questions

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Disquieting questions emerge in light of the Jussi Halla-aho scandal: Is pressure on the Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP to resign as chairman of the administration committee due to his dismissive reaction to the Supreme Court sentence or because of what he wrote about Muslims and Somalis, which got him in trouble in the first place?

When the PS won the April 2011 elections, it was well-known by many that the PS was an anti-EU, anti-immigration and especially anti-Islam party.  The question, however, at the time was how many politicians were ready to admit the latter about the PS.

Another important fact that Finland’s political establishment knew last year was that there were a few problem cases in the PS like Halla-aho, who was charged in 2009 by a lower court for defaming a religion.

In light of these facts, why was Halla-aho approved unanimously to chair the administration committee, which, among other matters, is in charge of immigration policy?

Would political parties be demanding the MP’s head today if he’d remained quiet and taken the Supreme Court decision with a drop of humility?

Legal scholars have reacted to Halla-aho’s provocative statements after the Supreme Court decision, who considered the ruling as “a personal interpretation by a few people.”

Halla-aho’s and the PS’ view of our judicial system is odd coming from a party that claims immigrants don’t follow and respect our laws.

Writes Husein Muhammed on Migrant Tales: “Now I grasp what the Perussuomalaiset actually mean when they demand that immigrants should respect the country’s laws. They don’t themselves respect Finnish laws/judicial system.”

If Halla-aho’s arrogant stand has surprised many, PS chairman Timo Soini’s decision to not do anything hasn’t helped matters either.

Soini said in 2009 that any person would get sacked from the party if that person were charged for a racist crime.

Soini has been forced to eat his words on a number of occasions. With a poker face, he claimed right after last year’s election that there wasn’t one racist among the PS and that if Halla-aho got  criminally charged he’d get the boot from the party.

Halla-aho plans to take up the matter before the European Court of Human Rights.

If there is anything positive about the scandal, it may be that political parties in Finland are starting to take a social issue  like racism more seriously.

Finland’s parliament may be making history tomorrow if the PS does not force Halla-aho to resign.  Parliament may decide Wednesday to dissolve the administration committee and appoint new members, which in turn would choose a new chairman.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Uusi Suomi: Länsimaiset arvot uhattuina

Posted on by Migrant Tales

by Husein Muhammed* 

Kansanedustaja ja Eduskunnan hallintovaliokunnan puheenjohtajan Jussi Halla-ahon (ps) mielestä korkeimman oikeuden antama tuomio uskonrauhan rikkomisesta ja kiihottamisesta kansanryhmää vastaan on väärä ja epäoikeudenmukainen. Hän pitää medialle lähettämässään tiedotteessa Suomen korkeimman oikeuden ratkaisua “muutaman ihmisen henkilökohtaiseena tulkinta”, ei “minään taivaallisena totuutena”.

Tähän asti Halla-aho on esiintynyt “maahanmuuttajien rikollisuudesta” huolestuneena kansalaisena ja poliitikkona. Nyt hän itse halveksii Suomen voimassa olevan lain mukaan annettua tuomiota “joidenkin henkilökohtaisina mielipiteinä”. Kansanedustaja vertautuu tässä suorastaan taparikollisiin: he eivät koskaan ymmärrä tehneensä mitään väärin.

Halla-aho on kansanedustaja. Jos hänen mielestään esimerkiksi uskonrauhan rikkominen tulisi dekriminalisoida eli tehdä lailliseksi, hänellä – jos kellään – on mahdollisuus ryhtyä ajamaan lainuudistusta. Mutta Halla-aho ei ole suinkaan vaatinut lainmuutosta, ainoastaan heittäytynyt uhriksi sekä nyt sitten myös halveksuu Suomen korkeinta oikeutta. Jos KKO on tosiaan vain muutama henkilö henkilökohtaisine mielipiteineen, miksi siis kenenkään pitäisi noudattaa lakia ja oikeuden päätöksiä? Minä kun luulin persujen vaativan oikeutta ja järjestystä – ilmeisesti ajavat niitä vain muille.

Nyt alan sisäistämään, mitä perussuomalaiset ajavat takaa, kun vaativat maahanmuuuttajia noudattamaan nimenomaan maan tapaa, eivätkä (toisin kuin esimerkiksi allekirjoittanut) maan lakia. He eivät siis itse kunnioita Suomen lakia/oikeusjärjestystä.

Tähän asti äärioikeistoa on pidetty uhkana lähinnä erinäisille vähemmistöille.Heitä on pahimmassa tapauksessa esitetty ikään kuin anarkistien, äärivasemmiston tai muuten vaan hörhöjen vastakohtana. Tältä osin olemme menneet pahasti metsään. Kuten tuomitun halveksivasta suhtautumisesta korkeimman oikeuden tuomioon on pääteltävissä, äärioikeistosta ei suinkaan ole vaaraa lähinnä erinäisille vähemmistöille. Suurin uhka kohdistuu nimenomaan demokratiaan, oikeusvaltioon ja länsimaisiin arvoihin, joita äärioikeisto on puolustavinaan.

Ihan samalla tavalla ääri-islamistien suurin uhka ei suinkaan kohdistu länsimaihin, vaan muslimeihin ja islamin rauhaa ja oikeudenmukaisuutta korostaviin periaatteisiin, joita äärimuslimit ovat puolustavinaan.

Äärioikeisto ja äärimuslimit ovat siis vastustavinaan toisiaan. Tosi asiassa niillä on yhteinen epäpyhä allianssi: molemmat inhoavat ja halveksivat syvästi demokratiaa, vapautta ja tasa-arvoa. Kukin niistä on nimenomaan suureksi vaaraksi omalle kulttuurille: ääri-islamistit islamille, äärioikeisto länsimaille.

*Kirjoittaja on kirjailija ja lakimies.

Alkuperäisen blogikirjoituksen voi lukea tästä.

Tämä blogikirjoitus julkaistiin Migrant Talesissä luvalla.

PS MP Halla-aho says he will not resign as chairman of the administration committee

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP Jussi Halla-aho announced Monday that he had no reason to bow out as chairman of the administration committee of parliament after he was fined by the Supreme Court on Friday for defaming a religion and inciting ethnic hatred. The PS MP said he would not resign because he considered the Supreme Court decision ”wrong and unfair,” according to a statement. 

I beg your pardon?! Incorrect and unfair?

Apart from revealing Halla-aho’s arrogance and disregard for our legal institutions, the PS MP should ask those people whom he has insulted, Muslims and Somalis, if the Supreme Court fine was “incorrect and unfair.”

Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja criticized the PS chairman for not sacking Halla-aho from the party after the Supreme Court decision.

”Now Timo Soini, who three years ago threatened that anyone charged for racism had no place in the party, has eaten all of his words. This could be best understood if Soini openly supported Halla-aho’s opinions. In light of the [municipal elections], it shows instead a party leader giving in to opportunism and being morally bankrupt,” he said.

Finnish politicians should smell the coffee of far-right extremism

Posted on by Migrant Tales

After over a year of following countless scandals, fines for hate speech, racism and exposures of their far-right ideology, a question begs an answer of the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party: Who is Timo Soini? 

If we asked Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja, a social democrat, his answer would be moral weakness and opportunism.

Tuomioja writes a day after PS MP Jussi Halla-aho got fined by the Supreme Court for hate speech:  ”Now Timo Soini, who three years ago threatened that anyone charged for racism had no place in the party, has [now] eaten all of his words. This could be best understood if Soini openly supported Halla-aho’s opinions. In light of the [municipal elections], it shows instead a party leader giving in to opportunism and being morally bankrupt.”

I would go further than Tuomioja and claim that in principle Soini does agree with Halla-aho on a number of points concerning the perceived threat of our ever-growing culturally diverse society. A column by Soini reinforces the latter.  The big difference, however, between the PS chairman and the anti-immigration extremists of the party is diplomacy. Soini knows how to sugar-coat his words and play the good-cop role. How long will it take for mainstream politicians in this country to step up to the plate and admit what we’ve been saying all along on Migrant Tales: The PS is a racist, anti-immigration, anti-Islam and anti-EU party. In addition some members of the PS like Halla-aho want to turn the political clock of Finland back to the 1930s.

The sooner we understand the dark elements lurking inside the PS, where the far-right anti-immigration extremists are gaining strength over an embattled Soini, the greater our chances of saving our country from far-right nationlism.

One of the reasons why some still believe they can live with far-right extremists in parliament, who mock at our laws and institutions like Halla-aho did concerning the Supreme Court fine for hate speech, is because the PS isn’t still seen as a threat.

Why should they feel threatened by the PS? If you are a white Finn and have a stable job, the PS isn’t a threat because it is a party that excludes and victimizes immigrants and other minorities in Finland.

That’s now, but tomorrow may be a more perilous story if we don’t smell the coffee of  far-right extremism.

Abagond: What this blog has taught me about white people

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Comment: Abagond is a very successful blog that debates issues like racism in the United States. We at Migrant Tales like to ask serious question about such a social ill as well. What about if we asked that same question as Abagond did in the headline? 

For me personally, Migrant Tales has taught me that racism is a problem that should be challenged in Finland. Our blog has helped expose as well the outright lies of anti-immigration groups like the Perussuomalaiset. Most importantly, it has inspired a lot of people to challenge one of the worst menaces threatening our society today: prejudice, nationalism, xenophobia, far-right ideology and racism. 

___________

Keeping this blog has blown my mind. White people say stuff here that they would never  say offline in my hearing. I knew white Americanswere racist – living in so-called liberal New York left no doubt in my mind about that – but I had no idea how deep their racism ran.

Read original blog entry here.

 

Halla-aho should resign as chairman of the administration committee of parliament

Posted on by Migrant Tales

In light of the Finnish Supreme Court (KKO) sentence on Friday fining Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP Jussi Halla-aho for defaming a religion and incitement against an ethnic group, the next step that the PS MP should take is to resign as chairman of the administration committee of parliament.  

PS  head Timo Soini was quoted as saying on YLE in English that it was up to the members of the administration committee to decide whether Halla-aho could remain as chairman.

The only party that has so far asked Halla-aho to resign is the Left Alliance.

Being fined for defaming a religion and incitement of an ethnic group should be enough grounds to show Halla-aho the door.

The greatest damage the PS has done to Finland after winning its historic election victory in 2011 is to the credibility of an institution like parliament.  Leaving Halla-aho to continue as chairman of the administration committee would be a further blow to credibility.

Social Democratic presidential candidate Paavo Lipponen said last year that clear boundaries should be drawn between democracy and those that believe in far-right ideology.  Our political leaders in parliament now have that opportunity to show leadership.

The sentence by the Supreme Court is an important precedent since it sets clear lines on what is unacceptable hate speech by unscrupulous politicians.

Criminal Law Professor Terttu Utrianen said the KKO sentence was a good one, since it reinforces our European way of life, which hinges on social equality and multiculturalism.

Soini was quoted as saying on YLE in English that the PS does not  intend to take any action following the ruling, since it was sufficient punishment for Halla-aho.

The PS MP said he may appeal the decision to the European Court of Human Rights.

Writes JusticeDemon of Migrant Tales: “A cynic might suggest that this newly discovered interest in defending human dignity as an end in itself comes at a rather convenient time [for Halla-aho]…”

 

Halla-aho gets convicted for defamation and inciting ethnic hatred

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Perussuomalaiset (PS) party MP Jussi Halla-aho was convicted today by the Finnish Supreme Court  (KKO) for defaming a religion and inciting ethnic hatred. Halla-aho, who was fined in 2009 for defaming religion, was now criminally charged as well for inciting ethnic hatred. 

The sentence dates back to Halla-aho’s blog writings of 2008, when he claimed that Islam is a pedophile religion and Somalis are genetically inclined to rob and live off welfare.

The latest ruling is another blow to the embattled and scandal-ridden PS’ credibility, which has seen its popularity plummet in recent opinion polls.

Migrant Tales applauds the sentence by the KKO to a politician who has made his questionable career on spreading hatred and racism of other groups in Finland. It is certainly an important ruling and warning to others. The sentence  reinforces our rejection as a society of racism and populism based on hate speech.

Kimmo Wilska writes on Facebook: “Personally I think that bringing criminal charges against Halla-aho was not a very wise move. Being able to portray himself as a free speech martyr was all he needed to win big in the Parliamentary elections.”

Halla-aho is chairman of the administration committee of parliament responsible, among other matters, for immigration policy.

As Finland learned from the April 2011 election, being complacent and silent on a social ill like racism is definitely the wrong way to go. Allowing such a social ill to roam freely in our society is like letting out a deadly predator.

The party’s chairman, Timo Soini, claimed to the media with a poker face after the April election that there was not one racist among the PS and that earlier that if Halla-aho got  criminally charged he’d get sacked from the party.

The ball is now in Soini’s court.

UPDATE:  PS chairman Soini said later today on Helsingin Sanomat that the party would take no action against Halla-aho since the fine imposed by the Supreme Court was sufficient punishment.

 

 

 

 

Finnish anti-immigration party seeks to ban begging

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Three Perussuomalaiset (PS) MPs plan to present a bill to Parliament that would ban begging in public places, according to YLE in English.  The aim of the bill has nothing to do with helping the Roma, a group that has suffered persecution in Europe for centuries. Its main aim is to reap political points for an embattled and scandal-ridden party, the PS. 

Scapegoating the Roma by banning begging will only exacerbate the problem by sweeping the issue under the rug. Such a law indirectly casts a shadow as well on Finland’s 10,000-strong Roma community and reinforces our collective suspicion of the group.

The proposed bill is a good example of how the PS are trying, with the municipal elections nearing in October, to capitalize on our xenophobia and racism.  

Why are Roma leaving Romania, Bulgaria and other eastern European countries to come to prosperous Finland? How many Roma are we speaking of? Are those begging on our streets a number-one national issue?  Why is an anti-immigration and especially anti-Muslim party like the PS so interested in banning begging by the Roma?  

Behind all these questions you will find two factors orchestrating the rhetoric from behind: loathing for the Romany minority and political opportunism. 

The aim of the bill is what makes it especially suspect. Writes YLE in English: “The proposal states that begging has a negative impact on public safety and that permitting begging does not reduce the poverty and discrimination that foreign Roma face in their home countries.” 

Two of the PS MPs proposing the bill, Jussi Halla-aho and Olli Immonen, have made their questionable political careers by bashing Muslims and immigrants.  Now their attention has shifted to the Romany minority.  

The third PS MP is Tom Packalén, a policeman.