Perussuomalaiset Archives - Page 64 of 161

The old and new Perussuomalaiset: Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right…

Posted on July 5, 2017 by Migrant Tales

After the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party imploded on June 13 into two factions, there’s been a lot of finger-pointing from members of the old and new PS. This is nothing new coming from a party that has a long track record in scapegoating migrants and minorities.

The old PS and the new PS, called today either New Alternative or Blue Reform, is the only party in Finland after World War 2 that is openly racist and Islamophobic to attract voters.

Don’t believe the new PS. They are the same thing but in different clothing and give justice to Malcolm X’s famous saying, “Racism is like a Cadillac. They bring a new model every year.”

The old and new PS are not just clowns and jokers to the left and right but hazardous to Finland’s political health.

Are we surprised that the deposed PS leader, Timo Soini, blames the far right and Suomen Sisu for the split in the party? What he sowed and reaped for many years ended up destroying him and the party.

Soini writes in his blog: “It’s silly to argue that a coup/job didn’t happen at the Perussuomalaiset party convention. Electing an anti-immigration hardliner [like Halla-aho] was for many too much. The stick that broke the camel’s back was when Suomen Sisu attempted to overtake the party council.”

Electing “an anti-immigration hardliner?!” Why didn’t he sack Jussi Halla-aho from the party in 2012, when he promised to do so if a party member got convicted for ethnic agitation?

Continue reading “The old and new Perussuomalaiset: Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right…”

“Tolerant” Minister Lindström and his aide planned to slash funding to integration programs in Finland

Posted on June 28, 2017 by Migrant Tales

Blue Reform* (formerly Perussuomalaiset) Minister of Labor Jari Lindström’s special aide Sakari Puisto aimed to slash financial aid to migrant associations by 348,000 euros from 750,000 euros, reports Helsingin Sanomat. A ministry official was “shocked” when he heard such plans by Puisto in January.

Some associations that were going to see their financial aid cut included Liikkukaa, Sateenvarjo, Suomen somalilaistenliitto, Suomen Somali verkosto as well as others.

Lindström, who has tried to portray himself as “tolerant” on immigration issues, saw such a facade expose a more sinister face after the scoop by Helsingin Sanomat.

Plans to drastically cut financial aid to associations that work with migrants fall into the anti-immigration policies of the Perussuomalaiset (PS), which have now split into two parties after Jussi Halla-aho, whose hostile views on immigration are known and who was convicted for hate speech in 2012, was elected chair the PS.

One of the reasons why the PS grew in Finland has been a simple message: We’ll take care of the Somali and “migrant problem” in Finland.

“Taking care” of the so-called “problem” has meant hostility towards migrants, the tightening of immigration policy and undermining integration programs to migrants.

Habiba Ali, a Social Democratic Party councilperson of the city of Espoo, said that if the cuts suggested by Puisto would have gone ahead, it would have undermined the work of these organizations to help integrate them into society.

“Sports is important for [some] migrants if they want to integrate into Finnish society,” she said. “Investing in integration policies makes sense since this will mean more effective integration and future taxpayers.”

Read the full story here.

Ali said that integration is a two-way process and that the law should apply to everyone equally.

Continue reading ““Tolerant” Minister Lindström and his aide planned to slash funding to integration programs in Finland”

A feature about a PS white supremacist and how the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) normalizes racism and bigotry

Posted on June 27, 2017 by Migrant Tales

Northern Finnish Kemi city councilperson Harri Tauriainen is a white supremacist that is head over heels about US President Donald Trump. In a sloppy human-interest story about Tauriainen, the state-run Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) makes no mention of the councilperson’s racist and bigoted political views except him denying that he’s a racist and neo-Nazi sympathizer.

The Finnish media, like other media in the EU, has difficulty in grasping how racism impacts migrants and minorities since they are white.

In the YLE story, there was no mention as well of Tauriainen’s most infamous quotes like, “It’s incredible that this human trash [convicted foreign criminals] aren’t put in their places. Put a stamp on their asses and deport them for good from Finland.”

Read the original story here.

But if the YLE reporter appears to suffer from convenient amnesia, she could take the trouble to see one of Tauriainen’s latest Facebook posts on how “hate speech is legal in the United States,” and how “illegal human trafficking rages on.”

In the story, YLE only had nice things to say about Tauriainen even if it mentions the far-right vigilante group Soldiers of Odin. The reporter even played down the 47.4% plunge in votes he got in the 2017 municipal elections from 2012.

Migrant Tales will go even further to help the YLE reporter to understand who Tauriainen is and what he symbolizes to our ever-growing culturally diverse society.

Continue reading “A feature about a PS white supremacist and how the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) normalizes racism and bigotry”

Is Hanna Mäntylä qualified to advise the European Council on youth radicalization?

Posted on June 21, 2017 by Migrant Tales

Are you ready for the following news? New Reform MP and former Perussuomalaiset* social and health minister, Hanna Mäntylä, is going to be named as a special advisor to the European Council. Her expertise will be used to challenge youth radicalization and marginalization.

Yes, right. I too fell on my back when I read the news on YLE.

If we look at Mäntylä’s past record as minister and her former statements on cultural diversity, it’s clear that they fuel inequality and radicalization and don’t lessen them.

Should we be surprised that Mäntylä will form part of such a European Council committee? I wonder what former New Reform Foreign Minister Timo Soini had to do with Mäntylä’s naming?

One of her plans as social and health minister was to pass new legislation that would grant migrants less social welfare than native Finns. Fortunately, such a law did not see the light of day since it was unconstitutional. This was part of an 80-point government plan to tighten immigration laws.

Migrant Tales wrote in 2015:

“The government now hopes with the 80-point plan to not only make life difficult for asylum seekers, and in turn for all migrants and minorities in this country but introduce policy changes that are unconstitutional. PS Social Welfare Minister Hanna Mäntylä has been eager to lower subsidies to asylum seekers that get a residence permit.

Read the full story (in Finnish) here. Subsitute MP Visa Riskilä will replace Mäntylä.

Another important question we should ask if Mäntylä qualified for the job?

Spreading anti-immigration rhetoric and polarizing Finnish society don’t make you an “expert” on how to stop youth radicalization.

Moreover, Mäntylä was a suspect in a social welfare fraud case. but was saved from going to court thanks to statute of limitations, which had expired.

Mäntylä resigned as minister in 2016 due to “family problems.”

She has been largely absent from politics in her northern Lapland province.

* After the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13 into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. Despite the name changes, we believe that it is the same party in different clothing. Both are hostile to cultural diversity, one is more open about it while the other is more diplomatic. 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 thereafter the acronym PS.

Why Migrant Tales will continue to call the “Finns Party” the Perussuomalaiset

Posted on June 16, 2017 by Migrant Tales

At the end of our stories we have published a short footnote explaining why we don’t call the Perussuomalaiset (PS) its official English-language name. We have changed the footnote to take into account that the PS comprises of two factions. Are these blocs any different from the old PS? If so, how?

An overriding matter that Tuesday’s implosion revealed and reinforced is that both blocs are a huge like. The “old” PS exploited racism, anti-EU and nationalist sentiment to grab and maintain political power.

Fortunately, their political power and credibility has diminished considerably since early this week.

The new logo of Uusi Vaihtoehto, or New Alternative, seen by Kasper Diem. The joke is in the V, which suggests v*u, or ct.

The logo of the Perussuomalaiset party.

Continue reading “Why Migrant Tales will continue to call the “Finns Party” the Perussuomalaiset”

Old or new Perussuomalaiset or new or old Perussuomlaiset – it’s a new Cadillac model!

Posted on June 14, 2017 by Migrant Tales

Racism is like a Cadillac. They bring a new model every year.

Malcolm X (1925-65)

We saw on Tuesday quite a political show in Finland with 22 MPs ditching the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* and forming a new party called the New Alternative. But don’t hold your breath because nothing has changed. It’s just a marketing of the same thing, a new Cadillac model as Malcolm X said, right-wing populist nationalism and all the toxicity that goes with it.

There is no such thing as a new and old Perussuomalaiset party because it is basically the same thing.

But why aren’t we told this by the media? Where are those visible minority reporters and our voice in this political row? Nowhere, because our opinions don’t count.

Between Sunday and Monday, when the newly elected PS chairperson Jussi Halla-aho was shown the door by Sipilä and Orpo, the government had a unique opportunity to step out of its harsh and hostile economic and immigration policies and put itself briefly on a moral pedestal.