Tag: timo soini

Swedish People’s Party chairman challenges (without luck) PS head Soini on racism

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales raises its hat to Swedish People’s Party chairman, Carl Haglund, for challenging Perussuomalaiset (PS) Timo Soini on Helsingin Sanomat to an open debate about racism. Apart from immigrants and visible minorities, Finland’s Swedish-speaking population, which number about 291,000, has been under near-constant attack by the PS. 

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It is unfortunate but understandable in today’s Finland that only a small party like Haglund’s is the only one openly challenging Soini on a crucial issue like racism. If the PS ever won an election that would make Soini the country’s next prime minister, the country’s Swedish-speaking population would, like immigrants and other minorities, have the most to lose.

The reaction of some PS MPs reinforces the latter.

PS MP Reijo Tossavainen, who suggested in May 2011 with Teuvo Hakkarainen that Finland should close its borders to asylum seekers, slammed Haglund’s attack on Soini  as “childish.”

Haglund recently asked on Helsingin Sanomat a timely question: Why is he the only one challenging Soini on racism? Why are the other parties so silent?

The answer is pretty obvious. There are two answers to this question: the biggest parties are too afraid to do so and/or silently agree with many of the populist policies of the PS.

Even if the PS can be called Finland’s Immigrantionphobe Party in the same way as The Independent called the Ukip, Soini’s followers are  ostensibly anti-EU and want to relegate Finland’s second official language, Swedish, to the dustbin of history.

Haglund correctly pointed out last month when Soini appeared on BBC’s HARDTalk that the PS leader shamed Finland because he treated, as he usually does, racism with kid gloves.

Soini has refused to comment on what Haglund said and has made it clear that he doesn’t want to be seen with him in public.

Whatever Soini may want to say, he got caught off guard by BBC’s HARDtalk journalist Stephen Sackur.

One of the these situations was when Soini attempted to defend PS MP Hakkarainen and his use of the n-word in Finland which is “completely unacceptable and racist.”

Soini: “I said [to Hakkarainen] don’t use that kind of [racist] language.”

Sackur: “Why didn’t you fire him?”

Soini: “Why should I?”

Saucker: “Because if people use that sort of completely derogatory word towards people of a different race it suggests that they are racist.”

Soini: “Yes, but he hasn’t said he’s a racist and I don’t believe he is a racist.”

Finland, the PS and far right: How long before the chickens come home to roost?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

I’ve lived and worked in countries like Colombia and Argentina during the dirty war (1976-83), where people were and still are killed for what they write. Never would I have imagined that I’d receive my first death threats twenty years ago in this country, Finland. The threats and harassment haven’t stopped.  

When I read about this serious problem affecting university researchers who study a social ill like racism and even journalists, I not only wonder how we have got here but how long it will take before something snaps.

Unions representing university researchers brought up the issue in mid-February, stating that threats to their members at the University of Eastern Finland  have been on the rise. A new story on MTV3 today reveals the same problem on a much wider scale.

Another sad example was Jyväskylä, were a group of neo-Nazi thugs disrupted a book event on the far right in Finland.

It’s clear that those who harass and threaten people for what they do or write, have little respect for our democratic institutions. They are like lawless vigilantes full of bravado but turn to cowards when their identity is  exposed.

Racism and hatred are sexy for some people. Some politicians fall in love with them because it brings them to the public light and feeds their low self-esteem, narcissism and bizarre ego trips. What they don’t know – or don’t want to know – is that racism and hatred know no master. It can bite back, and hard.

Anders Breivik is a good example. He’s the dog on the short leash that turned into a mass murderer. The smoking gun were the hate sites he visited and that fed his twisted world where, like in a fairy tale, you can rewrite history to suit your ignorance.

What is Perussuomalaiset (PS) leader Timo Soini going to do about the extremists in the PS like MP Jussi Halla-aho, James Hirvisaari, Olli Immonen, Juho Eerola and others?

Nothing because he can’t and because he has already let the ogre out of the cage. Living on an overdose of wishful thinking, the PS leader believes he has control over the violence that his party has sown but well understands that he is now a hostage.

That monster that lurks in our society spreading hatred is the same one that is threatening university researchers, journalists and writers that challenge it.

Like a cancer, we must isolate and neutralize it.

Or maybe we should continue covering our eyes and leave everything to chance.

 

 

Timo Soini’s fast one: “Only one or two [racist] outbursts”

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Perussuomalaiset (PS) chairman, Timo Soini, claimed on BBC’s HARDtalk that his party doesn’t have a strand of racism because there were only “one or two [racist] outbursts” in the past. Only one or two?! Try a long and disgraceful list of racist outbursts, criminal convictions and shameful denials Mr. Soini. 

The HARDtalk interview with Stephen Sackur doesn’t leave us without doubt: Soini and the PS are a breeding ground for intolerance and racism.

The PS chairman has made similar denials in the past: In December 2011 he said  there are only “one, two or three” racists in the party. In April 2011, he claimed to journalists with a poker face there were no racists in the PS.

How can Soini claim the above and get away with it in Finland? For how long can he continue to play the good-cop role of the PS?

The rise of the PS doesn’t say anything pretty about ourselves as a society. Some factors that helped the PS to become one of Finland’s largest parties were the complacency of other political parties and of ours as well to the anti-EU, anti-immigration and anti-Islam party as a social phenomenon.

Another reason why Soini can get away with his ludicrous claims and denials is because most of us don’t want to believe them. How can a small and noble country that defended itself against the former Soviet Union in the Winter War, house so much prejudice, racism and hatred to become a political force?

Here’s a sobering fact: If we don’t challenge the cancer of intolerance presently taking root in Finland, it will end up consuming us.  Remaining silent about this social ill is giving it the green light to continue spreading in our society.

The HARDtalk interview reinforced what Migrant Tales has been saying all along:  Intolerance in general, our approval of prejudice and of the PS in particular, are poisoning Finland.

Don’t expect Soini and the PS to change. They won’t rid the party of their racists and populist-radical nationalists because it would be synonymous to committing political hara-kiri.

Soini’s answers on HARDtalk told us that.

BBC’s HARDtalk grills Timo Soini on racism

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Finally Perussuomalaiset (PS) chairman, Timo Soini, has met his match Wednesday on the BBC’s HARDtalk. The Finnish media should take notes on how BBC journalist Stephen Sackur doesn’t let Soini off the hook when it comes to racism. In a short part of the interview, Saucker reveals Soini and the PS for what they are: a sham and a party that treats racism with kid gloves.

The last time that Soini got thrown a good question was not by Finnish journalists but by high school students in Järvenpää during the presidential election.

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Here is the link.

My favorite question by Sackur to Soini: “Is there a strand of racism inside your party?”

Soini: “No. I’m a Catholic Christian by definition, I cannot be a racist.”

Sackur: “I’m not sure that would convince everyone listening to this interview. Is there a strand of racism inside your party?”

Soini: “No I don’t hate anybody, nobody is hated by the Finns Party…Of course there are one or two outbursts but we have 19% out of people voting for us…If there are some individuals or even some MPs you cannot personally be in charge.”

Sackur: “You’re a leader. That’s your job. ”

Soini: “That is my job I’m not a kindergarten [teacher]…”

Sackur: “You have 39 MPs and you are saying it’s simply impossible to ensure that none come up with a racist statement?”

And a little later on Saucker brings up PS MP Teuvo Hakkarainen and his use of the n-word in Finland which is “completely unacceptable and racist.”

Soini: “I said [to Hakkarainen] don’t use that kind of [racist] language.”

Sackur: “Why didn’t you fire him?”

Soini: “Why should I?”

Saucker: “Because if people use that sort of completely derogatory word towards people of a different race it suggests that they are racist.”

Soini: “Yes, but he hasn’t said he’s a racist and I don’t believe he is a racist.”

Sackur: “So if you use that kind of language, inflammatory language, then deny you’re a racist, that’s ok.”

Soini: “That’s not ok . You should be improving in your behavior.”

 

 

 

BBC’s HARDtalk: Soini defends decision to not sack Halla-aho

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Perussuomalaiset (PS) chairman, Timo Soini, said on BBC’s HARDTalk that the five-year ordeal that lead to a Supreme Court ruling against PS MP Jussi Halla-aho for inciting ethnic hatred was enough punishment, according to YLE. Soini had promised previously to sack any member of the party if they were sentenced by a court for hate speech. 

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“He’s been in purgatory for five years,” Soini said of Halla-aho. “In my opinion it’s hard-enough punishment.”

Certainly Soini doesn’t want to get rid of Halla-aho because that would be costly for the party. Since the PS MP was voted to parliament thanks to hate speech, he can now move to phase two: put into action his plans, which include spreading suspicion and making life as difficult as possible for immigrants in Finland.

The BBC asked if Soini believed he had passed the peak of his popularity.

”Everything is possible,” he said.  “I’ve been in parliament for ten years. In that respect, I’m a pretty tough guy because I do what I believe in.”

According to YLE, Soini was asked about the Slovak National Party, which belongs, like the PS, to the xenophobic and right-wing populist Europe of Freedom & Democracy group in the European Parliament. It’s leader, Jan Slota, stated that “The Hungarians are a cancer in the body of the Slovak nation” and that the only homosexual he’d accept is one in the closet.

In Soini’s usual style, he didn’t answer the question.  He said that when the party won the election in 2011, the Swedish media had called the PS leader “the plague.”

“How does that stand for Swedish values?” he said.

The HARDTalk show can only be viewed in the U.K.

On the BBC website, it introduces Soini in the following manner:  writes:  “Europe’s prolonged economic crisis has prompted a populist backlash against the powers that be. In Finland, the EU’s prosperous northern outpost, the big beneficiary has been Timo Soini, leader of the Eurosceptic, nationalist party long known as the True Finns. He wants to see the Eurozone dismantled, immigration curbed, traditional values restored. Critics have labelled the party xenophobic – is this the angry politics of European disintegration?”

Here’s another interview that Soini gave to CNBC on Finland’s membership in the European Union.

How far has the PS beachhead spread in twenty-two months?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales wrote the following day after the historic April 17, 2011 election had sent shock waves throughout Finland and Europe: “Far-right populism is an illness inflicting Europe at present and it now has a beachhead in Finland.” 

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Back then, our blog got got cited by Time Magazine. The above quote was a response to PS chairman Timo Soini’s statement: “We [the PS] are not extremists so you can sleep safely.”

The rise of a large right-wing populist party with Counterjihadists could not have been possible without the complacency and silence of other political parties. The PS in its present state and size is a knee-jerk reaction to Finland’s ever-growing cultural diversity, the euro crisis and political establishment.

Even if the PS claims to be an option to the way politics have been traditionally practiced in Finland, it’s a mirror of the other parties in their crudest form. In those traditional parties, like the PS, you’ll find many who are just as conservative, intolerant, oppose cultural diversity and see the outside world with manifest unease.

How far has that beachhead spread in twenty-two months?

There’s bad and good news. The bad news is that the PS will remain, at least for the time being, a player in Finnish politics that other parties will eye with distrust and unease. The good news is that it’s doubtful that the party will ever match its 2011 election result. That became clear in the presidential and municipal elections, which were disappointments for Soini and the party.

Another important wild card to hit the PS was mass-killer Anders Breivik.

The Nordic region was never the same for anti-immigration populist parties like the PS after Breivik erupted with his Counterjihadist crusade and started murdering in cold blood innocent people.

These factors, together with many the many scandals that have rocked the party in recent months, have undermined the PS if not permanently from ever becoming a credible party.

Even if Soini claims that the municipal election was a clear victory for the PS, it was anything but that if  we compare it with their parliamentary election victory. Half of those that voted for the PS in April 2011 had ditched the party by October 2012.

While the PS has been a great source of scoops for Finland’s yellow press, it must be a disappointment for some of its supporters.  What has it accomplished in parliament except for poisoning the air with its Finnish teaparty populism?

Even if the PS appears to have suffered unconvincing election setbacks in the presidential and municipal elections, the party is on a collision course with itself as well.

Right after the municipal elections of October 28, Soini announced that the PS will become the biggest party in Finland in the EU parliamentary elections of 2014.

Making such promises and having to eat your words will not help the PS but deepen its problems.

A party that cannot root out its racists, fascists and political opportunists can never lead a good country like Finland, unless we wish to destroy what we’ve worked so hard to build.

Timo Soini and his pact with the devil

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The cracks in the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party are widening as the latest Kai Haavisto-James Hirvisaari scandal proves. The PS has reached a dead end with its present band of politicians. With the complicity of the near-silence of other parties, no other political group in modern Finnish times has created so much resentment and hatred towards others like the PS. 

No matter what the PS does, it is a rambunctious party ready to die by the sword after living so eagerly by the sword.

If I could paint a cartoon that would depict the present situation, I’d draw Haavisto and Hirvisaari as a two-headed stick of dynamite joined by a lighted fuse. All around them would be PS members, including Soini, getting ready for the loud explosion.

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Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja sheds light on a blog entry where the PS is today.

He writes: “The spirit that [Timo] Soini opportunistically freed from the bottle by accepting extremist [candidates] of the Suomen Sisu [association] to run for office will soon permanently tarnish the ability of the party to cooperate with other ones and may even soon threaten Soini’s position as party leader.”

EuroMP Sampo Terho, together with PS strongman Matti Putkonen, are another example of how lost the party is.  Both proposed a plan how Finland could save 3.15 billion euros. While the usual culprit of development aide was mentioned, it was surprising that Terho and Putkonen suggested raising VAT, a PS policy no-no.

Soini has distanced himself from the proposal.

Terho is chairman of the Suomalaisuuden liitto, an association taken over by right-wing extremists which, like Suomen Sisu,  see cultural diversity and immigration as a threat to Finland.

One matter I have never figured out is why politicians like Tuomioja and the media still see Soini as a “good guy” victim if he signed a pact with the devil? Soini is nothing more than the good cop but we mustn’t forget that he’s still a cop.

Finland’s stance on Soini reflects how out of touch it is with its immigrants, visible minorities and its ever-growing cultural diversity. It’s perfectly fine to socially exclude, bash and insult immigrants and visible minorities in this country as long as you don’t treat white Finns the same way.

The PS, with the blessing and silence of other political parties in Finland, blames immigrants and visible minorities for most if not all of the country’s problems. Sensible people understand that the issue is much bigger. Large multinational companies relocate to countries where they can exploit workers by paying lower wages.

Greedy corporations are the ones stealing jobs, not immigrants.

 

 

 

 

The Finnish media and their PS darling

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Did anyone watch Thursday’s Pressiklubi show with Li Andersson of the Left Wing Alliance, Perussuomalaiset (PS) chairman Timo Soini and Helsingin Sanomat politics and business editor, Marko Junkkari? Apart from Soini’s usual political blah-blah (sound colorful but don’t say anything), Junkkari’s comment about how the Finnish media saw the PS as their darling before the 2011 election was quite revealing. 

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View Pressiklubi talk show here.

It’s already known as Junkkari admitted that the media was a major factor that helped the PS rise from being a minor party in Finnish politics to one of the biggest today.

Migrant Tales has asked on a number of occasions how come a populist anti-EU, anti-immigration and especially anti-Islam party could literally sweep the media off its feet?

The only answer I can find to that question is that too much of the Finnish media, which should know better, was dazzled by the PS because too many identified with its insular, racist and ethnocentric message.

Just like all of the major newspapers in the U.S. except for one – New York Review of Books – jumped eagerly on President George W. Bush’s invade-Iraq bandwagon, how much did the Finnish media question the rise of the PS and their anti-EU, anti-immigration and anti-Islam message?

Some editors like Helsingin Sanomat’s Saska Saarikoski went beyond the call of duty by giving PS MP Jussi Halla-aho greater coverage and recognition.  They incorrectly believed that the issue was freedom of expression.

A recent human interest story about Halla-aho and his wife Hilla in Me Naiset is a good example of how some journalists and the Finnish media still don’t get it.

Writes Jos Schuurmans:  “Yet the article doesn’t go into details concerning his political actions or agenda. The closest writer Essi Myllyoja and photographer Milka Alanen come to touching upon his controversial track record is this:

(…) Jussi is a man who evokes emotions – even fears. His radical opinions and provocative blog articles have taken him even to court. But when Kerttu jumps onto Jussi’s lap and drowns her father in kisses, what springs to mind is that there is surely also a softer side to the man. (…)”

One odd argument I have heard on a number of occasions, and which was asked to Soini on Pressiklubi as well, is if it’s a good matter that right-wing extremist politicians like Halla-aho and the likes have found a home in the PS.

In other words, mainstream parties like the PS have become a sort of camp for troubled and dangerous politicians. It’s a good matter that they are members of the PS because we’d be in trouble if they were out on their own.

Naturally, Soini did not answer the question.

As with many television debates about visible minorities, immigrants and immigration, there are only white people who are taking part in the debate, even though Andersson did an excellent job at cutting Soini’s usual baloney into thin slices.

 

Is Timo Soini losing his grip of the PS?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

For those who haven’t noticed, Perussuomalaiset (PS) anti-immigration hardliners like MP Jussi Halla-aho and James Hirvisaari have tried to show their human side to the media. Halla-aho was recently interviewed with his wife Hilla on Me Naiset, while Hirvisaari writes on a blog entry hitherto-unheard empathy and understanding for his archenemy, the media.  

Some of Finland’s most notorious Counterjihadists are members of the PS. From (top right, left to right): Olli Immonen, James Hirvisaari, Matias Turkkila, Jussi Halla-aho, (second row) Juho Eerola, Freddy Van Wonterghem, Simon Elo, and Kai Haavikko.

Migrant Tales’ guest writer Jos Schuurmans wrote recently about Halla-aho’s interview on Me Naiset.

He wrote: “How is it possible that Sanoma, one of Finland’s largest, most professional and most respected media firms, gets away with publishing a cosy, three-page family portrait of far-right MP Jussi Halla-aho in its November 1, 2012, issue of Me Naiset, the mainstream human interest women’s magazine?”

The interview by Essi Myllyoja of the Halla-ahos is not only an insult to many immigrants and Finns, but shows how the media continues to be run by white Finns. By controlling the narrative, white Finns, or those that rule this country, ensure that what you hear and see are only the stories they want to be told.

If we are going to analyze why two of the PS’ most notorious Counterjihadists are trying to show a softer more human side of themselves, we’d have to study what is going on behind the scenes of chairman Timo Soini’s party.

Apparently there is a pretty serious fight for control of the party between Soini and Halla-aho. Halla-aho, who was convicted by the Supreme Court for defaming and inciting ethnic hatred in June, didn’t rule out the possibility on the Subin Enbuske & Linnanahde Crew TV show of challenging Soini for the party’s leadership.

The present situation within the PS is an outcome of the election blows it received after its historic victory in the April 2011 parliamentary elections. Since then it has been a rough downhill ride: Soini didn’t even make it to the second round of the presidential elections and the municipal elections of October were a clear disappointment.

Disgruntled by the situation and Soini’s leadership, Hirvisaari said recently that the party did poorly in the municipal elections because it wasn’t outspoken as before on immigration issues.

Taking into account that the PS’ anti-immigration candidates fared well in the municipal elections, it suggests that the undecided mainstream voters that gave their support for the party in 2011 have started to jump ship. What is remaining are the most loyal and radical elements, or those who vote for anti-immigration, anti-Islam, homophobic, and populist-conservative candidates.

Emboldened and scenting blood like a hungry pack of wolves, the Counterjihadists of the PS see this as an opportune moment to challenge Soini for the party’s leadership. They are determined to try again if they don’t succeed.

Halla-aho’s and Hirvisaari’s “tolerant” new look should be seen as a shameless ploy in league with many of the red herrings they have tried to feed the public.

 

 

 

Timo Soini on racism: See no evil, hear no evil

Posted on by Migrant Tales

It is surprising how a politician like Timo Soini of the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party can argue anything he wants on television about immigrants and visible minorities. His objection to positive discrimination on a debate on MTV3 Wednesday is a case in point. 

Migrant Tales has  written in the past about colorblind racism, which is one of the most common forms of racism in Finland. On the surface, racial colorblindness may sound fair but the truth is that skin color and ethnic background still play powerful roles in our society.

Writes Psychology Today: “Colorblindness is the racial ideology that posits the best way to end discrimination is by treating individuals as equally as possible, without regard to race, culture, or ethnicity…However, colorblindness alone is not sufficient to heal racial wounds on a national or personal level. It is only a half-measure that in the end operates as a form of racism.”

I still have a hard time figuring out what is worse: Soini’s colorblind statements or the fact that some journalists and politicians still don’t challenge this form of racism more strongly.

Imagine what a political scandal Soini would have faced if he asked to abolish positive discrimination in countries that are culturally diverse and have large immigrant populations.  The PS chairman’s stand on the issue is in the same political league as other far-right parties like the British National Party, Danish People’s Party and teabaggers of the U.S.

I met a member of Hommaforum at a seminar recently who was totally against positive discrimination. Sitting next to us was a black woman from Africa.

I asked him if he thought that Finland was today a society that was way past racism and discrimination. “Do ethnicity and cultural background play a role?” I asked. “What you are saying is that it makes no difference whether you are black or white.”

It’s clear that the PS’ stand on immigration and cultural diversity suffers from colorblindness.

The party’s declaration against all forms of racism in May 2011 is a good example of the colorblind racism that afflicts the PS.

The party may claim that it is for labor immigration and that it has a handful of white immigrant candidates running for city council.  This is only a red herring that aims to cover up the party’s issues with cultural diversity.

Here is a recent blog entry by Migrant Tales that puts in perspective the PS’ thinking on what kinds of immigrants should apply to come to Finland and how they should integrate into our society.