xenophobia Archives - Page 55 of 92

Helsingin Sanomat poll shows the PS heading south

Posted on August 18, 2014 by Migrant Tales

A poll published today by Helsingin Sanomat reveals that the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party is at its lowest point (15.9%) in two years. The most popular party in Finland continues to be the National Coalition Party (22.1%) followed by the Center Party (19.9%).

The Social Democrats, which are still struggling, are in the mid-teens (14.9%) with parties like the Left Alliance (9.3%), Greens (8.7%), Swedish People’s Party 4.5% and Christian Democrats (3.4%) trailing far behind.

Should we be surprised that matters are looking politically bleak for the PS?

Figuring out what the PS is and getting a coherent picture of what the party stands for is challenging for anyone. While it’s clear that the party is anti-EU, anti-immigration, homophobic, chauvinistic and especially anti-Islam, much of its energy has been spent to tone down its hate rhetoric but to stand for the same things.

The PS continues to be an openly hostile party against migrants and minorities. It would be wishful thinking on their behalf to think that some have short memories in this country.

The PS is in a near-constant state of animation trying out political images like a model changing clothes every few minutes. No matter how much it tries to change its image, the PS will end up committing political harakiri if it becomes too mainstream.

Even if the PS wants to look like a responsible mainstream party these days, it’s quite another matter if voters will buy it.

If the latest Helsingin Sanomat poll is anything to go by, the answer is a clear no.

Read full story here.

The last three elections after the PS’ historic win in April 2011 are clear proof that something isn’t right. If the same trend continues in next year’s parliamentary elections, it will face a stinging – if not a mortal blow – to its chances to remain as one of Finland’s four largest parties.

The PS’s election fortunes after 2011 have been disappointing for the party.

* The Finnish name for the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The English names of the party adopted by the PS, like True Finns or Finns Party, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and xenophobia. We therefore prefer to use the Finnish name of the party on our postings.

Let the ballot boxes speak in 2015 and send the PS back to the minor political leagues

Posted on August 16, 2014 by Migrant Tales

I’m certain that when historians and political observers study the present parliamentary term 2011-15, they will come to a conclusion: Never since the 1950s have our Nordic institutions and values come under such a threat. Who will they name as the culprit? Wrong, not the Perussuomalaiset (PS),* but our indifference and lack of leadership.

How can you not consider this period a gloomy one for Nordic values such as social equality and participatory democracy?

The 2003 parliamentary elections, which saw the rise of people like Tony Halme with Timo Soini’s blessings, speak volumes about the ever-growing space given to intolerance and xenophobia in this country.

Who was Halme (1963-2010)? He was a politician who didn’t hide his hatred of migrants and minorities. Halme called former President Tarja Halonen a lesbian on a radio talk show.

After the likes of Halme, we saw a few years later the rise of a new generation of PS politicians like Jussi Halla-aho, Olli Immonen, James Hirvisaari, Juho Eerola, Teuvo Hakkarainen and many, many other of the PS, who sought political gain with their xenophobic messages.

What kind of a party is the Perussuomalaiset? Check out this quotes here.

What value, apart from spreading neoliberal views and encouraging hatred and suspicion of migrants and minorities, have they given? Zero value.

Remember Tommi Rautio, a PS councilman, who said he’d give a medal to a cold-blooded murdered after he shot in cold blood a migrant at a pizzeria, wounded the owner before taking his life?

Remember the membership applications by Ulla Pyysalo, a PS parliamentary aide, and councilman Tuomas Olkkonen to the neo-Nazi Kansalinen Vastarinta? Remember Teeum Lahtinen, the PS councilman of Espoo, who “liked” the Nazi group’s Facebook page?

All of the above are or were members of the PS, the party that is hoping to lead Finland into the new century.

Everything suggests, however, an election upset for the PS in April 2015. Over three years of this party’s antics in the opposition should be enough proof that the PS would destroy rather than strengthen our Nordic democracy and values.

Their statements, draft laws and actions speak for themselves. They are clear proof that they aren’t only an open threat to Finland but especially to migrants and minorities.

Let’s send them back in April 2015 to the minor political leagues where they came from and belong.

The PS of Finland once again reveals its hostility towards migrants and cultural diversity

Posted on August 6, 2014 by Migrant Tales

One of the most interesting matters to watch about the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party is how their explanations and arguments change to hide their hostile and xenophobic stances against migrants and Finland’s ever-growing cultural diversity. PS party secretary Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo was quoted as saying on YLE that Finland should stop development aid and end welfare to refugees and migrants.

Once again the PS’ hostile stance to migrants and minorities in this country is exposed in the raw. The statement by Slunga-Poutsalo, one of the signers of the anti-immigration Nuiva Manifesto, reveals as well how much out of touch the party is with migrants and migration.

While the Nuiva Manifesto favours assimilation, or one-way adaption, Finland’s constitution and its laws support integration, or two-way adaption.

The proximity of next year’s parliamentary elections is one of the reasons why the PS’ party secretary is making these types of xenophobic statements. The other reason is that she, like her party, loathe migrants and cultural diversity.

Read full story (in Finnish) here.

We’ve heard similar statements by the PS in the past. If the PS doesn’t want refugees in Finland, why would it want to stop development aid? Doesn’t development aid discourage migrants from coming to this country?

The most distressing matter about Slunga-Poutsalo’s comments is that it wants she wants to stop offering welfare to migrants that cannot support themselves upon moving to Finland. Even if it isn’t clear what this actually implies, the context of the statement reveals that the PS wants migrants to be second-class members of society.

Four in five Swedes express concern over xenophobia

Posted on June 28, 2014 by Migrant Tales

Swedes are more worried about the rise of xenophobia in their country than the ever-growing number of immigrants, according to The Local, citing a study by the SOM Institute of Gothenburg University. The survey revealed that while 49% expressed concern over immigration levels, 78% were worried about the rise of xenophobia.

Read full story here.

Writes The Local: The negative attitude towards xenophobia is likely due to the fact that the topic has been a hot one for the past two or three years, said Marie Demker, a political scientist, was quoted as saying.

“I noticed that people fell that xenophobia threatens society,” she said. “We talk an awful lot about xenophobia and there is also a strongly negative attitude to all forms of racism and xenophobia.”

Demker said that it was “quite clear” that her countrymen and countrywomen were more worried about attitudes towards immigrants and refugees than they were about foreigners themselves.

Compared with the “what do you think about immigrants” surveys carried out in Finland, we can learn a lot from Sweden. Instead of asking if Finland should increase the number of immigrants, why don’t we ask them their opinions about xenophobia? Irrespective if a country has few or many immigrants, few will say that there are too few immigrants, which reveals that these types of surveys have loaded questions.

Meanwhile, Eurostat announced last week that Sweden took in 20% (26,395) of all asylum seekers in the EU in 2013. That was followed by Germany (26,080), France (16,155), Italy (14,495) and the United Kingdom (13,400).

Finland ranked 14^th with 1,795.

Read full story here.

Is Finland a good country for migrants and minorities?

Posted on June 25, 2014 by Migrant Tales

Finland gets a lot of international recognition for being one of the most competitive countries in the world, for press freedom, women rights, scores high on the good country index, having one of the best educational systems in the world and the likes. The latter raises a question: How inclusive of a country is Finland to migrants, cultural diversity and gay marriage?

What goes around, comes around, right?

Read full story here.

As a multicultural Finn who has lived in this country for a long time, I’ve never felt that these distinctions granted to Finland applied directly to me. Press freedom? I doubt that many of the issues we raise on Migrant Tales would see the light of day in the national media.

Why? Because all these distinctions given by think-tanks abroad are meant for white ethnic Finns. They do not really apply to migrants and minorities.

Taking into account the adverse winds blowing in Finland against minorities, migrants and their children, is it surprising that the legal affairs committee of parliament voted Tuesday 10-6 against a citizen’s initiative on gay marriage?

The same committee voted 9-8 in February 2013 against gay marriage. This prompted a citizens’ initiative that got 166,000 signatures.

Finland is the only country in the Nordic region where gays cannot get married.

If you are surprised by the most recent vote, then you’re pretty gullible and probably think that the rise of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party in the 2011 parliamentary elections was nothing more than a mere protest vote that would go away in time.

The question is not only to connect the dots, even if this is important, but why we don’t bother to do so. There is a relationship between the rise of intolerance in Finland against migrants and minorities like gays. Our problem is that those in power don’t want to know because some of them may dread what they’ll see.

And why should their day be ruined if the World Economic Forum recently named Finland as the most competitive economy in Europe?

Risto J. Penttilä expresses dismay at the award in the Financial Times:

For a start, Finland’s economy has not grown in five years. The unemployment rate is 9 per cent. The flagship company, Nokia, was forced to sell its handset business to Microsoft last year. Its shipyards are in trouble; its forestry companies are cutting costs and closing plants. Public expenditure is expected to reach 58 per cent of gross domestic product this year – a larger share of output even than France.

Even if Penttilä, a member of the conservative National Coalition Party who represents the interest of the business sector as chairman of EVA, a policy and pro-market think tank, he does have a point.

The latest vote against gay marriage is a clear indication that matters for other minorities in Finland won’t improve in the near future.

Is Finland then a good country for minorities and migrants?

Taking into account that the unemployment rate for migrants, which is generally three times higher than the national average of about 9%, coupled with the rise of a xenophobic party like the PS, it’s clear that this isn’t an ideal country for some migrants and minorities.

It is not only a dead-end country for some, but outright hostile as well.

* The Finnish name for the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The names adopted by the PS, like True Finns or Finns Party, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and xenophobia. We therefore prefer to use the Finnish name of the party on our postings.

Marine Le Pen fails to form the far-right European Alliance for Freedom

Posted on June 25, 2014 by Migrant Tales

There was great news today when we read that far-right Marine Le Pen and Geert Wilders failed to form a European Parliamentary group called the European Alliance for Freedom (EAF)., reports the euobserver.

After the gains that the far-right made in the Euro elections of May, Migrant Tales welcomes Le Pen’s and Wilders’ failure to form the EAF as the best piece of news in a long time.

National Front’s secretary general, Florian Philippot, played down on the Independent that it “would not real really be a disaster” but “an embarrassment” if the EAF didn’t materialize.

Far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen is all smiles until Tuesday, when her group failed to form a European parliamentary group. Read full story here.

Writes the Guardian: “The plans of Europe’s extreme right to try sabotage the EU from within were hit…failed to gain enough allies to qualify as a single caucus in the new European parliament – denying them precious funding, speaking time and committee positions.”

While the EAF was able to muster at least 25 MEPs, it wasn’t able to get seven countries as required to form a caucus. The five parties that were in Le Pen’s group were including the National Front: Wilders’ Freedom Party (PVV), FPÖ of Austria, Italy’s Lega Nord, and Belgium Flemish separatist Vlaams Belang.

A sixth possible candidate, Poland’s Congress of the New Right (KNP), was cited but the views of its leader, Janusz Korwin-Mikke were too extreme even for Wilders.

One of Korwin-Mikke’s aims is to deprive women voting rights.

Meanwhile, Nigel Farage’s of the UKIP announced that it has formed a new anti-EU Europe of Freedom of Democracy group with 48 MEPs from 7 countries led by the UKIP (23 MEPs) and Movimento 5 Stelle of Italy (17).

Two far-right Sweden Democrat MEPs were admitted into the group.

MP Olli Immonen reinforces that the PS is a xenophobic and racist party

Posted on June 12, 2014 by Migrant Tales

After the EU election victories of the National Front of France, UKIP and the Danish People’s Party, Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Olli Immonen lashes out against Muslims on a blog entry, claiming that Europe is being overtaken by Muslims.

This latest attack by Immonen against Muslims, migrants and non-white Finns, is a good example that the PS is a xenophobic party with deep far-right roots that loathes cultural diversity. Immonen’s stance is no different from the ethnic war drums that politicians like Marine Le Pen’s National Front and Geert Wilders’ Party of Freedom are beating.

While Immonen’s racist rants don’t surprise us, the silence of the PS, who claims not to be a racist party, the media and politicians is equally worrying.

There is very little value in what Immonen writes except that it exposes that racism is the same ogre in Finland as elsewhere in Europe.

The PS of Finland makes its post-election debut in the European media with labels like “xenophobic,” “far right” and “MEPs with criminal records”

Posted on June 7, 2014 by Migrant Tales

It has been quite a rough two weeks for the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party after the May 25 EU parliamentary elections: accusations of being far-right in the company of neo-Nazi parties like the Golden Dawn of Greece; and speculation by a senior Finnish official in the Financial Times that it was unlikely that the PS would join the European Conservatives and Reformists group of the European parliament because the party is xenophobic.

To add to the PS’ image problem, the Financial Times headlined the following story on Wednesday: “MEPs with criminal records join Tories’ euroceptic group.”

The two MEPs with criminal records are PS MEP Jussi Halla-aho and Morten Messerschmidt of the Danish People’s Party, who was convicted in 2002 for claiming that cultural diversity was linked to rape, violence and forced marriages.

The membership of the PS and DPP in the ECR reveals that UK Prime Minister David Cameron and his fellow conservative apparently consider shoplifting a worst crime to have on your political record than ethnic agitation.

Certainly the PS, which has tried its hardest to change its anti-EU, anti-immigration and especially anti-Islam image, wasn’t too happy about what the foreign media wrote and launched on Friday a witch-hunt to find the anonymous senior official that was quoted on the Financial Times.

PS party secretary, Riikka Slunga-Pitsalo, gave an ultimatum in a statement: “We expect an answer and clarification [from the ministry for foreign affairs] by Monday. We’ll consider what steps will take after that. The smear campaign of Finland’s third-largest party by the foreign media must end.”

Intended for mass consumption and portray the party once again as being unfairly victimized by the media, it’s clear that the anonymous source that the PS wants to lynch in public will never be uncovered.

Another interesting matter to watch after the EU elections is whether Marine Le Pen’s National Front will succeed in forming a new group in the European parliament. For that, the National Front needs at least 25 MEPs from 7 countries.

Members of the far right are, however, optimistic that they’ll succeed at forming a new far right anti-EU group, the European Alliance for Freedom.

“We hope to get more than seven member parties,” a source was quoted anonymously by EurActive.com. “This would reduce the pressure, for instance, if one party leaves. We’re soliciting the same MEPs or parties as the Europe for Freedom and Democracy [EFD] and even the European Conservatives and Reformists group.”

Another interesting group to watch from the anti-immigration and anti-EU perspective is if UKIP can get enough members to form the EFD.

The former home of the PS, the EFD, looks like a sinking ship with former members defecting to the ECR or EAF camp. Read full story here.

Even if the PS has tried to make itself appear more “mainstream” by toning down its anti-immigration rhetoric, voters should not forget that it was anti-immigration and especially anti-Islam rhetoric that the party used shamelessly to lure voters.

We don’t have to waste our time accusing individual politicians of being racists. What should be done is never to forget the racist comments they’ve made in the past. That is evidence that will follow and haunt them throughout their lives.

Another matter we shouldn’t forget is that the PS can, like the UKIP did in the EU elections, metamorphose into a ever-hostile anti-immigration party. Considering their ability to ditch their campaign promises depending on the political winds that are blowing at the time, it would be wishful thinking to believe that the party wouldn’t ratchet its anti-immigration and anti-Islam rhetoric to secure votes.

In my opinion, it is the disgraceful political record and the PS’ chicanery that has estranged many voters from politics.

The political record and chicanery of the PS of Finland is what has estranged so many voters from politics

Posted on June 6, 2014 by Migrant Tales

While some are still scratching their heads about the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* joining the European parliament’s European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group this week, it shows why so many voters have become estranged from politics.

Read full story here.

Before the historic 2011 parliamentary elections for the PS, when 39 of its MPs got elected from 5MPs previously, the party had a solid anti-EU, anti-immigration, homophobic and especially anti-Islam message.

It’s party leader, Timo Soini, watered down the PS’ stand on Europe recently by stating that he’s now against Finland leaving the EU. While its anti-immigration and anti-Islam rhetoric are still strong and lurking in the sidelines patiently waiting to stir voter emotions, its most outspoken enemies these days are homosexuals and gay marriage.

Hoping to become the biggest party in Finland after next year’s parliamentary elections, the PS has, however, tried to give a more moderate and mainstream image of itself. This is understandable considering that it wants to be a member of the next government and the disappointing showing of the party in the presidential, municipal and euro elections.

In all three elections, the PS hasn’t come even close to its 19.1% showing of 2011.

But after criticizing and riding the wave of voter discontent and mistrust of mainstream parties, the PS is trying to look more like them. Is this a good matter or is it another trick by the party to lure voters?

While at Migrant Tales we have spoken out repeatedly against the PS’ racism, provincialism and nativist nationalism, what is happening inside the party resembles the pigs in George Orwell’s Animal Farm.

The last paragraph of Orwell’s book says it all with respect to the revolution at Manor Farm and what the PS did in 2011:

Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.

Green Party politician Ozan Yanar asks a very valid question on his Facebook page. He states with evident dismay that here’s the “labor party without socialism” that has joined David Cameron’s conservatives in the European parliament. The absurdity of the situation is further highlighted by the fact that AKP, the political moderate voice of Islam in Turkey, joined the ECR [through the Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists], according to him.

Moreover, the ECR is in favor of Turkey’s membership in the EU. PS MEP Jussi Halla-aho, who has declared war on Islam in the same way as the worst Islamophobes in Europe, is now a member of a political group that approves Turkey’s membership in the EU.

In anyone’s book a criminal record isn’t a good matter to have in your records. Even so, and in the conservative spirit, where social and economic inequality are acceptable because people aren’t equal, the membership of the PS and Danish People’s Party in the ECR proves that it’s politically worse getting arrested for shoplifting than ethnic agitation.

UK Prime Minister Cameron, the leader of the ECR, isn’t too bothered by racism and prejudice since it was his government that launched the “Go Home” campaign against undocumented immigrants and spread fear to Britons that the country will be overrun by swarms of Romanians and Bulgarians on January 1.

Cameron has been playing political catchup with dismal luck against his rival Nigel Farage of the UKIP. If the UK prime minister would have taken the time to see what happened in Finland when mainstream political parties started to flirt with the anti-immigration message of the PS before the 2011 elections, he would have learned an important lesson: Don’t try to compete against xenophobic parties because you give legitimacy to them.

While the PS’ leader Timo Soini wants to show that his party is “normal” and “mainstream” these days, we should never forget what the party said and did to get where it is today.

In that message and in their actions is concentrated the poison that has estranged so many Europeans from politics.

* The English name of the Perussuomalaiset (PS) is officially the Finns Party. The names adopted by the PS, like True Finns or Finns Party, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and xenophobia. We therefore prefer to use the Finnish name of the party on our postings.

Financial Times: Finnish and Danish MEPs “with criminal records” join Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron’s group

Posted on June 5, 2014 by Migrant Tales

While some speculated that the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* and the Danish People’s Party (DPP), both with MEPs with criminal records, would be given the cold shoulder by UK Prime Minister David Cameron’s European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group, the opposite happened, writes the Financial Times.

The two MEPs with criminal records are PS MEP Jussi Halla-aho and DPP’s Morten Messerschmidt, who was convicted in 2002 for claiming that cultural diversity was linked to rape, violence and forced marriages.

Writes the Financial Times quoting Mats Persson of the Open Europe think-tank said:

This will raise the eyebrows of many in Europe who thought the Danish People’s party in particular wouldn’t pass the Tory party’s blush test…The good news for the Tories is that they’re on course to become the third largest party in the European Parliament. The risk however is that they drive reform-minded liberal parties straight into the arms of the big federalist block in the EP [European parliament].

PS chairman Timo Soini expressed satisfaction about being accepted into the ECR.

“Fifty-five MEPs have joined so far this group [ECR],” Soini was quoted as saying on YLE. “This group is in practice bigger than the Left and Green group [European United Left-Nordic Green Left].”

The PS and DPP used to belong to the Europe for Freedom and Democracy (EFD) group, with far-right parties like the Slovak National Party, whose leader said that the best policy for dealing with the Roma is “a long whip in a small yard.”

With parties like the Lega Nord – formerly an EFD member – joining Marine Le Pen and the PS and DPP the ECR, the interesting matter to watch is if UKIP’s Nigel Farage will be able to get the seven parties and 27 MEPs are needed to form a group in the European parliament.

Read full story here.

Another interesting question to ask is why Cameron permitted two anti-immigration parties with MEPs with criminal records to join the ECR?

One answer is that Cameron and his fellow conservatives in the group don’t care too much if a politician has been sentenced for ethnic agitation or has issues with racism. Taking into account the Tories’ anti-immigration rhetoric that has grown recently due to the growth of the UKIP, this is nothing strange.

The PS’ entry into the ECR puts the party well into the conservative, populist and far-right camp.