The Islamophobic Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party has had a long love affair with Denmark’s anti-Muslim immigration policy, one of the toughest in Europe. With loaded guns in government, the PS must be happy that they can adopt, with the blessings of National Coalition Party (NCP) Prime Minister Petteri Orpo and the two minor coalition partners, the Swedish People’s Party (SPP) and Christian Democrats (KD), that country’s harsh immigration policy.
The Danish People’s Party (DPP) used to call the anti-immigration shots in government but in recent years their support has declined abruptly. In the 2022 election, the DPP lost 11 seats to remain with five seats in parliament, which is a far cry from the 37 seats they won in 2015.
The fortunes of the DPP have been undermined by the Social Democrats who have adopted and succumbed to the same hardline immigration policy and rehotirc of the far-right party.
While some are debating if a radical right party becomes more moderate when in government, Denmark offers us an answer: it radicalizes other parties who must adopt more hostile stances in order to survive and not be devoured by a populist party.
Apart from the government’s immigration policy that disenfranchises migrants by weakening more their civil rights and making them vulnerable to exploitation by employers, one wonders how far the PS – with the blessing of the NCP, SPP and KD – will go in order to make life difficult for migrants.
in Denmark, the DPP went as far as to force migrants to speak only Danish at home and deport whole families if a member is convicted of a crime. When will we see the following aims below in Finland?
Source: Migrant Tales
Spearheading these radical changes in Finland’s immigration policy is PS Interior Minister Mari Rantanen. She recently announced plans to speed up the asylum process to four weeks. The asylum seeker will wait for the decision at the border.
Moreover, Rantanen wants to lower financial aid to asylum seekers as well as give the police more power to stop and search people in so-called difficult neighborhoods. She believes that it will help stem the tide the imagined or real tide of youth gang violence.
Even if we do not underestimate a social ill like youth violence, we believe it is a monster that the PS copied and created from Sweden for its own political ends.
A report we published in March the Media Monitoring Group of Finland stated: “The power of the media, politicians, and institutions like the police can put minorities in Finland at the mercy of hostile accusations and toxic labeling, leaving them with little recourse to defend themselves. The situation sometimes resembles a turkey shoot from afar.”
Read the full report here.
