It’s clear that if we allowed ourselves to be spoon-fed by the populism and anti-EU, homophobic and anti-immigration rhetoric of the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party, minorities would always be threatened with social exclusion. PS MP Maria Lohela, who is said to turn into a Ms Hyde if you mention the word “Islam” to her, offered in parliament another one of her party’s “great” ideas on how to scrap development aid.
Lohela suggested a new development aide model for Finland that would be financed by taxpayers and that the role of the state would be to offer tax incentives so that people could give money to development aid out of their own pockets, according to Finland’s largest daily, Helsingin Sanomat.
Read full story (in Finnish) here.
While it’s clear that Lohela and the PS loathe helping less-fortunate people living in development countries, the most recent proposal is just as absurd as the one the MP made earlier this year concerning gay marriage. Lohela said that Finland didn’t have to pass same-sex marriage legislation since homosexuals could marry the opposite sex.
With euro elections ending on May 25, the party has made very public its anti-immigration and racist views, like with the publishing of a racist cartoon below denouncing climate change as a hoax predicted by African “medicine men.”
Read full story on Migrant Tales here.
A poll by Helsingin Sanomat of Finnish MEP’s showed that the PS to be the most eager in wanting to restrict the free movement of people within the EU.
PS MEP candidates were the most for limiting free movement of people in the EU. Read full story (in Finnish) here.
Taking into account the type of Europe the PS wants to forge, which is very similar to far-right Danish People’s Party and UKIP, people should get out and vote against these these types of anti-EU, homophobic, anti-immigration and especially anti-Islam parties.
Why? Because we are against the model they’re trying to create for Europe since it would polarize our society and bolster intolerance and hatred of migrants and other minorities.
Why do countries that have built a model social welfare state in the Nordic region want to support parties like the PS? Shouldn’t they instead challenge the root of the problem, which is poverty, inequality, racism and intolerance.