Jussi Halla-aho, the chairperson of the Islamophobic Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, exposed another spoonful of its ever-visible far-right credentials on Saturday by demanding a 3,000-euro a month salary minimum for migrants to get a residence permit and weakening workers’ rights.
The PS leader, who was convicted in 2012 for ethnic agitation and breaching the sanctity of religion, believed that the best way to lower unemployment would be cutbacks in unemployment security, watering down protection against dismissal, do away with national collective bargaining agreements and undermine employers the right to strike.
Considering Halla-aho’s racist views of migrants in general and Muslims in particular, his views to dismantle Finland’s welfare state do not come as a surprise.
Even if the PS is leading in opinion polls, the party’s biggest folly will be at the end of the day their racist and neo-conservative economic views.
Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892-1984), an outspoken critic of the Nazi regime of Germany, wrote a poem below that sheds light on complacency in the face of evil. The same applies to the PS of Finland today.
After the PS gets rid of the Muslims and all the migrants and minorities it loathes, is the next group trade union leaders and workers? What about the Jews, the socialists, and others that the PS does not like?
Who will speak out for you after being silent?