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.
Enrique – it would be useful to have that list of PS scandals updated and added as an addendum to this post, just to remind readers of how many incidents there have been in recent years. I wrote a list in a comment some months back, but I’m sure your memory is probably better than mine on this.
Soini is a good politician but he is a …snake.