The far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS)* is the most Trumpian party in Finland’s parliament. Its parliamentary group leader Ville Tavio, who has spoken highly in the past of similar far-right politicians like France’s Marine Le Pen of France, is happy that former President Donald Trump is back on Twitter.
Twitter banned Trump after he incited an insurrection to storm the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and halt the peaceful transfer of power to President Joe Biden. No president of the United States has done what Trump did to undermine US democracy.
Like Trump, Tavio and his band of PS politicians are cancer undermining our society and institutions.
“What kind of a country would Finland be if politicians like Tavio ever took over? We have already seen how much their politics polarise and label racialized people. In the United States, they call these types of politicians “crazies.”
Who would they go after they rid Finland of those they loathe? Not me, you might believe.
Wrong.
It would be the end of democracy as we know it.
A tweet by Tavio expressing his admiration for autocratic iliberal leaders.
In neighboring Sweden, the Sweden Democrats were able to form part of the government thanks to right-wing parties like the Moderates.
The National Coalition Party (Kokoomus) is flirting and playing ball with the PS in Finland. Contrary to Sweden, Finland’s far-right party will not accept forming part of a minority government. It will want the whole thing, even if it means devouring Kokoomus.
Where is your MAGA cap, Tavio? Two of your MPs, Wilhelm Junnila and Veikko Villen, have posed with it.
Apart from Finland’s racism problem, the PS has become popular due to the tacit support of the media and non-PS politicians for their views.
If we unite and give parties like the PS and those like Kokoomus that support them the thumbs down, we can send them back to the minor political leagues.
The Midterm elections in the United States were an encouraging rebuke of Trump and the Republican Party.
Targeting and hating people because of their background isn’t “normal” or a tool to build a well-functioning society.
It is a recipe for the social exclusion of Others and to sow future fields of genocide.
