It should be clear by know through countless examples that the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* intentionally make outrageous statements in order to get media attention for the party and themselves. The new PS justice and employment minister, Jari Lindström, stated a while back that he’d be in favor of reinstating the death penalty in “some circumstances,” according to YLE in English. On Tuesday we learned about PS subsitute councilman Olli Sademies’ opinions about forced sterilization of African refugees.
Put on your seat belts folks and enjoy the tragic-comic political play that will be led by the PS during the next four years.
Instead of commenting on what politicians like Lindström said, and which are important to know, we must also hold them accountable for their promises.
Lindström is a former paper mill worker who later became a lab assistant.
We all know that one PS strategy is to victimize and scapegoat migrants and minorities because it brings them votes. When they take your attention from the real problem, which is how they’re going to lower unemployment and create jobs, they place the blame on migrants and minorities, which are responsible for the country’s problems.
The first question I’d ask Lindström is the following:
As the incoming justice and employment minister, how do you plan to lower unemployment in general and migrant unemployment in particular? In the latter group, the jobless rate is officially two- to three-times higher than the national average, which was 10.3% in April, according to Statistics Finland. How would you promote employment of migrants in Finland and what is your stance on tougher anti-discrimination laws?
The other question I’d ask would be:
As minister of justice and employment are you going to use your office to victimize migrants and minorities in this country by commissioning National Research Institute of Legal Policy-type studies like, “Immigrants as crime victims and offenders in Finland,” which labeled all migrants as potential rapists and criminals? Are you going to take steps to decriminalize hate speech in Finland? What is your stand on hate speech?
Oulu University Professor Vesa Puuronen questioned the validity of the Optula study. Read his interview on Migrant Tales here.
If there are some journalists from the Finnish media that read this story, please ask the incoming minister these two questions.
His answers may surprise you.
* The Finnish name of the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The English names adopted by the PS, like True Finns or Finns Party, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and xenophobia. We therefore prefer to use the Finnish name of the party on our postings.