Comment: Does this story need any further explanation except probably an old Argentinean saying: “No evil lasts for a hundred years.” The saying states that a human cannot carry out evil deeds indefinitely because he doesn’t live a hundred years.
Certainly the PS are not an evil party but their aim to carve divisions within society and capitalize and stoke the fires of xenophobia are unacceptable.
Becoming more estranged and hostile to the outside world will have dire consequences not only for our society but hit our economy. Skilled workers will be reluctant to move here never mind foreign investment. Sensible and open-minded Finns with a future will seek employment in friendlier countries.
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True Finns have nominated candidates for chairing the parliamentary committees they have received leadership over. Jussi Halla-aho, who has sternly criticised immigration in his blog, is to become chairman of the Administration Committee, the responsibilities of which include immigration policies.
So, what was it that brought the incitement to racial hatred charge, though it wasn’t made to stick? Something about Islam and Somalis?
No doubt he’s going to have a rough time chairing a committee that will constantly challenge his leadership and his ideological positions.
lol
Hallintovaliokunta has been a Kepu stronghold for many years. As such, this has always been a problem committee in the parliamentary passage of any bill concerning foreigners in Finland (think: how much does the average farmer know about immigrant integration?). Switching Kepusta päin Persutta will make no real difference in terms of the general attitude of this committee.
To the extent that Halla-Aho is a one-issue obsessionist, there may even be a bit more expertise than usual concerning immigration, but this is only a small part of the work of this committee. We shall see how he fares after four years of fiddling about with the minutiae of local and regional government, data protection, the (very general) terms and conditions of service of government employees, rescue services, national preparation for civilian crises and ecclesiastical affairs…
The chair of this committee has tended to be a low-profile MP over the years, and for good reason. This is not a particularly glamorous forum, but it can throw more than a few banana skins in the path of an ambitious politician.
It is relatively easy for foreign organisations to get an audience before parliamentary committees, and I am definitely hoping to see some of our more eloquent immigrants mining Halla-aho’s published ideas for ammunition to use on such occasions.
Mark, it was a posting a few years back titled “A few Baits for Mika Illman” (hes the state prosecutor) aimed to annoy certain people. Worked pretty well. You can find a translation into English with google. Be warned it is quite spiteful.
Basically Halla-aho made an argument that the antiquated blasphemy and recent incitement of racial hatered laws are not applied equally and used to silence “wrong opinions” and to push a political agenda. He claimed you can blaspheme about Christianity and make racial stereotyping comments about Finns freely but if you can not use similar arguments about “certain other groups” that means they are under some sort of special protection and thus the law does not treat all people equally.