The president of the Youth League of the National Coalition Party, Susanna Koski, surprised even members of her party Monday by proposing, among a long list of other things, that the Ombudsman for Minorities office should be scrapped together with the quota refugee program and ethnic agitation law.
The proposals for 2014 by the National Coalition Party’s youth wing have been strongly condemned by the party’s secretary, Taru Tujunen, who considered them “absurd.”
“I don’t understand at all why Finland should accept for example racism,” she was quoted as saying on YLE. “I’m strongly against this and the National Coalition Party denounces in full these types of proposals [by the Youth League of the National Coalition Party].”
National Coalition Party veteran MP Ilkka Kanerva said on A-studio that proposals to do away with the ethnic agitation law made far right anti-immigration PS MP Jussi Halla-aho look like “an amateur.”
“These views by the Youth League of the National Coalition Party are from another planet,” he said.
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When asked by Nelonen why Koski wanted to scrap the ethnic agitation law, her answer took on the surreal. She defended the youth wing’s position by claiming that “people should be seen as individuals” and therefore there shouldn’t be laws against ethnic agitation.
Right, Koski, Finns are a group but other ethnic groups aren’t in this country.
What the head of the Youth League of the National Coalition Party is saying is that we don’t want to deal with our ever-growing cultural diversity.
Using the same arguments commonly used by far right PS MP James Hirvisaari, Koski asked why it’s ok to make fun of some religions but not of others.
While the 150 proposals put forth by the National Coalition Party’s youth wing would rapidly turn Finland into a U.S. American dog-eat-dog society where money is king, some of the proposals made by the group are racist and xenophobic and in line with what the most far right representatives of the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party.
The youth wings of the PS and National Coalition Party have lobbied to demote the Swedish language to elective status at schools.
PS MP Olli Immonen, who is the chairman of the far right Suomen Sisu association that aims to keep Finland white, has suggested as well scrapping the Ombudsman for Minorities office, do away with foreign aid, the quota refugee system and ethnic agitation law.
The question we should ask is if the opinions of the Youth League of the National Coalition Party stray from what other mainstream parties think about racism and cultural diversity. Does it imply that xenophobia and racism are becoming more acceptable in this country?
This is not the first time that the National Coalition Party’s youth wing has created waves within and outside of the party.
It’s former chairman Wille Rydman was forced to resign as chairman last year for his strong anti-immigration stance.
Saul Schubak, the former vice chairman of the National Coalition Party’s youth wing, was forced to resign last year when he wrote on Facebook that people who aren’t fit to parent should not receive child allowances.