By Enrique Tessieri
The Perussuomalaiset have a long way to go before the majority of Finns, never mind immigrants and minorities, begin to accept them as a “normal” political party. The racist outbursts of PS MP Teuvo Hakkarainen and PS MP Jussi Halla-aho’s pledge to tighten even more the screws on immigration policy, have got people rightfully concerned about the kind of Finland we’ll be living in a few years down the road.
Certainly you can look at the rise of the PS as the Soviet Union’s last months of 1991, when a group of Communist hardliners, the infamous Gang of Eight, usurped power to salvage a sinking system. They didn’t salvage the ship but speeded instead its final demise.
The April election could be seen as a final call to salvage a Finland that only existed in between some people’s ears.
Seeing what kind of MPs Finns have elected from the PS, it’s pretty certain that 19% that voted for them will end up so outraged by what they’ll see that the protest vote in the last election will turn against Timo Soini’s party.
Instead of building a nationalistic, xenophobic, racist, conservative and anti-outside world Finland, the PS will, like what happened after the Soviet Union’s fall from grace, give birth to a new country. That new Finland is multicultural and proud of its diversity.
After Finland comes to terms with itself, it will be ready to make amends with its adverse feelings for the Russians.
The PS is bringing out the fighting spirit in a lot of people who simply will not stand for their type of limited black-and-white view of the world.
So you really believe in this you write? I then suggest you go on as a candidate in the next elections. I dont know if its SFP you should go with, the Greens might be another option, but you need to calculate the maths in the electoral district, or was you can be a candidate where you dont live. In any case you should spearhead the protest vote.