Tag: nordic region

The rise and eventual death of radical-right parties in the Nordic Region

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Denmark is a good example of how radical-right parties like the Danish People’s Party (DPP) grow and eventually die off. In the 2022 election, the DPP saw its support plummet to an all-time low of 2.63%, losing 11 MPs to end up with a total of 5 MPs. In the 2015 election, the DPP had their best election result ever, winning 37 seats.

It should not come as any surprise that the radical right Perussuomalaiset (PS)* are close ideological allies of the DPP. It should not also come as a surprise that the catastrophic election result of the DPP last year sent shivers up the PS’ spine.

From left to right, three Nordic Region parties have captured the racist imagination of their voters: The Danish People’s Party, Sweden Democrats, and Perussuomalaiset.

The spectacular fall from the political grace of the DPP to the rapid rise of the Sweden Democrats and PS in the last decade rings a similar bell: rapid growth with the help of a hostile anti-immigration campaign message is easy but does not mean that voters will continue to support such parties forever.

Support for the Danish People’s Party plunged by 87.4% from 2015 to the 2022 general election. Source: Statistics Denmark

Even if anti-immigration parties may grow rapidly, Denmark proved that the most effective way of destroying them is by adopting the same radical policies as these parties. The key is to become more radical because voters will not vote for “light” xenophobic versions of a radical right party.

It’s clear that the Moderate Party in Sweden and the National Coalition Party of Finland are taking a big risk in cooperating with the Sweden Democrats and PS. For one, such support could enable their radical-right partners to eat them up unless they react.

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The Nordic region’s slippery Islamophobic slope

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The Nordic saw a predictable political earthquake on September 11, when the right-wing bloc led by the far-right Sweden Democrats nudged the right-wing bloc to victory. The election brought Sweden in line with its other Nordic neighbors: all four now have or had large far-right anti-immigration parties.

Of the four countries, the entrenchment of the far right is best seen in Denmark, where mainstream parties like the Social Democrats tow the Islamophobic line.

The far-right Danish People’s Party came to power in the early 2000 and had steadily worked to turn Denmark into a haven for anti-Muslim rhetoric and hatred.

In light of what happened in Norway and in Finland, what will be the path of the Sweden Democrats to implement their Islamophobic policies?

Step 1 was the election. Step 2 is polluting Swedish politics with more racism. Like in Denmark, “straight” parties like the Moderates or Social Democrats may rob the Sweden Democrats of their support by becoming as Islamophobic as them. It is what happened in Denmark.

September 11 is a bad day for many: 9/11 and the coup in Chile that ousted democratically elected Salvador Allende.

That infamous day will also be remembered when far-right politics came home to roost in the Nordic region.

Six years after 22/7: What can one person do?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Anders Breivik committed a horrendous act six years ago on July 22. While anti-immigration groups want us to forget what happened, we can never forget. Breivik is the smoking gun that proves that those that preach hatred have the potential to spread fear and death. 

One must ask what the end-game of those that spread racial, ethnic and cultural hatred is? We have many examples but, like what Breivik did six years ago, society and some politicians want to forget. Every time we forget, we edge closer to the peak of the hate pyramid where hatred has the potential of turning into genocide.

What can one person do?

We can do a lot to prevent the likes of Breivik and his fanatical followers from taking us on the same path of our moral demise as a society.

Thank you, Jori Eskolin for the imaginary interview you did with “Haura Luhtasaari,” who must be Perussuomalaiset* Vice President Laura Huhtasaari.

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Migrants and minorities of the Nordic region: It’s time to organize and face the rude music

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Europe is in a moral quandary these days. It’s ironic that the more it attempts to instill a sense of security by building ever-higher outside boundaries and treat those who flee war, strife and poverty with disdain, the more it feeds our sense of insecurity. 

Denmark’s plans to confiscate asylum seekers’ valuables and delay for three years family reunification is one shameful example of how some countries in Europe are destroying their values in return for a false sense of security. For Norway, one of the most affluent countries in the world, to return asylum seekers to Russia is another example of the moral demise we are suffering today.

In Finland too the police and the government are unable to agree if neo-Nazi street patrol gangs or clowns that mock at them a threat to our society and values.

What do Denmark, Norway and Finland have in common? They are all Nordic countries and have populist anti-immigration parties in government. In Norway, we have the Progress Party (FrP), in Finland the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, and the Danish People’s Party (DPP).

But blaming these three anti-immigration parties for the rise of xenophobia in the Nordic region would be missing the point. All three parties are in government and have got more power in their respective countries thanks to the support and near-silence of the mainstream parties.

Without the help and support of these mainstream parties the FrP, PS and DPP would never have grown to have so much power.

Na?ytto?kuva 2016-1-25 kello 22.42.36

The Finnish police arresting clowns who mock neo-Nazi street patrols.

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Europe has been put in harm’s way by Europeans

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Can Europe honestly look at itself in the mirror today and say it is still a beacon of hope, cultural understanding and respect as we bar refugees, permit the children of these people fleeing war to die on our beaches while thousands die trying to reach our shores?

According to the UN Refugee Agency, an estimated 310,000 refugees have already crossed the Mediterranean compared with 219,000 refugees for the whole of 2014, according to the UN Refugee Agency. 

How many more will have to cross and make the perilous journey across the Mediterranean and die before we wake up to the crisis and find effective solutions on a regional EU level?

The chances of finding such solutions and, importantly leadership in today’s Europe, is close to none.

We have lost our way and live in a bubble inflated by so much hubris that we don’t even grasp that it is our bellicose stand and support for wars like the invasion of Iraq in 2003 that have led us to this crisis.

Things have gotten so bad in some EU countries that populist anti-immigration parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* quote Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron’s shameful rhetoric. He’s called Calais a “jungle” and refugees as “swarms of people coming across the Mediterranean.”

And to add more salt to injury and shame, European leaders like Cameron conveniently forget that their country’s wealth was built on the blood of millions of slaves, colonialism and global economic bullying and intimidation.
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Facebook: Can Nordic values challenge racism if racism has found a home in such values?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales insight:

Christian Thibault is an active anti-racism activist that I’ve had the pleasure to know for some time. In a recent Facebook post below he brings up some good points about how even former and present presidents, like Martti Ahtisaari and Sauli Niinistö, lean towards the promotion of a more exclusive rather than inclusive society. 

No matter how much you try to ignore racism the more you become part of the problem.

I personally support the Nordic model but I understand perfectly well that it has issues with racism. Take a look at Denmark, Norway and Finland as examples. All three of these countries have populist anti-immigration parties poisoning the air with their Islamophobic and xenophobic rhetoric. 

Let’s not forget Anders Breivik and Olli Immonen’s recent declaration of war against cultural diversity. 

Let’s not fool ourselves as well like in Sweden, where some believe that we live in such a perfect society that racism and discrimination no longer exist.

___________________

Writes Christian Thibault: 

“The Nordic model of a consensus democracy has a long tradition and is well respectable.

Anyway, lately, there appears to be at least two problems:

1. It only seems to be valid for what are received as ethnic Finns, possibly including Swedish speaking Finns and just maybe the traditional minorities, Tatar-muslims, old Jewish population, finnish Roma and Sami people.

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Let´s (not) forget 22/7 and Anders Breivik

Posted on by Migrant Tales

No person has the right to rain on your dreams.
Martin Luther King Jr.

As we distance ourselves from the horror of July 22, 2011, when a Anders Breivik killed 77 innocent lives, the more our collective memory begins to fail us. Islamophobia, xenophobia and anti-cultural diversity sentiment have strengthened their grip in the Nordic region after 22/7.

The political landscape is a rude reminder that we have started to forget: the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* of Finland are in government for the first time and the Islamophobic Danish People’s Party won the elections in June.

That´s not all. The Progress Party (FrP) of Norway, in which Breivik was a brief member, is today in government for the first time after its founding in 1973.

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Whiteness and white privilege speak European languages

Posted on by Migrant Tales

As we hold our collective breaths and await to know the identity of the bombings in Boston Monday, too many don’t see a suspect but a whole ethnicity or religious group. Tim Wise put it very well in an opinion piece where he makes some distributing revelations about the power of whiteness.

If we understand in Finland, the Nordic Region and Europe that white privilege in the United States means the same thing here, we can begin to understand the social ills that have inflicted us as well.

Being “white” in Europe means that you are a member and identify with the dominant ethnic group of a country. You can speak Italian, be a white Romanian, Estonian-speaking Estonian, or an Englishman or a white Englishwoman to enjoy white privilege over other groups that are visible minorities.

Wise affirms that the Boston bombings are another lesson about ethnicity, whiteness, and specifically of white privilege.

He writes: “White privilege is knowing that even if the Boston Marathon bomber  turns out to be white, his or her identity will not result in white folks generally being singled out for suspicion by law enforcement, or the TSA, or the FBI…And if he turns out [the killer] to be a member of the Irish Republican Army we won’t bomb Belfast. And if he’s an Italian American Catholic we won’t bomb the Vatican.”

Anders Breivik, who killed in cold blood 77 victims on July 22, 2011, is a good example of white privilege in the Nordic and Europe. Despite his horrific act, nobody in this part of the world thinks that all white people are mass murderers.

On the contrary. Whites privilege and time make us forget such horrors. Wasn’t Breivik a deranged lone wolf?

We should start to speak more about white privilege.

Not talking about it  shows another feat by white privilege: Playing down the issue.

As Breivik speaks out against multiculturalism the more damage he inflicts on anti-immigration parties

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

As Anders Breivik,who killed 77 people on July 22 on his crusade against multiculturalism, takes the stand and speaks out against immigration and Islam the more damage he inflicts on anti-immigration parties in the Nordic region like the Perussuomalaiset (PS).  After his rampage in Norway, nothing was ever the same for parties like the PS because Breivik  put them on the defensive.

Writes the BBC: “Breivik’s comments have ranged from vehement criticisms of liberalism and multiculturalism to claims that he ‘supports the model in South Korea and Japan.'”

Breivik was quoted by the BBC as telling the court he had “carried out the most spectacular and sophisticated attack on Europe since World War II” and  would do it again.

Certainly far-right anti-immigration PS MP Jussi Halla-aho would have wished that Breivik would have never existed. He if anyone has done more damage to Halla-aho’s and his Counter-Jihadists’ rhetoric.

In a story published today Migrant Tales writes:  “He [Halla-aho] says on the [Tom Enbuske talk] show that Anders Breivik, the Norwegian mass killer is a mentally ill lone wolf, despite the fact that he quoted him in his anti-Islam manifesto.  Certainly it’s convenient for Halla-aho to single out Breivik as a madman because it permits him to wash his hands of the probable impact his xenophobic rhetoric may have on others [like Breivik].”

You don’t have too bright to grasp that if you let out a social ill like racism and feed it with your hate it’s going to hit back one day.

That is exactly what Breivik did.

He is no madman nor loan wolf but a shameful anti-social miscreation our society gave birth to.

Why write about a Somali immigrant who died in Oulu, Finland?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

One of the matters that has surprised after Migrant Tales scooped more information about the tragic death of a Somali national in Oulu Monday is the total lack of empathy for the victim.  Finland and the Nordic region have not been the same after the April election and when Anders Breivik went on the rampage in Norway in July killing 77 victims. 

In both cases above, anti-immigration and anti-Muslim rhetoric were the smoking guns.

One gets the impression by some of the threads on Migrant Tales and My Finland is International that we should not give much importance to what happened in Oulu since it will not be seen as a hate crime by the police.

Some have gone as far as to claim that what happened in Oulu has nothing to do with immigration or ethnic issues.

I beg your pardon!?

What happened in Oulu has everything to do with immigrants and social ills like violence threatening our society. Somebody must speak out for the victim and we are very proud of being one of those voices.

Add to what happened in Oulu the horrific events in Norway in summer and Finland’s ever-worsening atmosphere for immigrants and minorities, it is only natural that we react to a crime involving an immigrant, especially one where three Finns break into his home by force and perpetrate his death.

Migrant Tales will continue to report crimes against immigrants and hopes it will have the opportunity to do so in the future.