Some 40 members of the neo-Nazi Suomen Vastarintaliike (SVL) took part in a demonstration Saturday ended violently, according to YLE in English. Thirty-two people were detained in the central Finnish city of Jyväskylä by the police and charged with rioting and assault.
While the SVL have always been a violent group, the statements that were made after what happened in Jyväskylä are the most surprising.
One of these is by the new National Police Commissioner Seppo Kolehminen, who claimed on YLE that he was surprised that the SVL demonstration turned violent in such an organized manner.
The police may have been surprised by what happened in Jyväskylä but many aren’t. What can you expect from a group that openly wants to change Finland into a Nazi state with violence?
The other surprising statement was from Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP Olli Immonen, who declared in recent a Facebook post war on multiculturalism states, now claims that he “doesn’t support the use of violence under any circumstances.
The first thing that strikes me about these two statements is their incredulity. Before making such statements as the above, both Kolehminen and Immonen could ask the following questions:
- Have the SVL grown in recent years?
- If it hasn’t grown why has coverage of its violent acts become more visible in the media?
- Is violence only physical? Can words be violent and/or cause acts of physical violence?
- If a party like the PS constantly victimizes and excludes certain groups from being equal members of Finnish society, isn’t such a stance just as bad as an act of physical violence?
Here’s one example of how rhetoric can turn in to violence. Tabloid Iltalehti reports that multiculturalism caused tempers rise to such a point that a man shoved a six-year-old.
Apart from posing with a group of SVL members in a picture in June, one could ask what Immonen really meant by condemning all forms of violence if his political career has been based on violent statements against migrants and minorities?
