Not even a xenophobic lifesaver can save the Perussuomalaiset from sinking in the polls

Support for the anti-immigration populist Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party has hit a new all-time low of 7.6%, according to the latest poll by YLE, according to YLE News. The poor showing of the party reveals that its strategy to target and increase attacks against migrants, asylum seekers and minorities in July has badly backfired. 

PS politicians like MP Teuvo Hakkarainen and PS youth leader Sebastian Tynkkynen are under police investigation for ethnic agitation.

Hakkarainen said right after the Nice killings in mid-July that Finland should close the door to migrants from the Middle East and Africa. Tynkkynen parroted what Hakkarainen said.

“We’ve got to stop pussyfooting,” said Hakkarainen on his Facebook wall. “Muslims out of this country! Not all Muslims are terrorists but all terrorists are Muslims. We shouldn’t accept Muslims from the Middle East and Africa to our country.”

Below is a long list of news stories published in Migrant Tales about how the PS attacked in July migrants in this country.

Read full story here.

With more voters turning their backs to the PS, one may ask what the populist party gave Finland during its eight-year stint as one of the biggest parties in Finland.

The only matter that the PS gave to Finland was a polarized society and wasted its precious time.

It was for certain the darkest period in Finnish history during this century.

Even if support for the PS continues to nosedive in the polls, we can’t count our chickens before they’re hatched and until the municipal and parliamentary elections of 2017 and 2019, respectively.  Only then will we know with certainty whether the PS was sent back to the minor political leagues where it belongs.

Below are some links to stories that migrants and minorities were targets of PS hostility in July: 

• The Finnish Perussuomalaiset and their poker-face-racist remarks (July 27)
• PS MP Kike Elomaa’s response to the party’s racist statements is disingenuous and insulting to Finland (July 26)
• A belated response to racist comments by a member of the PS is half a response (July 25)
• White Finnish privilege #30: Whitewashing and racializing the news (July 23)
• Terrorism och våld (July 22)
• Five years after 22/7 and the Nordic region continues to bleed hatred (July 22) 
• Reija Härkönen: Kuulutko vaikenevaan enemmistöön?  (July 21)
• Housing discrimination occurs in Finland and is underreported (July 18)
• The Perussuomalaiset is an extremist party that is unfit to rule Finland (July 17)
• Turning Finland into a post-Brexit United Kingdom mess where xenophobia, privilege and disunity are the rules (July 15)
• Ana María Gutiérrez Soranen: La vida en Europa es, a veces, como un sacrificio (July 14)
• Are bigotry and racism something “funny” and “eccentric” PS chairman Timo Soini? (July 14)
• Perussuomalaiset MP Leena Meri hiding coded bigotted statements as jokes (July 12)
• When will the Finnish police service stop denying that ethnic profiling isn’t an issue? (July 11)

* The Finnish name for the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The English names of the party adopted by the PS, like True Finns or Finns Party, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and xenophobia. We, therefore, prefer to use the Finnish name of the party on our postings. The direct translation of “Perussuomalaiset” is “basic” or “fundamental Finn.”