For those of you who would like to read about it a bit more in detail, please check out last year´s post. LIFE-IN-HEL headquarters would like to wish all Finns hyvää itsenäisyyspäivää!
Compared to the previous year, my own enthusiasm (the few I felt) has mellowed out even more due to the landslide victory of Perussuomalaiset (=True Finns), the right-wing populist party led by Timo Soini. Some of his peers would like to send refugees from Somalia to work in the forests (out of sight, out of mind) or along with the gay community to Ahvenanmaa, an island in the Baltic Sea, (quote:) "to observe what kind of society they would form". Member of parliament Pentti Oinonen (PS) will not attend tonight´s linnan juhlat, the celebration in the Presidential Palace, because he would be offended by seeing gay people dance there.
I am not down with this shit AT ALL!
Of course this party doesn´t represent all Finns - but it was very successful in the last election and that worries me. I hear they got many votes from people who just wanted to protest against the deadlocked political system in Finland, a questionable maneuver in my book. Luckily many members of PS don´t miss out any opportunity to make a fool out of themselves in public but when Norwegian racist, fascist and mass murderer Anders Breivik favorably quotes MP Jussi Halla-aho in his "manifesto" it´s NOT funny anymore!
I want to emphasize here that the Independence Day has NOTHING to do with Perussuomalaiset and vice versa, plus I know many Finns who don´t want ANYTHING to do with PS, either. I am able and willing to differentiate between these things but at the same time I can´t help myself thinking about "True Finns" on Finland´s birthday.
It´s an association, nothing more, nothing less.
2 comments:
I think I might find it easier to tolerate the Perussuomalaiset than some other foreigners do, since their dislike of immigrants is actually pretty similar to that of our Republican party. That doesn't make it right, of course, it just means that, sadly, I'm desensitized to political insanity.
My husband and I did have some fun deriding them when they'd appear in the receiving line at yesterday's ball. ;)
I guess as a German I am über-sensitized to political insanity cause we got quite some history with it.
Never again - nowhere!
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