Here in Finland, politics took a turn for the worse this week when the leader of one of the largest parties, the True Finns, made the following astonishing claim:
“Finland’s departure from the EU is still the long-term goal of the True Finns”
This party is on the extreme right and they have been sitting in opposition for years without much to offer except cheap jibes against the standing government, and a populist manifesto based on what other similar European far right parties have been delivering for decades.
These parties are known for the following regular unsubstantiated claims, sometimes dressed up by clever spin doctors to fool voters:
- They disapprove of foreigners and immigrants – “Foreigners take jobs from our workers, lower our wages, while refugees and their dependents are not interested in our culture, are costly to maintain, and many of whom are criminals.”
- They denigrate the EU – “The EU is corrupt and makes laws that harm our country with our taxes, and stops us becoming a great independent nation again…”
- They take the moral high ground by suggesting that Aryan Christianity is the only acceptable religion for the nation.
This last point was made recently by a serious provocation in Stockholm. A journalist associated with the Sweden Democrats Party’s paid a far-right activist from Denmark to burn a copy of the Koran in front of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm. Their apparent intention was to dislocate the NATO negotiations between Turkey and Sweden. Naturally the Turkish leadership was not pleased. Turkey’s president was angry enough to assume that it was Sweden’s fault and he decided to further delay the decision to accept Sweden’s and Finland’s application to join NATO.
Such a provocation is foolish because it can have far-reaching consequences for European security. Those involved should have been dismissed immediately from such a political party, but that did not happen…
Both Sweden and Finland have benefitted enormously from free and open boundaries. All of us have benefitted from free trade that has been achieved through the free movement of people and goods.
This provocation insulted many and can only lead to understandable frustration and anger from practicing Muslims, and possible violence from extremists. This event clearly underlines that extreme right-wing parties that do not, or cannot, limit the actions of the extremist members are not fit for government.
Those who believe that white, locally born Christians are somehow a supreme race or just simply better people cannot be expected to represent the whole diverse population when in government.
Free trade within the EU, cross border security, excellent universal education and good public healthcare are big benefits that have brought us the world’s highest living standards. It is inconceivable that bigots from political parties like the True Finns and Sweden Democrats want to push us backwards in time to when we were impoverished and weak.
It is quite understandable that the other honest political parties have refused to commit themselves to have such extremists in their political blocks or coalitions. Voters should be wary of voting for parties that start to flirt with the idea of possibly cooperating with them to grab the Premiership.
Choosing a bad party can lead to disaster for any country… Do you recall what happened in Germany a few decades ago, and now in Russia…
