The controversy nearly toppled the four-party ruling coalition only weeks after it had taken office.
Jani Mäkelä, the chairperson of the Finns Party Parliamentary Group, appeared to refer to the campaign in his opening remarks at the summer meeting of the Finns Party in Kouvola on Tuesday. The Finns Party, he claimed, came “under fire for no reason” last year during a controversy that was concocted abroad in an attempt to oust the party from power.
“We’re still carrying the consequences with us in the form of different publicity campaigns,” he added, stopping short of naming the anti-racism campaign.
Harri Vuorenpää, the party secretary of the Finns Party, told Helsingin Sanomat on Tuesday that the party will mull over whether or not to make some sort of a commitment to the campaign, called We Speak with Action.
The statements were met with surprise and frustration by Otto Andersson, the chairperson of the Swedish People’s Parliamentary Group. “There should be nothing unclear about this. All parliamentary groups and ministerial groups have committed to this programme and declaration against racism,” he stressed to the newspaper on Tuesday.
“I find it rather peculiar that the [parliamentary] group would be committed but the party wouldn’t be.”
He took particular issue with the remarks by Mäkelä. “This is a document that can be likened to the government programme. Without the declaration against racism this government wouldn’t be standing, and our starting point is that this is clear to all of our coalition partners.”
The campaign has got off to a bumpy start.
The Trade Union for Public and Welfare Sectors (JHL) withdrew from the campaign last week, calling it a “disgraceful” attempt to “cover up” policy decisions that undermine equality.
“Unfortunately the government’s actions blatantly conflict with the objectives of the campaign,” commented Mari Keturi, the CEO of JHL. “We speak with action, and therefore we cancel our participation in this campaign. If the government parties commit to taking action instead of being evasive, we will be happy to get involved.”
Keturi pointed, for example, to the government decision to scrap individual equality promotion plans from early-childhood education and care units as evidence of the incompatibility between government words and actions.
Also opposition parties have refused to participate.
Oras Tynkkynen, the newly elected chairperson of the Green Parliamentary Group, estimated that the campaign has revealed where the government truly stands in regards to combating racism.
“I believe the Finns Party has kindly taken off the fig leaf that the government has used to try to shield itself amid the racism debate. The leaf has exposed the government’s position in all its grimness,” he was quoted saying at the summer meeting of the party in Lappeenranta on Wednesday by Helsingin Sanomat.
“Already the name of the campaign is contradictory given that rhetoric that is racist and oppressive to human rights has repeatedly been employed within the government while we have yet to see any concrete action to weed out racism, on the contrary,” added Fatim Diarra (Greens). “The government’s policies have been hostile to foreigners, immigration policy racist and one campaign will not change that.”
The campaign was characterised as an attempt to embellish the government’s reputation also by Mikkel Näkkäläjärvi, the party secretary of the Social Democrats, in an interview with Iltalehti.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
