Most of True Finn members racist, study finds

According to an opinion poll published in Helsingin Sanomat, a majority True Finn supporters agree with the following statement:

"People of certain races are unsuited for life in a modern society."

Another opinion poll by Taloustutkimus published in Iltalehti found that 72% of True Finn supporters want Finland to stay in the Eurozone, and a similar percentage want them to remain in the European Union.

Timo Soini, Leader of the True Finns, looking awkward

So what are we to make of this? Clearly the eurosceptic aspect of the True Finn party is greatly exaggerated. It seems to not be the major driving force behind the party. We can certainly draw some conclusions about the motivations of the "Immigration Critical" wing of the party, led by blogger and popular racist Jussi Halla-aho.

The President of Finland, Tarja Halonen commented on the findings of the poll by saying that racist people "seem to be drawn towards voting for the True Finns." MP Jussi Halla-aho was quick to point out on his blog that "Friends of GDR seem to be drawn towards voting for Tarja Halonen." President Halonen, a Social Democrat, has been elected President twice after previously serving in three ministerial posts and consistently gets an approval rating in excess of 80%, while MP Halla-aho has an illustrious two year career in the board of directors for Helsinki Zoo.

Leader of the True Finn party, Timo Soini has thus far declined to comment, saying that opinion polls are not a good gauge of opinion and re-iterating his previous stance of not personally being racist. For someone non-racist he certainly likes to actively seek out the company of racists. He also leads an organisation that plainly caters to racists and does not mind benefiting from racists voting for his party. One can assume that either he is lying about not being racist or (more likely) he is morally corrupt to the point of having no guiding principles in his political life and will seize on to any idea no matter how abhorrent if it gets his party a few extra votes. Does it make him any different from other politicians? Maybe not. Call me an idealist but surely the point of leading a political party vanishes if the program of the party consists only of an attempt to get as many votes as possible.

James Hirvisaari: No Viet Cong ever called me Persu

True Finn first term MP and a prominent signer of Jussi Halla-aho's racist election manifesto, James Hirvisaari has shocked but not surprised people with his recent blog post. James Hirvisaari says it is equally bad to call someone as "persu" (a name for the True Finn party, derived from the Finnish name PerusSuomalaiset) as it is to call someone a nigger or a yid. He also proceeds to call all reporters vultures and scavengers, and goes on to state that the media is out to get him and all other True Finn speakers of truth. On his blog. Which is hosted on the server of the newspaper Uusi Suomi.

persu party member James "persu" Hirvisaari

MP Hirvisaari's angry blog post comes right after the Finnish broadcaster YLE's "Hate Night Special" where they discussed hate speech. Evidently James Hirvisaari thinks it terribly unfair to only focus on the party which keeps spouting racist crap, when the topic of discussion is racist crap being spouted by politicians. The comments also come after the setting out of internal True Finn party guidelines on banned words. The guidelines contain a list of words to avoid, some of which James Hirvisaari chose to use in his blog post.

The True Finn parliamentary group leader, and one of the few two-term True Finn MPs Pirkko Ruohonen-Lerner was reportedly 'frustrated' over Hirvisaari's remarks. She goes on to state there are vastly more important things to focus on, such as increased regional taxes. There is of course support for James Hirvisaari among fellow MPs. Having recently been expelled from the True Finn parliamentary group for calling for a military coup in Athens, MP Jussi Halla-aho compared the ongoing hate speech discussion to a "rise of a totalitarian, orwellian atmosphere in Finland." The irony remains duly lost on all his followers.

Regardless of what your political outlook might be, comparing someone using a word you don't like for your party to a racial slur is extraordinarily thin-skinned. Even more so when the vast majority of your own supporters think it a neutral term, if somewhat informal. Moreover the timing of the whole thing just shows an amazing degree of political insensitivity, coming just days after MP Halla-aho was temporarily expelled from the party over a Facebook post. It could of course be a part of a brilliant master plan by the Halla-ahonist fringe of the True Finn party, in which case all the co-signers of the racist election manifesto, James Hirvisaari, Olli Immonen and Juha Eerola, take turns to say racist stuff to get expelled. Brilliant is probably the wrong word to use though, it's all degrees of stupidity with these people.

Jussi Halla-aho expelled from True Finns

According to Uusi Suomi, leader of the True Finn party Timo Soini has proposed expelling blogger and popular racist Jussi Halla-aho from the party. This came after Jussi Halla-aho proposed replacing the Greek government with a military junta on his Facebook page. Here's a translation of the relevant post:

Simple fact is that democracy (=elections) prevents any political government to take such action as to be really "effective" in solving the bankrupt Greek economy problem. Right now what is needed is a military junta that could use tanks to force the strikers and rioters into submission.

Jussi Halla-aho later tried to play his post off as some kind of a joke, but it was too late. True Finn parliamentary group leader, Pirkko Ruohonen-Lerner confirmed that expelling Jussi Halla-aho as a "temporary measure" is "very likely." There has been speculation among followers of Finnish politics that this has to do with internal strife in the True Finn party, between Timo Soini's eurosceptic loonies and Jussi Halla-aho's racist loonies. Timo Soini, numerous as his other faults may be, is not actually racist and this move to disassociate his party from the most strident voice in the racist fringe was a long time coming.

Soon-to-become-irrelevant MP Jussi Halla-aho

It is generally assumed, that Jussi Halla-aho will be followed by his loyal cadre from radical racist Suomen Sisu. James Hirvisaari, Olli Immonen and Juha Eerola are all members of the movement, and will probably form a separate racist parliamentary group with their dear leader. This will spell the end of the extreme racist fringe playing any potentially major part in Finnish politics, so it's a cause for great celebration! I have a feeling things actually took a turn for the better today.

UPDATE 14:28: Jussi Halla-aho's expulsion from the True Finn parliamentary group was just confirmed in an unanimous decision. He is currently expelled for two weeks. This will probably not affect the bulk of his actual work in the parliament much, but he is unable to attend meetings of the True Finn parliamentary group.

Halla-aho compares own supporters to Jihadists

In a typically peculiar statement to news agency AFP, True Finn MP Jussi Halla-aho has apparently compared his supporters to terrorists engaged in a holy war against the west. Iltalehti reports that Halla-aho thinks there is at present a witch-hunt against his supporters and free speech in general. Let's just quote the statement as reported by Iltalehti.

"In politics, as well as in political grassroots organisations, there have long been voices that try to suppress free speech. The attacks in Norway have given them a new weapon to use. There is no doubt that the terrorists who attacked the World Trade Center in September 2001 got their inspiration from the Koran and Islamist web pages, but nobody is trying to ban the Koran or shut down jihadist web pages."

Jussi Halla-aho then goes on to state that he agrees with Anders Behring Breivik's interpretation of his blog posts. He was quoted in the Norwegian mass murderer's 1500 page manifesto, specifically his post about the supposed leftist collusion with militant Jihadists.

"Yeah, I guess my supporters are kinda like terrorists when you think about it"

What are we to make of this? Well, firstly Jussi Halla-aho seems to live in some strange alternate reality, where there aren't politicians all over Europe trying to ban the Qur'an, and where various government agencies don't routinely try to take suspected terrorist material off the internet. Secondly, he thinks his blog is as relevant of a cultural contribution as the Qur'an. He has always been smug and pretentious, but has not come across as delusional before this. I'm guessing he is more shaken up by one of his internet disciples shooting a bunch of people than he lets on.

Helsingin Sanomat reports on Jussi Halla-aho's connection to Counter-Jihad Movement

In the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat today, True Finn blogger and popular racist, MP Jussi Halla-aho answered to questions concerning his involvement with radical anti-islam "counter-jihad" bloggers and activists. Halla-aho said he is an occasional reader of the racist blog "Gates of Vienna". The blog in question lists MP Halla-aho as a correspondent, the same status awarded to the infamous anonymous blogger "Fjordman", who is also quoted extensively in the Norwegian shooter's manifesto, to the point that Fjordman was actually suspected of being Anders Behring Breivik!

Jussi, 40 "My style icons include the Unabomber and the Michigan Militia Movement"

When asked to clarify what being a correspondent meant, Jussi Halla-aho reportedly screamed at the reporter and hung up. Administrators at the Gates of Vienna blog refused to comment on MP Halla-aho's involvement with the blog. Halla-aho later denied shouting at the reporter in a post in his racist webforum Homma, but Helsingin Sanomat says they have recorded the actual call. Gotta love journalists who actually get their job done! (Murdoch take note)

Halla-aho's flavour of anti-immigrationism has generally been under fire since the Norway attacks, with the popular soap box Uusisuomi closing down a whole bunch of loony right-wing blogs. Halla-aho has been opinionating a lot this past week for people to not judge all hate talk on the basis of one crazy individual. Why, some people are even saying racist lunatics shouldn't even have guns! A very bad week for halla-ahonists all around.

Jussi Halla-aho expresses his condolences for the victims of the Norway attacks

Just kidding, he posted this gem into Facebook:

"Many Finns, whose orgasm was interrupted when members of [Jussi Halla-aho's racist webforum] Homma failed to burn down [an immigrant owned] pizzeria in Tampere, are now making up for lost time. For your information, I regret nothing I've written and refuse to take any kind of responsibility for Breitvik's actions. Furthermore I intend to continue on my chosen path, because multiculturalism sucks ass, no matter what Breitvik did."

What a class act Finland has as chairman of the Immigration Committee!

Jussi Halla-aho's racist webforum closed down after Norway massacre

Looks like True Finn MP Jussi Halla-aho's racist webforum Homma has been shut down for today, following the news about mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik's email to True Finn MPs being picked up by several media sources. It is of course possible that the two things are not related, and that the webforum administrator just wants to quote "have 14 hours of silence in memory of the victims" but it still seems like an odd thing to do. There is also a message about an update on the website for Suomen Sisu, the interesting 'nationalist' group Jussi Halla-aho is a member of.

Meanwhile Halla-aho revealed to tabloid Iltalehti that he has in fact read the manifesto, and critiqued it for containing too much "Christian fundamentalism" and being "very confusing." Maybe he read the whole 1500-page manifesto during the 24 hours it's been available online? He is a doctor after all. In fairness, the manifesto does include in it a lot of text from various anti-islam bloggers, with whom Halla-aho may already be familiar. More entertainingly, in far-out conspiracy world, he might even be one of the far-right individuals who met in London 2002, who included the Utøya killer Anders Behring Breivik? Only time will tell.

Norway mass murderer emailed True Finn MPs

According to Iltalehti, a True Finn regional leader Terhi Kiemunki, and several MPs of the True Finn party received an email from the Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik just hours before the shooting. The email reportedly contained the far-right murderer's 1500 page anti-immigrant manifesto and was titled "The Islamisation of Western Europe and the status of the European Resistance Movements." The message also contained several photographs of the mass murderer, dressed in military gear and posing with various firearms.

What a sensible looking young man, our party members will love this!

Mrs Kiemunki proceeded to do the smart thing, and forwarded the manifesto to her entire mailing list. "It looked like it was about Islam, and we have a lot of people who are researching that kind of stuff," she explained. The mistake is made a bit more understandable by the fact that the manifesto mentions the True Finn party and Suomen Sisu in his list of the "indigenous european resistance organisations" that Anders Behring Breivik supports, naming True Finn MP Jussi Halla-aho in particular as an inspiration. Jussi Halla-aho has since denied knowing of mr Breivik or his manifesto.

National Coalition youth come out in support of Halla-aho's racist manifesto

One of the least well kept secrets of Finnish politics was exposed in headlines all over Finland today, when Wille Rydman, chairman of National Coalition Youth came out in support of True Finn MP Jussi Halla-aho's Manifesto against racism (against Finns). The secret being of course that Wille Rydman, like the blogger and popular racist Halla-aho, is an active member of the neo-nazi group Suomen Sisu as are a disturbing number of his comrades in National Coalition Youth. Wille Rydman has also been one of the more vocal critics of the Roma people, saying they need to be deported away from Finland and is an active poster on the racist webforum Homma. Political Youth organisations in Finland are traditionally quirky as it were, but this is a bit too much even by their yardstick.

You ever wonder what happens to those creepy photoshopped kids when they grow up? Now you know.

According to Wille Rydman, the future government needs to act against affirmative action as well as racism against immigrants. He thinks the two are equally bad, and that affirmative action leads to racism instead of being one of the more useful tools in working against institutional racism. As far as alternate solutions to smooth integration of immigrants go, Wille Rydman has none, but at least the 98% Finnish majority has a fairly strident spokesman in him. 

Oh well, at least all of the more reputable members of National Coalition, including future PM Jyrki Katainen himself, as well as the National Coalition Women's organisation and all of the National Coalition MPs have spoken out against this. Bless him, 25 years old and already a political suicide. That is, unless Jussi Halla-aho goes and forms a party for him to jump ship to? Only time will tell.

"Let them hang" - How the digital racist fringe transformed Finland

An excellent and insightful opinion piece by Taneli Heikka.

"Why the hell can't we get some rule of the law enforced against this immigrant scum? Let them hang.", reads a comment on a kauppalehti.fi news story, on the website of one of the most prestigious economic journals in Finland. The open discussion thread has a topic "HIV infected nigger rapes underage girl."

"Let them hang" is a fairly typical example of the anti-immigrant rhetoric that has been on the rise on Finnish internet discussion forums. Demands of violent opposition to perceived enemies are common. There is a virtual call for a lynch mob, to enforce the supposed "law of the land". A final solution for the immigrant question.

Racism is nothing new in Finland. What's new is the boldness and determination of the new generation of racists. Their path from blogging and internet forums to the Finnish Parliament took them only a couple of year. What happened? What should be done?

A few years ago racists were a marginal and incoherent group consisting of individual hate writers like Jussi Halla-aho. Web 2.0 seems to have brought an unnerving development. It made possible for the racist fringe to network socially and organise itself into a coherent and powerful group.

The online battlefied where racism was redefined for the new era was in the social media. Discussion forums, blogs, news commentaries all were put into effective use. Jussi Halla-aho's blog, the formerly active Suomen Sisu discussion forum and the Homma-forum were used as a combined command centre and a think tank. Cadres of internet hate writers crawled the discussion forums and news comments with a sense of purpose. A news story about an immigrant gets reported on the racist forums, and an attack begins following a simple tactic, which more or less has three steps:

1. The news article in question is not a separate, individual incident. It is part of an ongoing trend of failed multiculturalism and failed integration of (black african) immigrants. Example:

"In Oulu immigrants who committed an aggravated rape, slashing their 30 year old victim in an unusually cruel way in 2006 have been free to roam the streets for a couple of years now. Our friend Abdigadir has been let off the hook already. Why keep such a nice fellow in jail anyway..." (provincial paper KL, 9.2.2011)

2. The news article is a part of a wider leftist-green multicultural conspiracy and/or hegemony. Example:

 "The pollyannas of the immigration business are purposely importing useless African scum to justify their own continued employment" (provincial paper KL, 9.2.2011)

 3. Islamisation / cultural decay is an inevitable result of multiculturalism and immigration, and Finnish culture and laws are in grave danger. Example:

"I wonder if there is a conspiracy more devious and efficient than the current drive to ban words used in discussion? One needs to fight attacks on freedom of speech like these, otherwise the word "nigger" will not be the last victim here." (provincial paper KL, 9.2.2011)

Incredibly, this tactic has proved immensely effective. This is not a sophisticated form of discussion, but then again that is not the purpose here. The aim is to agitate, propagandise and instigate. An outside observer gets the impression that there needs to necessarily be a huge multiculturalist conspiracy at work, after all why would all these people rage against one if there wasn't? The intense provocation leads inevitably to a long discussion, and dispersing some facts and figures into the mix creates a surprisingly persuasive illusion of a serious movement, with compelling arguments.

This is how the whole vocabulary in the Finnish immigration debate was twisted and corrupted little by little by the internet racist fringe. Anti-immigrationists became "immigration-critical". Discussions in the social media quickly picked up this new self-labelling without much opposition. The anti-immigrationists then denied others the right to call them racist. Just like that, everyone else went along with this. Even a few years ago it was clear to pretty much everyone what was racist and what was not. Value-judgements on people based on their ethnic background used to be accepted as universally racist. This is commonplace now. A key triumph of the Finnish anti-immigrationist internet posters is that it is no longer acceptable to call a racist a racist.

Nazist analogies or outright glorification of the Third Reich runs rampant in the Finnish immigration debate. However, one is no longer allowed to use the word Nazi, because Godwin's law has been raised to the status of an infallible natural law, right alongside such things as logic and burden of proof. In this ridiculous atmosphere, calling someone out for praising Adolf Hitler is shameful not for the person praising Hitler, but for the person who dared to call someone out for it. There are now calls for violent hate speech, "let them hang" et cetera, to be understood as a natural defensive reaction to violent immigrants - Finland is under threat, extreme measures and tough speech is called for.

The Finnish media and politicians have also adopted the rules of engagement dictated by the racist fringe - a fate that Sweden has luckily avoided. By the elections, the two percent immigrant population was perceived as a grave threat to the 98% Finnish majority: "let's put immigration into a headlock", "we must stop benefit thieving immigrants" were no longer just texts in a racist blog somewhere on the internet, they were used by mainstream parliamentary candidates. Imagery of violence and extreme language in general became an accepted part of immigration debate.

Conspiracy theories can never be disproven, making them very useful for people who dislike actual debate. Nobody can disprove the existence of a shadowy business of immigration, designed to benefit conveniently anonymous bureaucrats. Perhaps someone in Helsinki will hear the call to prayer from a nearby minaret in the 2200s? Cannot disprove that. One would expect the journalists, researchers and opinion writers to have enough backbone so as to not allow one extreme of opinion make itself into the accepted consensus.

The Finnish immigration debate formed its consensus on the social media. This came as a surprise to most. The anti-immigrationists dictated the rules of engagement on their own turf, and in the newspapers. Journalists accepted the vocabulary of the new racist fringe, because they were under the mistaken impression that this vocal minority was the voice of the people. It was not, and is not, but the journalists don't actually take part in discussions in the social media and are unfamiliar with its norms and practices. They thus easily fall prey to the anti-immigrationist tactics mentioned above.

Lots of journalists are still under the impression there is no organised racist fringe operating on the internet. They think it is a coincidence Finland has several MPs with a background in either the Homma-forum or the neo-fascist Suomen Sisu. To put their influence into perspective, the Finnish parliament has elected three members from the wealthy entrepreneurs' lobbying group, and seven declared anti-immigrationists.

These single-issue anti-immigrationists were vetted online during a perioid of several months. This digital operation was completely ignored or missed by the media.

I believe the parliamentary elections 2011 showed the power of systematic online organisation of a single-minded group. It was a coup made possible by the traditional mainstream media allowing them to completely dictate the terms of engagement. There was no mainstream media presence at all on the social media.

Liberal forces need to get into the discussion. The time for non-commitment is over. Journalistic guide lines that call for disengagement in the social media are outdated and even dangerous to democracy. The recent decision by Finnish researchers to publish their writings anonymously due to pressure from the racist fringe is understandable but wrong. It is nearly impossible to engage a racist into honest discussion, but that is no reason to give up the fight. The state provides education with public funds for the express reason of having people discuss their areas of expertise in the public forum.

The social media, virtual and intangible as it might seem is a budding virtual world that is going to have an impact on the future path of society. This impact is not going to lessen in the foreseeable future. For the moment the internet is a two dimentional artificial reality, but it is quickly on the path to becoming more real than reality itself. We cannot allow it to become a playground of anti-liberal forces. Whoever values our system of equality, liberty and mutual brotherhood needs to speak up now, rather than risk forever falling to the margins of change.

Taneli Heikka

True Finns "denounce" racism

According to Helsingin Sanomat, the True Finn party, spurred on by recent developments has publicly denounced racism. The declaration was made after True Finn MP Teuvo Hakkarainen's recent comments. Fun fact: the declaration itself is apparently mostly written by blogger and popular racist Jussi Halla-aho, a True Finn MP. Here is the declaration:

AGAINST RACISM, DISCRIMINATION AND VIOLENCE

In the context of recent violent attacks against Helsinki area bus drivers and other racist aggravation of recent times, the True Finn party has been asked to denounce and distance itself from racism. The True Finn parliamentary group hereby denounces all forms of racism and discrimination, and will have nothing more to do with the aforementioned.

We denounce mud-slinging against any group on ethnic, religious, political or language basis, regardless of whether they're a minority or a majority.

We denounce all violations of the sacred right to physical integrity, regardless of the etnic groups of the assailant and the victim, and regardless of whether or not such acts are motivated by racial motives, other motives or unprovoked.

We denounce all discrimination on the job market and in education based on ethnic background, language, culture, religion or a similar aspect.

We demand that violent acts against persons will be dealt with, with appropriate gravity, regardless of the victim's majority or minority status. All irregularity in reporting news and making snap judgments against persons sends a strong message that their status as a member of a group affects their basic human rights.

We hold the opinion outright, that the powers that be need to treat every person as an individual rather than a representative of his minority or majority group, ethnic, cultural or otherwise. Nobody needs to be punished or indeed rewarded for their background.

The True Finn parliamentary group issues this declaration as a response to allegations of advocating racism, violence and discrimination that have been made against the party in mass media by political parties. We invite all other parliamentary parties to join together and sign this declaration, and issue penalties towards members who by word or deed act against the principles laid forth in this declaration.

Finnish Parliament 25.5.2011,

True Finns parliamentary group

So there you go, a bunch of bullshit with ample references to a supposed persecuted "majority", in an obvious attempt to appease the rabid racist Halla-ahoist fringe of the True Finn party. The last paragraph about "issuing penalties" is probably the most telling, because it was reported today that Teuvo Hakkarainen walked away from the meeting that agreed to this declaration with barely a word said about his atrocious behaviour. It's going to be fun seeing other parties tear into this one the next couple of days. Is the True Finn party in such a state of disarray that their leader Timo Soini needs to issue a "declaration" that basically says "we denounce racism (against whites)", and hope for the best?

Jussi Halla-aho found to be even more racist than previously thought

According to the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, True Finn MP Jussi Halla-aho has published even more racist filth on his website than previously thought. In 2001 he wrote posts raging against "human rights" and "tolerance" on his personal website. This was uncovered by an exceptionally diligent journalist trawling their way through the Internet Archive site.

Boy, is my face red!

In addition to writing racist tripe of his own, he also published several other high-profile racists' writings on his blog. Included was Michael Levin's infamous 'Why Race Matters', which is a book advocating white supremacy based on purported intellectual superiority. Another piece was "The Color of Crime", which advocates racial segregation and outright apartheid as a solution to worlds "black problem." Some choice quotations picked by Halla-aho from the works include such gems as "the parasitic behaviour of blacks requires a co-operative host."

This person is in charge of the parliamentary committee in charge of Immigration.

Jussi-Halla-aho mad about pictures of himself

It was reported today by the newspaper Aamulehti, that True Finns MP Jussi Halla-aho is extremely angry over some photographs of himself that were published by the newspaper. Halla-aho refuses to comment on anything until the newspaper stops using these pictures in their reporting. What might these shocking pictures be? Well, take a look yourself.

Picture #1: Halla-aho in a suit, outside, giving an interview

Picture #2: Halla-aho wearing a comfortable looking sweater

Well that was disappointing. It looks as though the general governing commission of the Finnish parliament is chaired by an extraordinarily sensitive person. I mean yes, the lighting in the first one is atrocious, but I can't really find anything to complain about in the second one. If anything, it makes him look almost likeable. Not handsome by any means, but he does have a certain harmless goofy quality about him that some women find appealing.

Wow, ten years of limiting your interaction with the world to maintaining a racist weblog for your adoring internet fans really can make you somewhat unaccustomed to the real world, where people shockingly still have faces. Clearly he has no idea how he appears to other people. Perhaps he suffers from some form of autism, and can't help it? Only time will tell.

Jussi Halla-aho to be sentenced in Supreme Court

It was reported today in Ilta-Sanomat, that blogger and popular racist, True Finn MP Jussi Halla-aho is to attend supreme court facing charges of racial incitement. Halla-aho was already previously convicted of incitement against religion by both the hovrätt and tingsrätt.

Jussi Halla-aho, really mad at being called a racist

So rather than pay a day fine of 30 days, which is a paltry €330, Jussi Halla-aho has opted for a long and unnecessary process the cost of which for the Finnish taxpayer will inevitably reach five figures at least. Need I remind you that this person is a member of an outright neo-nazi gang, and is known to spout all manner of racist tripe in his blog. This is a joke, a complete mockery of the already-overburdened Finnish judicial system. Apparently after receiving an entirely free education, and succesfully dodging military service with no consequence whatsoever, €330 is just too much to give back to Finnish society. What a pitiful man.

Olli Immonen receives a 'death threat'

Olli Immonen, member of Suomen Sisu and a True Finn MP received a 'death threat' today, it was reported in Iltalehti. Immonen evidently reported the matter to the police straight away. Let me print here in full the 'death threat' that mr Immonen received. This is the death threat made against Olli Immonen, sent from an anonymous email address.

"Hello you f*****ng pissbrain midget. I urge you to kill Jussi Halla-Aho by the end of the month or I will tear the heads off you and your kin."

Unsurprisingly, True Finn supporters have been crying their eyes out at this online, saying this is a horrible thing, and is surely an inevitable result of the mass media mud-slinging campaign creating an 'environment of hate' against their party. They've also managed to narrow this down as the work of a lunatic Green party supporter, using no evidence whatsoever.

pissbrain midget himself

 Death threats are nothing new to the True Finn party, there having been recently a well-publicised lawsuit against a particularly 'immigration critical' True Finn who declared on Facebook his willingness to "Spend a few years in jail for killing [immigration minister] Astrid Thors." and said "an appropriate punisment to Left Alliance enemies of state would be a visit to a lovely camp prepared for them near Krakow." True Finn supporters back then thought this was par for the course in a country with 'true' freedom of speech.

Olli immonen has certainly enjoyed his share of Finnish freedom of speech to the fullest, having blogged on various sites on topics such as the impending Islamisation of Finland and how the Finnish white heterosexual male is in danger of being marginalised. He went as far as to publish the controversial Jyllands post Muhammad cartoons on his webpage, prompting no reaction whatsoever from Finnish Muslims. In one particularly hateworthy incident, mr Immonen responded to news of Neo-nazis throwing tear gas canisters at a pride march with a blog post almost entirely dedicated to people heckling a neo-nazi rally in Germany. Yes, he actually thinks people who decide to dress up in bomber jackets and beat immigrants are a persecuted minority group in the same category as homosexuals or refugees.

Immonen's homophobia is pretty ironic, considering his stated "devoted admiration" of famous Austrian politician Jörg Haider. Then again it could just be the fact he admires just about anybody who hates immigrants, including Geert Wilders and the Swedish Democrats. Amusingly, he even met his common-law wife online at a racist internet forum. His wife is a member of the radical anti-immigrant party Muutos 2011's leadership. It looks as though mr Immonen has purposely immersed himself in racist fringe websites for at least the last five years, probably following the example of blogger and popular racist Jussi Halla-aho, fellow True Finn MP.

In conclusion yes, it is the fault of a hate filled environment that Olli Immonen received his 'death threat'. It is also a fact that Immonen has been purposefully trying to create just such an environment nearly all his adult life. And that might be the real tragedy here.

Jussi Halla-aho's greatest hits

Since there aren't really any news today regarding the True Finns, you might be interested in some background about why Finnish people generally think putting blogger and popular racist Jussi Halla-aho in charge of the immigration committee is a terrible idea. Here are some select quotes from his blog. They are also available at his Finnish wikiquote page, which includes actual links to the blog post in question, where available. I have purposely left out the blog posts that finally got him into court over incitement, and tried to translate these ones from the original Finnish as closely as possible.

"Retroactively opposing the Holocaust is nicer and easier than getting involved in solving present-day problems. It is nice to accuse the Germans because cosi fan tutti. Armenians are irrelevant, because Armenians don't own Hollywood and the American media" (28.1.2004 entry at Halla-Aho's Scripta blog)

"All muslims are not terrorist, but in an European perspective this is irrelevant. What is relevant is that all terrorists are muslim." (21.9.2006 entry at Halla-Aho's Scripta blog)

"I am throughly confused as to why muslims have such a great desire to inflict pain on people in a weaker position, such as animals, children and women. I think this pattern is pretty clear. Why do Musselmen jump around ululating with their dicks hard whenever heads get chopped off or someone gets whipped?" (8.2.2007 Halla-Aho commenting in his Scripta blog's guestbook)

"An Afro who gets dragged into Helsinki from an African savannah pollutes no less with his conspicuous consumption than an ethnic Finn. He will probably pollute more because moving from the stone age directly into the modern world deprives him of ecological conscience typical of a western human being." (21.6.2007 entry at Halla-Aho's Scripta blog)

"Regarding my controversial entry on Society and man, it is a fact that niggers negroid, sub-saharan persons live in something resembling a western society only in places where order is kept by a white system of violent dominance (police, army and the justice system). It is likewise a fact that the so-called western structures start to crumble and sinking towards the typical african state of being starts immediately as blacks reach a majority/dominant position. Examples of this include post-independence Haiti and post-apartheid South Africa." (9.5.2007 entry at Halla-Aho's Scripta blog)

"[By immigration official Mikko Puumalainen] I am reminded of Oskar Dirlewanger, a latent psychopath, who by sheer luck and right connections rose from a minor official into the chieftain of his tribe of bandits and got to self-actualize to his hearts content in the German-occupied East. Photoshop any kind of a hat you want on him, you will see they all fit him equally well." (7.5.2007 entry at Halla-Aho's Scripta blog)

"Regarding the faggot at Tehtaanpuisto park I briefly considered getting my gun from upstairs and shooting him in the head. Would the gratification from it exceed the annoyance of serving time in jail? Violence is these days a very undervalued method of solving problems." (17.10.2003 entry at Halla-Aho's Scripta blog)

"Thus, when rapes will in any case increase in number, I wholeheartedly wish that these predators who pick their victims at random will target these politically Green-Leftist politicians rather than actual female humans. They will only learn a lesson when multiculturalism bites them in the ass. I will say honest and direct, if an immigrant rapes Rosa Meriläinen, it will only make me happy. I'm willing to say this anytime, anywhere. I think it is morally right, because people like Rosa Meriläinen are the reason for rapists coming into Finland." (20.12.2006 entry at Halla-Aho's Scripta blog)

So there you go, now you can make your own judgments regarding Halla-aho's suitability for a governing role. His preoccupation with violence, and the sort of stubborn ignorance that can only be brought on by a decade of immersing oneself into internet hate forums, make me think his skills in actual negotiation, listening or compromise are not very good.

Halla-Aho takes lead of parliamentary committee, so does Niinistö

Every single news outlet reported today that Finland has its first openly racist leader of a major parliamentary committee. The governmental committee in charge of things such as immigration, weapons policy and police force will be chaired by none other than our friend, blogger and popular racist Jussi Halla-Aho. Another confirmed committee chair from the True Finns is Jussi Niinistö who will chair the defence committee. No argument here about Niinistö, whose credentials in matters military or political can hardly be questioned. His judgment maybe, but not his credentials.

*places hand on forehead* "It is... relieved"

But all may not be as bleak as it seems, since this most likely means that the easy path into ministership ends here for Halla-Aho. It is not possible for one to hold a committee chairmanship as well as a ministerial seat in the Finnish system. It is expected that the True Finn leader Timo Soini, who is at this writing the chair of the foreign relations committee, will resign his seat in order to take up a ministerial role in the near future, but Halla-Aho blogged recently in a rare moment of honest introspection that he would not in fact be qualified for a ministerial role. According to his post he prefers to stay quote unquote behind the scenes. And it is there where he truly belongs, I'm inclined to add. In all seriousness though, let's do as Halla-Aho's blog requests and not contact him or criticise him. In fact, let's forget all about him and let him become a faceless bureaucrat in a machine he pretends to rage against.

In fact it is not likely that Jussi Halla-Aho will influence Finland's immigration policy much at all. His post as a committee chair will only grant him influence in as much as getting a deciding vote in case of a tied vote. And even then, his proposed policies would be subject to parliamentary scrutiny and should it come to that, an open vote. If I was to make a prediction, the new National Coalition led coalition will get rid of the immigration ministry entirely, probably merging it with either the ministry of interior or foreign ministry and call it prudence. Should this be the case, the 'halla-ahoist' anti-immigrationist fringe will be contained for at least another four years, perhaps forgotten entirely.

Jussi Halla-Aho disturbed by own writings

It was reported in Die Presse around Easter, that the fresh True Finn MP Jussi Halla-Aho has refused to comment on several of his blog posts. The postings in question concerned his views on, among other things the equality of all people, the proclivities of Somalis for thievery, and also include an old favorite about "the paedophile prophet" for which mr Halla-Aho was convicted in court for incitement against a religious group.

You may have guessed it but Halla-Aho doesn't actually believe all people to be equal. In his blog post he says a person's objective worth in society can be measured by their contribution to the continuation of society. Halla-Aho, who of course is a worthy contributor to society being a researcher of Old Church Slavonic by profession and a well respected member of the Korkeasaari zoo board of directors, says in a proper society people who do not contribute, should not receive support and would presumably go die in a ditch somewhere away from mr Halla-Aho. This actually was an old nazi party programme, but the Nazis considered it too extreme and cancelled it. Coincidentally, of course.

Totally not a Nazi

Halla-Aho was incenced and called the publishing of the things he wrote on his blog "a mud-slinging campaign designed to discredit me." He furthermore challenged the reporters to find the exact sentence "people are unequal" in one of his blog posts. After denying the reports of him writing such horrible things, mr Halla-Aho went on to defend his writings (yes, really), saying they were "general philosophical musings on the objective value of man", and added that the conclusion of his blog post which now evidently does exist was that the cultural value of man is subjective instead of objective, and that "some cultures" place more value on human beings than others. Mr Halla-Aho also refused to comment on the ongoing negotiations on forming a new governmental cabinet and whether he would be available for a ministerial role. God forbid.

Election results are in - Suomen Sisu scores landslide victory

The election results are in, and the True Finns got an even larger landslide of a victory than projected, scoring 19% of the votes and gaining 35 seats in parliament. The result is an upset of massive proportions, as well as the largest electoral victory in Finnish political history. Every party other than the True Finns lost support and the True Finn party now ranks above the current prime minister Kiviniemi's Centre party, giving the True Finns a mandate to govern which will be hard to ignore. They were not the only winners last night, however.

Jussi Halla-Aho on the right

 You may recall I blogged before about Suomen Sisu, a neo-nazi organisation which states it is against race mixing and has a rather dubious literary taste. They have always had political aspirations, but previously their loftiest heights attained were from getting a council seat in the greater Åbo area. They now have four MPs. Blogger and popular racist Jussi Halla-Aho made it through as the second highest voted candidate in the Helsinki constituency after the Left Alliance's Arhinmäki. James Hirvisaari, member of Suomen Sisu who stood court for racial incitement also made it through. Olli Immonen and Juha Eerola, who have actually not got a criminal record as far as I can tell, made it through from the Suomen Sisu members list as well.

Halla-Aho's list of recommended candidates, a sign of things to come

In several recent comments about Halla-Aho and his list of candidates, some revelations have been made recently. It seems obvious that the person writing them has had some unusual insight into the inner workings of the True Finn party so I figured why not translate them here. Here goes.

It has been suspected for a long time that angry, far right young men are infiltrating, and indeed have been for several years, the True Finn party through its youth organisation etc. The idea is to capture an old, established party for their own use instead of trying to form one from scratch. They would establish the anti-immigration policies they want, make their way into parliament and finally get rid of the old, Finnish Rural Party veterans. Entryism is a viable tactic proven in history many times over.

I have been calculating that the change of generation would fall on the True Finns after the parliamentary elections as Soini begins to prepare for stepping down as party head, and the newcomers have established secure positions in parliament, preferrably even in cabinet.

It has also been obvious that Soini is worried about the neo-True Finns at his back, and their intentions. Soini has tried to belittle the Hommaforum cadre as a small group of anoraks and boffins, and is obviously uncomfortable when they are brought up in public.

27th March Soini published in his "plok" a list of his favorite parliamentary election candidates, certainly in the hope of leaving the True Finn party into their safe hands, after moving on to other things. The names on Soini's list are Pekka M. Sinisalo, Osmo Kokko, Pirkko Mattila, Ari Jalonen, Anneli Manninen, Ville Vähämäki and Marke Tuominen.

The competing list from our low profile challenger, Jussi Halla-Aho: James Hirvisaari (member of Suomen Sisu, stood court for racial incitement), Juho Eerola (member of Suomen Sisu), Olli Immonen (member of Suomen Sisu), Heikki Luoto ("Multiculturalism is as desirable as shit in a fan"), Ari Jalonen, Teemu Lahtinen (Suomen Sisu's former chairman), Johannes Nieminen (Suomen Sisu's former chairman, famous for re-publishing the Muhammad drawings), Pasi Salonen (opposed to hate crime legislation because thinks its discriminatory towards White Heterosexual Males and too lenient on gays and foreigners), Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo, Maria Lohela and Jarmo Juntunen (filthy rich member of entrepreneurial justice league, convicted of insurance fraud, several traffic violations and wiretapping the police department ; engaged in a massive private war against the Finland justice system on behalf of the Wincapita pyramid scheme). A question arises; if Halla-Aho is not a neo-nazi or not even racist, why does his list contain mostly racist people associated with neo-nazi groups?

summary: this, but somehow even more gay

People on Soini's list are almost completely unknown to people. Not one of them even has an entry on the Finnish language Wikipedia. Halla-Aho's list is more known and wikified. It is obvious to anyone that Halla-Aho's list is going to dominate over the Soini list in the elections.

The internal power struggle in the True Finn party has begun well before the April parliamentary elections. By any reasonable yardstick you would care to use, Halla-Aho has Soini in a choke hold. He has his opportunity, and no matter what you think about him as a person he is not stupid enough to forego taking it.