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An old campaign advertisement of Olli Immonen, the member of the Finns party.

The Finns party member Olli Immonen has a dream.

“I’m dreaming of a strong, brave nation that will defeat this nightmare called multiculturalism,” Immonen, who is also the president of Suomen Sisu, a nationalistic organisation, wrote on his Facebook page on Saturday night in English.

But wait, there is more.

“This ugly bubble that our enemies live in, will soon burst into a million little pieces. Our lives are entwined in a very harsh times. These are the days that will forever leave a mark on our nation’s future. I have strong belief in my fellow fighters. We will fight until the end for our homeland and one true Finnish nation. The victory will be ours,” he continued.

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The reaction of the Finns party leaders follows the same tradition as previously, when a member of the party blurts out extreme opinions on his public Facebook wall.

“The detachment of Immonen does not represent the policy of the party but instead his own policy,” said Sampo Terho, the chair of the Finns parliamentary group adding that, “the matter will be discussed in their meeting after vacation.”

The Finns party leader and foreign minister Timo Soini had nothing to add but the same thing, highlighting that the view is Immonen’s own.

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Erkki Tuomioja (SDP), the former foreign minister, commented on Sunday on Facebook that, “Timo Soini can apparently be without commenting on Olli Immonen’s and his Nazi-spirited friends sayings and public appearances but as the foreign minister of Finland, he will not survive abroad by joking,” Tuomioja wrote and continued, “As a party leader he [Soini] appears too weak or an opportunist to get involved in the actions of this Sisu group – his own organised members of Taistoism (a variation of Finnish Stalinist’s in the ’70s and 80’s) of which I warned him years ago – but as a foreign minister he should understand how the signals are interpreted considering the fact that an MP of a government party appears in public in a way that the matter is left untouched. And would it be too much to expect that the prime minister would have an opinion on this.”

Tuomioja’s wish materialised late on Sunday afternoon, when prime minister Juha Sipilä wrote on Twitter:

“I cannot accept the writings of Immonen. I want to develop Finland as an open and international country and as a country rich by its language and culture.”

 

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