According to Marko Tika, a historian at the University of Tampere, it is easy to be offended by being called a fascist, because the first thing people think of is the fascist movements of Italy and Germany.
Parliamentary Speaker, Basic Finns presidential candidate and former chairman Jussi Halla-aho has filed at least two criminal reports at the end of the year for being called a fascist on social media.
History researcher at the University of Tampere Marko Tikan being called a fascist is easily offended, because that's the first thing that comes to people's minds Benito Mussolini led fascist movement in Italy as well as Adolf Hitler led by the National Socialist Party in Germany in the first half of the 20th century.
“It is interesting that being called a communist is not considered very offensive in Finland, but fascism as a term has such a dark aura that it is avoided,” Tikka states in general.
“This is due to the fact that the atrocities of fascism and national socialism have been around for decades, so we have a much clearer picture and idea of what all that involved. Communism does not come together so clearly in the minds of people these days, for example [Neuvostoliiton johtaja Josif] To Stalin and to the earlier cleansings.”
Marko Tikka, history researcher at the University of Tampere.
Dart reminds us that fascism and communism are both revolutionary movements that arose at the end of the 19th century when different societies moved towards democracy.
“Fascism has traditionally been about trying to build some kind of revolution. For example, fascism strives to gain majority power through the parliament, after which fascist politics can be implemented more widely,” says Tikka.
According to Tika, fascist politics includes, among other things, weakening the civil rights of certain people and groups of people, which can also be considered part of the thinking of populist movements. In Finland, this kind of thinking has traditionally collided with the democratic decision-making process and the rule of law.
Tikka states that quite a variety of words and terms are used in politics without being used in the actual meaning of the word.
“After all, there is a feeling of absoluteness, fear and threat in that word, which comes from that fascist movement.”
Own a separate question is whether there is anything criminal in the use of the word. For example, a professor of criminal law at the University of Helsinki Sakari Melander has assessed that calling someone a fascist, Nazi, communist or similar does not automatically justify the application of the defamation statute.
“This is a well-established practice of the European Court of Human Rights (EIT) and the Supreme Court. It is clear that if this kind of expression is used in criticism of a politician or a public figure, the permissibility of critical comments is wider and they have to tolerate a wider range of critical language in relation to their activities”, Melander stated in an interview with STT last week.
Halla-aho herself has justified her criminal complaint to Yle with her desire to find out whether such “obviously stigmatizing and false claims” can really be made.
“It is good to get a policy from the police, the prosecutor or the court on whether it is appropriate to call a person who is legally active in politics a 'fascist',” Halla-aho commented on the matter to HS.
Halla-aho so far, at least one comedian has filed a criminal complaint From Iikka Kive and deputy councilor of the Helsinki Green Party Only from Tuomi. Halla-aho has not commented to HS whether he has possibly filed more criminal reports.
Kivi called Halla-aho a fascist in the message thread of the message service X, which praised Halla-aho's speech in Ukrainian in the Ukrainian parliament. According to his own words, his intention was not to offend Halla-aho.
“This is just a political term,” Kivi commented to HS after the criminal complaint was revealed.
In the same message thread, Tuominen also called Halla-aho a fascist.
Importing has later justified in X that he did not use the term fascist about Halla-aho to insult, but to describe his political position. According to him, the former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has described basic Finns as a fascist party in his book Fascism – A Warning.
However, in his book, Albright does not directly call Basic Finns a fascist party, but quotes an American historian specializing in fascism Robert O. Paxtonwhose programs of several European parties, for example Basic Finns, “can hear echoes of classic fascist themes”.
According to Paxton, such themes include talk about the decay of society, the desire to avoid the integration of immigrants into the majority culture, considering those from abroad as a threat to national identity and social order, and the view that issues could be solved by centralizing power.
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