COMMENTARY: Heinäluoma takes on the villain's mantle in great immigration debate

The leader of the SDP Parliamentary wing was smacked down for his immigration views. But what is the real reason behind the criticism?

Eero Heinäluoma

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By Unto Hämäläinen
     
      Brother Eero Heinäluoma succeeded in what all politicians dream of doing.
      He became the main topic of conversation during the May Day week. Heinäluoma planted himself in this coveted position with one lengthy sentence that he uttered in an interview with the Swedish-language daily Hufvudstadsbladet on Saturday, April 24th.
      The famous sentence was:
      “When 60 per cent of the Finns say that immigration should not be increased, it is not racism, but a sensible reaction to the fact that we have 300,000 unemployed in the country.”
     
Heinäluoma got what he asked for: other politicians ended up having to comment on the former Social Democrat chairman's views, and naturally they weighed in heavily against him.
      Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen complained in a meeting of the Centre Party council at how Heinäluoma had spoiled his Saturday morning with the "repugnant" remark.
      Anni Sinnemäki of the Green League, in turn, raged about Heinäluoma's comment on the Finnish Broadcasting Company's Ykkösaamu current affairs morning programme.
      Timo Soini of the right-wing populist True Finns Party, on the other hand, actually managed to commend Heinäluoma - albeit with the utmost difficulty.
      In reality, Soini was much vexed by the SDP man's remarks.
      The one time that the True Finns had actually managed to get the television cameras into its executive council meeting, Soini was obliged to praise the parliamentary leader of the Social Democrats, the True Finns' greatest rivals for the votes of the working man.
     
The worst setback, however, Heinäluoma reserved for the National Coalition Party, which launched on that same Saturday its nationwide immigration campaign in Helsinki.
      From the impressive opening ceremony, only a shocked comment by Minister for Foreign Affairs Alexander Stubb - about Heinäluoma, naturally - made it over the country's news threshold.
      The dispute over Heinäluoma's comment continued throughout the entire week, and today, May Day, the politicians will surely produce dozens more vitriol-filled comments around the same theme.
      After all this disapproval, Heinäluoma will be a marked man.
     
So, why would he choose to take on the mantle of a stage villain?
      Eero Heinäluoma is such an experienced politician and media player that he had to know what kind of polemic such a bold statement would stir up.
      The answer to the question above is found from the very beginning of the SDP man's sentence: “60 per cent of the Finns”.
      Heinäluoma picked the figure up from a March poll conducted by Helsingin Sanomat, according to which Finnish attitudes towards immigration have hardened radically.
      The report has been studied with a microscope and the utmost concern in the offices of the large parties.
     
For the first time ever, the majority of the supporters of Finland's three main parties - the Centre Party, the National Coalition Party, and the opposition Social Democrats - were dissatisfied with the immigration views of their own parties.
      Only the True Finns Party received a clean bill of health from its own supporters.
      One can already say that the poll in question has become a watershed moment in the Finnish immigration debate.
     
The large parties have had no choice but to start rethinking their attitudes towards immigration.
      A protest by the core supporters cannot simply be ignored.
      But the change of direction has to be performed with great circumspection in the likeness of a gently sloping curve.
      The large parties cannot get too close to the True Finns' stand on the subject, but they can distance themselves from the “green idealism, which blithely welcomes everybody into Finland”, as Heinäluoma formulated the multiculturalism apologists' line.
     
Regardless of what is being said in public, on the immigration policy issue the Centre Party and the National Coalition Party are looking for that same “third road” that Heinäluoma stepped out on first - much to the annoyance of everyone else.
      In the same interview, Heinäluoma also revealed the other reason for his opening salvo.
      He predicted that a centre-right government would continue after next year's Parliamentary election, if no radical changes take place in the support figures of the large parties.
      Only the SDP's becoming the largest party in the country at the ballot-box could prevent the continued division of the spoils of power among the non-socialist parties from 2011.
     
Heinäluoma is well aware of the problem afflicting his party: the SDP's support has stagnated.
      After the election defeat of March 2007, the SDP has remained in the opposition and its support in the country has never really increased meaningfully beyond the election-day result of 21.4%.
      Traditionally support for the main opposition party has started to increase in one or two years' time after an election defeat, but with the SDP this has not happened. The party's languishing support streak is almost without equal in Finnish opinion poll history.
      No wonder then that the May Day atmosphere within the party is somewhat muted.
      The party is celebrating the traditional working class festival for the fourth time while in opposition. Five May Days in a row out in the cold would be something quite unprecedented.
     
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 1.5.2010


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Yet another parliamentary debate over immigration (30.4.2010)
  SDP´s Heinäluoma criticised over comments on work-based immigration (26.4.2010)

See also:
  Survey: More than half want tighter immigration controls (31.3.2010)

UNTO HÄMÄLÄINEN / Helsingin Sanomat
unto.hamalainen@hs.fi