Finn MP exposes children in migrant tirade

Three 15-year-old schoolchildren in Finland have received an online onslaught and a threat of violence after a populist MP attacked their pro-refugee project.

Laura Huhtasaari (pictured), an MP for the anti-immigration Finns Party, on Sunday uploaded to Twitter a poster made by the 15-year-olds from Tampere in southern Finland. It was designed as part a city-wide event to highlight social issues.

The ”Finland or Death?” poster is sympathetic to migrants with photos of President Sauli Niinisto and Pekka Haavisto, a Green League MP, placed under the “Finland” section.

Images of Huhtasaari, a former teacher, and the nationalist Finns Party leader, Jussi Halla-aho, appear under the words “to death”.

A migrant boat is in the centre of the poster.

Huhtasaari has called for migrants to be denied entry to Finland “by all means necessary” and spoken of “Muslim backwardness”, the Finnish Broadcasting Company reported. But she accused the school of spreading hate speech.

She tweeted on Sunday: “Several students have contacted me and said that teachers at the school engage in hate speech and incite and encourage hatred towards democratically elected politicians. This is happening at primary and upper secondary schools.”

The names of the teenagers who made it were visible on her tweet.

The school told the media it had received messages accusing the head of brainwashing children and of spreading Marxism and Jihadism.

As the debate surrounding the poster intensified, a security guard was posted outside the school this week in response to the children’s names and their school being made public, the Finnish media reported.

“I must admit it was an unpleasant surprise,” the principal said. “Students’ names should not be published without permission.”

He said the poster had been taken out of context as the class was told to create a poster that expressed a position on an issue.

Formerly known as the True Finns, anti-immigration, Eurosceptic party says non-EU immigration to Finland should be permitted only in cases where it brings an economic advantage.

The Finns secured close to 20-per-cent support in the 2014 election but recent polling suggests support for the party has fallen to around 10 per cent.

Huhtasaari was the Finns’s candidate in this year’s presidential election but only secured 6.8-per-cent support.

Hate speech: Laura Huhtasaari. Picture credit: Wikimedia