The Suomen Perusta Foundation, which acts as a think-tank for the opposition party True Finns (Perussuomalaiset) will have to repay 10,183 euros of the 120,000 state subsidy granted.
According to the Ministry of Education and Culture, this is the amount paid by the foundation to the author of the book Totuus Kiihottaa (Truth Excites - A Philosophical Study of the Information and Truth Crisis in the Left-Wing Populist Media ') that in June scandalized the government and embarrassed a good part of the public.
The book was described as "cruel and disturbing" by the then Minister of Science and Culture Hanna Kosonen, who decided to initiate an investigation into whether said publication contradicts the conditions established to receive state funds.
"Women's tiranny"
Written by the philosopher and social psychologist Jukka Hankamäki, the 420-page book includes a section entitled 'Women's tyranny and the socialization of sexuality'
Among other things, Hankamäki establishes a connection between an alleged feminine frustration and the fact of establishing relations with foreign men by ensuring that some Finnish women who have been rejected by Finnish men have "sought revenge on Finnish society by mating with a foreigner."
"The excerpts I see from the publication are cruel and disturbing, and far from my own image of people," Minister Kosonen wrote then. And she also explained that one of the criteria that entities must meet in order to become beneficiaries of the sate subsidies is "promoting equality and non-discrimination."
Immigration and multiculturalism
After an assessment, the Ministry of Education and Culture decided that the subsidy granted for the activities of the Suomen Perusta Foundation has not been used in accordance with the above-mentioned requirements and the book violates the Act on Equality between Men and Women of 1986 and the Non-discrimination Act of 2014.
In the Ministry's view, "the foundation has made no effort to safeguard people’s equality."
Suomen Perusta defines itself as a "Finnish political think tank" whose main areas of interest are "immigration/multiculturalism, European integration and economics."
Soon after the controversy erupted, the book's publication was suspended for a "re-evaluation," the foundation said in its website. The leaders of the True Finns Party also decided to intervene and, in a statement published on its website, they tried to mark distance with the work.
"The publications of the think-tank are not the party's statements or programs, and they should not be interpreted as such," said Jussi Halla-aho , the chair of the Perussuomalaiset, and Riikka Purra, vice chair.
However, Halla-aho himself was present at the launch of the book, backing the author.
