Sep 24, 2016
Finland’s premier and a former president joined thousands of people across Finland on Saturday as part of demonstrations against violence, racism, and fascism.
In Helsinki, police tweeted that around 15,000 people were taking part in the protest there, while thousands of others attended similar demonstrations in other Finnish cities.
“People are coming out for the right reason, because the rise of violent extremism is a concern to the large majority of Finns,” Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipila told Finnish radio YLE.
Sipila joined a march in the central town of Kuopio and vowed that the government will soon introduce new measures to tackle the problem of extremist groups.
Participants in Helsinki wound through the Finnish capital blowing whistles and carrying green balloons as well as signs which read: “No to Nazism.”
Smaller counterdemonstrations with the slogan “Close borders!” were also held in the city, but police separated the two groups and have reported no clashes.
The original protest in Helsinki was organized by a Facebook group under the slogan of “Enough is enough” following the high-profile killing of 28-year-old Jimi Karttunen.
Read more at Deutsche Welle.
