Teuvo Hakkarainen

Teuvo Hakkarainen
Member of Finnish Parliament for Central Finland
Incumbent
Assumed office 20 April 2011
Personal details
Born	(1960-04-12) April 12, 1960 Viitasaari, Finland
Political party	Finns Party
Website	www.teuvohakkarainen.fi

Teuvo Hakkarainen (born April 12, 1960 in Viitasaari) is a Finnish politician and member of Finnish Parliament, representing the Finns Party. He was elected to Finnish Parliament in 2011. He was a co-owner of Haka Wood saw mill but sold his shares shortly after being elected.

Views and comments

Gay adoption

In May 2011, Hakkarainen was talking to junior high school students. When some students asked Hakkarainen's opinion about gay adoptions, he told students that "if two gays have a child, the child would become a double gay", and said that he did so jokingly because he would rather answer questions regarding government talks.

Immigration

In April 2011, Hakkarainen openly expressed his opinions towards black people and Muslims in an interview with Helsingin Sanomat. During the interview Hakkarainen used a pejorative word neekeriukko (which nowadays translates to male negro or nigga and is considered to be an offensive racial slur). He also made a mocking imitation of the Islamic call to prayer.

Ombudsman, general attorney and political opponents

The Ombudsman for Minorities of Finland, Eva Biaudet (Swedish People's Party of Finland) asked the Prosecutor General of Finland to investigate if Hakkarainen may be guilty in some crimes according to the criminal codex. According to Biaudet, for example incitement could be a suitable charge. Later The Finnish Police announced that they did not feel that comments made by Hakkarainen give cause for a criminal investigation. Police proposed to the Prosecutor General that no criminal investigation should be launched, saying that Hakkarainen’s comments were an exercise of free speech, and not hate speech.

Later the party secretary of the competing party, Centre Party in Finland, which had suffered major lossess in peripheral electoral districts in elections 2011, Timo Laaninen (Centre Party in Finland), joined the critics and said in typical mayday political speech near Kyösti Kallio's statue in Helsinki, that neekeriukko was the worst insult. He also added, that he wonders, how is it possible, that Hakkarainen can apologise his sayings by claiming, that he comes from countryside. "It is difficult to find worse insult concerning the rural people and people, who has been born in the countryside." He also commented Hakkarainen's statements, that they are all time low comment in the immigration debate.

Haka-Wood

Ilta-Sanomat reported, that Haka-Wood has been granted 461 750 euros European union subsidies for a development project which has not be reimbursed fully emphasizing that Hakkarainen is eurosceptic – though most of the national subsidies are forbidden on the bases of the EU regulation. Haka-Wood has and will receive during its development programme funds from European Regional Development Fund. Hakkarainen stated to Helsingin Sanomat that that money is paid there and taken from there (the EU funds). Haka-Wood needs the subsidies for a new sorting line.

Aamulehti wrote that there has been fires six times on Haka-Wood in 1997, 2001, 2005, 2009 and 2010.

Hakkarainen has worked as a consultant in Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador, and according to Matti Kontro, the leader of the Finnish Foreign Ministry in Central American affairs, commented on Hakkarainen that he's well known among the sawyers from these countries and the locals have said that "if Hakkarainen is a racist then foreigners in Finland have nothing to worry about".

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