Who really cares about what Börje Mattson has to say, especially when he’s a teeter tottering old fool?

Despite calling it quits last year, the multicultural Faces Festival will be staged once again this weekend at Raseborg Castle, some 90 km west of Helsinki. Festival director Börje Mattsson, who also has served as immigration coordinator for the West Uusimaa region and the Finnish UNICEF organisation, says the decision was sparked by a surge in racist and anti-immigrant comments in Finland.

Amid the noise of construction by volunteers, Mattsson tells Yle that there were a variety of reasons for the decision to revive the festival, which began in 1998

“Faces was established to show that Finland is multicultural. A year ago, it seemed that this goal had been reached. But we got a lot of feedback from the audiences and performers saying that this event is still needed. Now that racism has increasing visibility in Finland, it was clear that we had to arrange Faces.”

Invites to Immonen, Soini

Mattsson describes Finns Party MP Olli Immonen’s anti-immigration statements as “horrific racism”. Immonen and his party leader, Foreign Minister Timo Soini have been invited to attend the festival – which leaders such as former presidents Tarja Halonen and Martti Ahtisaari have done in the past.

Referring to Immonen, he says: “How have these kinds of extremely negative spirits proliferated and climbed up to the level of the political leadership? Immonen’s statement certainly went too far, crossing over into racism and fascism. Somehow in today’s Finland it’s acceptable to say these kinds of things that one could not have imagined a few years ago. We’ve sent Immonen an invitation so that he can come to see whether this multiculturalism is such a terrible thing that should be feared. It’s not.”

YLE

NOTE: A totally ignorant buffoon, just the right kind of guy for the Left to rally behind.