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Toni Jalonen has publicly apologized for his writing. Veera Korhonen

Former vice-chairman of the youth of Basic Finns From Toni Jalo33, is accused of incitement against a national group in the Satakunta district court. The processing of the case started today, Wednesday.

At the time of the 2019 European elections, Jalonen shared a photo of a dark-skinned family on the PS youth Twitter account (currently X) with the caption: “Vote for basic Finns so that Finland’s future doesn’t look like this.”

The picture was from an advertisement for the European Parliament. The publication was on display for four days. According to the prosecutor, what was said “cannot be considered as an exaggeration or provocation that is part of the use of political freedom of speech and therefore acceptable”.

– The clear message of the statement is that the skin color of dark-skinned people alone is such a negative characteristic, based on which they should be prevented from moving and settling in Europe and Finland.

– The statements have thus been insulting to the human dignity of dark-skinned people and apt to arouse contempt, intolerance and even hatred towards them.

The prosecutor demands a punishment of at least 50 daily fines for Jalose.

Contacted by Iltalehti, Jalonen did not want to comment on the charge for the time being.

The Court of Appeal overturned the verdict

The tweet caused a huge uproar at the time, as a result of which the organization’s support money was cancelled. The published publication has already been dealt with both in the district court and the court of appeals.

The district court of Pirkanmaa dealt with the tweet in November 2020. According to Jalonen’s defense, the tweet was about counter-advertisement.

– He (Jalose) had no intention of causing a stir. The intention was to criticize the political activities of the European Parliament, the defense argued.

Jalonen himself also apologized for the publication, which according to him was “poorly designed”.

– I think the regret shows that this was not intentional. If I had meant to insult some ethnic group, I could have just said that yes, that’s what I did.

The district court of Pirkanmaa sentenced Jalonen to a fine of 50 days.

In February 2022, the Court of Appeal of Turku rejected the charge. According to the Court of Appeal’s assessment, the district court of Pirkanmaa was not competent to handle the criminal case: Jalonen was in Pori when he wrote the letter. Therefore, the matter should have been dealt with in the Satakunta district court.

The case was handled in Pirkanmaa because one of the charges in which Jalonen was not a defendant had occurred in the district court’s jurisdiction.

“Ethnonationalists”

The uproar caused by the publication is not the only public uproar seen around Jalonen. In February 2020, he stated at a conference in Estonia that he was an “ethno-nationalist, traditionalist and fascist”.

According to Satakunta Kansa, Jalonen did not regret what he said.

– I’m not going to apologize for it. Said what was said, Jalonen commented to the magazine.

The scandal led to the Fundamental Finns’ party government firing him in March. The decision was unanimous.

– Basic Finns have no place for fascists, the party secretary commented on the decision recently.

The PS youth never recovered from the uproar and the loss of their support money.

Common rules of the game with the parent party were not found. That’s how Perussuomalainen nuoriso ry rejected the organization and founded Perussuomalainen nuoriso ry.

Jalonen is currently active in the Sinimusta movement, whose party registration was revoked by the Supreme Administrative Court (KHO) in April. In May, the movement announced that it would seek to return to the party register.