Police officers investigating a fire at a far-right clubhouse in Otsola, Hyvinkää, on 11 November 2024. Helsinki Police Department has warned that the fire could result in a higher-than-usual turnout for the handful of far-right protests taking place on Independence Day, 6 December. (Heikki Saukkomaa – Lehtikuva)
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THOUSANDS of protesters are expected to descend on Helsinki on Independence Day, 6 December, according to YLE.
Heikki Porola, a detective chief inspector at Helsinki Police Department, told the Finnish public broadcasting company late last month that the 612 torch march is expected to draw roughly a thousand and the counter-protest roughly two thousand protesters to downtown Helsinki.
The estimates are based on earlier years’ turnouts.
Organisers of the nationalist march were the first to notify police about their plan to gather at Töölöntori Square in Helsinki. Helsinki Without Nazis, the anti-fascist counter-protest, has announced its intention to gather at the same square in defiance of police orders, according to Porola. The plan is to move the counter-protest to Taivallahti Square, according to a police press release issued on Monday, 2 December.
Both protests are expected to attract members of radical groups, along with ordinary citizens.
“That’ll be the challenge,” Porola said to YLE, adding that police can identify some high-risk participants in advance based on social media updates, for example. “We can take action pre-emptively. Our most important duty is to protect the constitutional right to protest.”
Helsinki Police Department, he revealed, has been notified of a total of five protests, including four protest marches, taking place on Independence Day.
Tempers and turnout may be higher than usual this year because of the suspected arson of a prominent far-right clubhouse in Otsola, Hyvinkää, on 10 November. Police have been reticent about the pre-trial investigation but have confirmed that the fire appears to have been set deliberately.
Activists associated with the clubhouse have taken to social media to encourage “like-minded” people to participate in demonstrations in a show of solidarity in the wake of what they claim was an arson carried out by the far-left. Alongside the 612 march, they have advertised a demonstration called Suomi Herää (en. Finland Wakes Up), organised at Helsinki Railway Square by the openly fascist and racist party Sinimusta Liike.
“The Otsola fire may be a reason to participate in a march for a small group of people We’ll see whether it’ll strain relations between the different parties,” Porola commented to YLE.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
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Source: www.helsinkitimes.fi
