Finland's economics minister steps down from government over alleged ties to extreme right wing

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — The economic affairs minister in Finland's new four-party center-right governing coalition, resigned Friday after 10 days in the job for his alleged ties to the extreme right wing, Finnish media said.

A member of the populist, anti-immigration Finns Party, Vilhelm Junnila stepped down in part for a speech in connection with a far-right memorial in the western city of Turku in 2019, Finland broadcaster YLE said.

He also reportedly has made a reference to Adolf Hitler. He has allegedly joked about his candidate number in the 2019 parliamentary elections — which was randomly assigned as 88 — jokingly saying it represented two H’s. The eighth letter in the alphabet is H, and 88 is a numerical code for “Heil Hitler.”

Junnila has apologized and distanced himself for his remarks and jokes, saying in a Facebook post that he never had any ties or affiliation with extreme elements.

On Friday, he resigned.

“I see that it is impossible for me to continue as a minister in a satisfactory way,” he said.

Two days earlier, he survived a confidence vote in the Finnish parliament, the Eduskunta, put forward by the opposition. Following the vote, Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said he had given Junnila a warning before the vote that he “can’t act” like that in a ministerial role, YLE said.

On June 16, Orpo, who leads Finland’s center-right National Coalition Party, announced an agreement with three other parties for a governing coalition, saying that the new NATO member country needs budget cuts and curbs on immigration.

The four parties – Orpo’s NCP, the Finns Party, which came in second in April elections vowing to curb immigration, the Christian Democrats and the Swedish People’s Party of Finland -- hold 108 seats out of 200 in Eduskunta.

YLE said that Junilla now held the title as the government member with the shortest career in Finnish politics, beating Karl Lennart Oesch who was minister for 12 days in 1932.

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This story has been corrected to reflect the date an agreement was announced. It was June 16, not June 20.