Finnish Racism Scandal Sparks Opposition Bid to Oust Cabinet

Kati Pohjanpalo
·3 min read
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(Bloomberg) -- Finland’s opposition wants the parliament recess to be interrupted in the middle of summer holidays to gauge confidence in government due to its ongoing racism scandal.

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The five opposition groups asked Speaker Jussi Halla-aho to reconvene lawmakers after a debacle surrounding the coalition’s junior partner, the Finns Party, gathered pace. Halla-aho is the former leader of the anti-immigrant party, and has in recent days taken a reticent stance to calling back the parliament from the break.

The scandal over racist and extremist remarks by the far-right party’s members has been swirling since the four-party cabinet was put together in late June, hampering its agenda of addressing the Nordic nation’s ballooning public debt and stagnant economy. It’s already led to the resignation of Vilhelm Junnila as economy minister after just 10 days over his alleged association with white extremists.

Since then, the party’s other ministers have been under mounting scrutiny, including Interior Minister Mari Rantanen over using the term “the great replacement” which refers to a white nationalist conspiracy theory, and most recently Finance Minister and party leader Riikka Purra over blog posts fantasizing about violence. Rantanen has since said she does not believe in conspiracies.

Some of Purra’s remarks were made about 15 years ago under the pseudonym ‘riikka.’ Purra on Wednesday apologized for them, telling reporters “I do not condone the language and words I have used” and saying “I have never accepted, and will never accept, any form of violence.”

But the scandal did not die down, with more recent racist remarks emerging, such as her 2019 blog writings where she refers to Muslim immigrant women as “black sacks.”

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Purra refused to apologize for the remarks four years ago, saying she was defending “western society” against an influx of immigrants that erodes “women’s freedoms and women’s rights.”

“If we start down the path of examining the past of the Finns Party, what we have said and written, that will never end,” she said. “It’s clear that our frank and unembellished words, the rhetoric we use and our criticism of immigration have been portrayed in a way that allows people to keep bringing up this topic.”

The ouster of a government in Finland would not automatically trigger snap elections. Instead, it’s customary to attempt to forge a new ruling coalition from the sitting parliament. Finland’s general election was held in April and Orpo’s cabinet got sworn in just weeks ago.

Purra said she believes the coalition partners still have confidence in her and that she hasn’t considered resigning. Lawmakers from the Swedish People’s Party, one of the ruling parties, are set to meet Friday evening to discuss the opposition motion. Their support would bring the motion majority in parliament, which the speaker has said would strengthen the case for resuming work.

In a rare departure, President Sauli Niinisto who tends to stay away from commenting on domestic politics, has already intervened twice during the scandal, urging the government to adopt a stance of zero tolerance toward racism.

That’s precisely what Prime Minister Petteri Orpo on Wednesday pledged, seeking to quell the crisis. But his words touting “zero tolerance toward racism or extremism” rang hollow.

The Finns Party’s far-right sympathies aren’t shared by the coalition government’s other members. Orpo has said no ideological glue binds the ruling parties together, but that their main focus lies in fixing the public finances.

“The government has an important task to accomplish and we have committed to reforming the economy,” Orpo said on Wednesday.

(Updates with comment from Purra in seventh paragraph.)

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