Finland’s deputy prime minister apologized on Tuesday for “silly comments on social media” after a series of racist and sometimes violent remarks surfaced in the Finnish press in 2008 – the latest scandal for the party she leads, the right-wing Finns, since it joined the country’s governing coalition less than a month ago.
Although the deputy prime minister, Riikka Purra, did not say that the messages published under the username “riikka” belonged to her, she said in a Twitter thread, “I apologize for my stupid comments on social media 15 years ago and for the damage and resentment they understandably caused. I am not a perfect person, I have made mistakes.”
According to local news media reports, in posts on a right-wing blog in 2008, “riikka” repeatedly used a racist Finnish slur against black people, described Turkish people in derogatory terms, and asked if there were like-minded people in town on a particular day at hitting black children. The blog was hosted by former Finnish party leader Jussi Halla-aho, who was fined in 2012 by Finland’s highest court for racist incitement. The comments attributed to “riikka” are not currently on the blog. In one case, the Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat tracked Ms Purra’s whereabouts and linked it to a report from that location.
Ms Purra acknowledged on Tuesday that she had posted to the blog “in ways and with words that I absolutely do not accept and would not use today”, although she did not identify any specific posts.
Her apology came as Finland’s president Sauli Niinistö attended the country’s first NATO meeting as a full member of the alliance. Regarding the incident at home, Mr Niinistö urged the governing coalition to take a “clear zero-tolerance stance towards racism”, although he added that racial prejudice was different from being against immigration.
In Finland’s recent elections, Ms Purra’s eurosceptic, anti-immigration party won 46 seats in the country’s 200-member parliament, the strongest party ever. Last month, the Finns joined a four-party government coalition and held seven cabinet positions under Prime Minister Petteri Orpo of the National Coalition Party.
Mr Orpo thanked Ms Purra for “making the right decision” and gave no indication she would be forced to resign. “The government will not fall because of this,” Mr Orpo said.
“The government has collectively committed to the principles of non-discrimination and equality,” Orpo wrote on Twitter. “Everyone in Finland should feel that they are safe.”
Johanna Vuorelma, a researcher at the University of Helsinki, said that the recurring scandals have affected Mr. Orpo had weakened, although it was not in immediate danger of falling.
Orpo’s alliance sacked former prime minister, Sanna Marin, who now leads the country’s opposition. She wrote on Twitter that “Nothing that has emerged about the party in recent weeks has been new or surprising,” and called on the government to “promptly and unequivocally renounce racism, hate speech and violence.”
Mrs Purra is not the first Finnish member to be overtaken by the past.
Vilhelm Junnila, another Finnish minister, resigned last month after reports in the Finnish news media of his far-right sympathies, including a joke about a Finnish candidate’s dialing number, 88, a well-known neo-Nazi code for “Heil Hitler.” ”
