There will be no confidence vote on Finland’s finance minister – at least not yet. The opposition has not managed to muster a majority to summon the Riksdag from the summer recess.
It is the dissatisfaction with Finance Minister Riikka Purra, party leader of the True Finns, that has caused the opposition to demand in a joint letter to Speaker Jussi Halla-aho that the Riksdag’s summer recess be interrupted and that the members be called in for a vote of confidence.
Purra has been criticized for racist posts on social media, something she apologized for.
The Speaker has called for a majority in the Riksdag to cancel the members of the Riksdag’s summer vacation. The opposition’s hope has therefore been that the Swedish People’s Party (SFP), one of the governing parties, will join the demand.
“Deeply concerned”
SFP’s parliamentary group has, after a meeting lasting several hours, concluded that it wants to give Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, the Samlingspartiet, more time to assess the situation and hold serious discussions with the leaders of the governing parties, according to a statement, according to Svenska EPN.
At the same time, SFP writes that its parliamentary group is deeply concerned about the functioning of the government.
“We demand that every minister and the party they represent unequivocally distance themselves from racism. There is no room for ambiguity or innuendo,” the statement said.
Split parliamentary group
When Prime Minister Petteri Orpo was to form his right-wing government after the spring elections, differences of opinion between the liberal SFP and the True Finns were the major stumbling block.
When the Finnish Riksdag voted a vote of no confidence in the Minister of Industry Vilhelm Junnila a little over two weeks ago, SFP’s members were divided. He later resigned after just ten days in the post, among other things, after being accused of having far-right connections.
Earlier, Prime Minister Petteri Orpo commented on a blog post in which Riikka Purra in 2019 described women in burqas as “black sacks”. He says that he raised it with the Minister of Finance, who explained that the post is about defending women’s position and equality.
– I myself would not use such language, even in such an important matter, says Orpo.
FACTS The Orpo government
Finland’s right-wing government, headed by Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, took office on 20 June.
The government consists of the bourgeois Samlingspartiet, the nationalist True Finns, and the small parties the Swedish People’s Party and the Christian Democrats.
The government’s overarching goals are, among other things, to create new jobs, tighten immigration and put the country’s finances in order.
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