The summer has been anything but calm in Finnish politics. Since the government was formed in June, serious racist statements have been revealed from various representatives of the True Finland Party. Prime Minister Petteri Orpo has clearly signaled that he wants to see continued government cooperation, but at the same time demands zero tolerance for racist statements.
– I don’t think that their apologies and explanations for these unacceptable statements were clear enough, says Otto Andersson, group leader of the government party Swedish People’s Party, which reacted strongly after the revelations in recent months.
Scandal after scandal
The government barely took office in June before Minister of Economy Junnilla was forced to resign, when it emerged that he had connections to far-right groups and that his successor Wille Rydman allegedly sent racist text messages to a former girlfriend. Most serious, however, is that their party mate, the True Finns’ party chairman and the country’s finance minister Riikka Purra, in 2008 is said to have written several blog posts with grossly racist content.
– We don’t want to preempt the internal discussions we will hold in a few weeks, but I am worried that the scandals will ultimately affect our ability to act as a government. We distance ourselves from this type of statement and look forward to reviewing together what happened and what the future should look like, says Otto Andersson.
The Riksdag opens in a month
The tension is greatest between the nationalist True Finns and the Swedish People’s Party. Ideologically, the parties are far from each other, and several observers believe that there is an imminent risk of government cooperation breaking up.
Prime Minister Orpo has asked for peace of mind and the government meeting will discuss in a few weeks how future cooperation can be built. The Finnish parliament will reopen on September 4.