The new Finnish government has only been in office for ten days and has already lost a cabinet member. Economy Minister Vilhem Junnila of the right-wing populist party the Finns announced his resignation on Friday over his contacts with the far-right scene and jokes about Nazi symbols.
The four-party coalition around Orpo’s conservative National Coalition Party and the Finns party was sworn in a week and a half ago. After that, Junnila’s connections with right-wing extremists came into the public eye. He narrowly survived a confidence vote in parliament on Wednesday, but the pressure on him and the government remained high. President Sauli Niinistö, who normally refrains from such remarks, described the situation as embarrassing for the government.
Minister apologizes for jokes
Criticism of Junnila included statements he made during the parliamentary elections in the spring. There he congratulated another candidate from his party on list 88, the same one he had in the 2019 election. The 88 is considered by neo-Nazis to be a number for “Heil Hitler”. Junnila is said to have joked about the song beforehand.
Shortest tenure in Finland’s history
He recently apologized for this on Facebook. Over the years he joked in a way that in retrospect seemed stupid and childish to him, he wrote, according to Yle. The entry is no longer online. The 41-year-old now holds the record for the shortest tenure among Finnish ministers.
Source: Krone
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