Following two scandals that rocked the coalition cabinet, Finland’s government today unveiled a strategy to combat racism that forbids denigrating the Holocaust.
The prime minister, Petteri Orpo, declared at a press conference that “every government minister renounces racism and commits to actively work against it.”
The government will work to make Holocaust denial illegal and consider outlawing the use of Nazi and Communist symbols as part of a new strategy.
Riikka Purra, the finance minister and leader of the far-right Finns Party, apologized when old racist comments she made online surfaced, drawing criticism from her cabinet colleagues.
The provocative posts written by Purra in 2008, contained threats of violence as well as anti-immigrant, anti-Islamic, and racial epithets. In 2021, Purra took over as the Finns Party’s leader.
Following a controversy over pro-Nazi sentiments, another Finns Party minister, Vilhelm Junnila, announced his resignation in June after only 10 days in office.
Because “H” is the eighth letter in the alphabet, Junnila had made fun of the election candidate number 88 during his campaign, saying that it was a reference to “Heil Hitler.”
Significant conflicts between the Finns Party and the Swedish People’s Party emerged as a result of the scandals inside the coalition of four right-wing parties.
“We have found solutions, between the four governing parties, to issues that were difficult even to talk about as recently as July,” Orpo stated during the press conference.