A Finnish minister with alleged neo-Nazi ties announces his resignation

The newly appointed Finnish Minister of Economy Vilhelm Junnila, from the far-right True Finns party, announced this Friday his resignation following controversy over his alleged ties to neo-Nazi groups.

“Despite the confidence of the party and my parliamentary group, I see it this way: with regard to the continuation of the government and the reputation of Finland, I believe it is impossible for me to satisfactorily continue as minister,” Junnila said in a statement. liberation.

After only ten days in office, Junnila narrowly voted down a motion of no confidence submitted to her last Wednesday by the center-left opposition, joined by the Swedish People’s Party (SFP), one of the four members of the government coalition.

The far-right minister then received majority support from the Conservatives, the True Finns and the Christian Democrats, but seven SFP MPs voted for the proposal and the other three abstained.

The proposal, which is supported by the Greens, the Left Alliance and the Social Democratic Party, it was rejected with 95 to 86 votesalthough it would have been successful if eleven representatives of the opposition center had not been absent from the plenary session, including former Prime Minister Sanna Marin.

The no-confidence motion was brought forward by Los Verdes, which accuses Junnila of ties to neo-Nazi groups, including the Nordic Resistance Movement (PVL, by its acronym in Finnish), which was banned by the Supreme Court in 2020. During the last convocation, Junnila was a keynote speaker at events organized by neo-Nazi groups and even received several of his members in the parliament itself.

According to Green MP Hanna Holopainen, the minister’s contacts with these neo-Nazi groups and jokes on social networks about Hitler and Nazism show his sympathies for far-right ideologies, which the minister has repeatedly denied.

“His links to far-right movements are not an isolated coincidence, misunderstanding or tasteless humor, already repeated, systematic and friendly communication“, said Holopainen in Eduskunta.

The controversy was set to bring down Finland’s executive, the most right-wing in the Nordic country’s recent history, as far-right leader Riikka Purra threatened to quit the government if the vote of no confidence was passed. , local media reports.

Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo he defended Junnil in front of the press after making the request and stating that he apologized for his pro-Nazi comments and distanced himself from these types of extremist groups.

Let this serve as a very serious warning about what can and cannot be done. I think it became clear to him – Orpo said then.