New ministers of the nationalist Finns Party have begun distancing themselves from previous stances, as former Economy Minister Vilhelm Junnila’s recent resignation over remarks he made at a far-right event four years ago has sparked renewed interest in the political past of ministers.
Last week, Junnila of the far-right Finns Party resigned ten days after Finland’s new government was formed after receiving pressure for Nazi jokes and alleged links with the far right.
Following Junnila’s resignation, the government’s other ministers, who are also members of the Finns Party, began to distance themselves from things they said or wrote in the past.
The first to come under scrutiny was Interior Minister Mari Rantanen, who used the term “population replacement” on her social media, in reference to The Great Replacement theory which argues that Western societies are under threat from an influx of non-white people.
Rantanen took to Twitter on Sunday to distance himself from her past comments.
“I don’t believe in conspiracies. I also do not believe in The Great Replacement Theory”, she said.
Justice Minister Leena Meri, also a member of the Finns Party, joined the conversation on Twitter, saying that “the kind of conspiracies like the Great Replacement Theory do not correspond to reality”.
“I do not believe in it and I do not recommend it to anyone,” Meri wrote.
The Finns Party was merely highlighting the consequences of a “bad immigration policy” and wanted to solve the problems by changing the policy, the new Finance Minister, Finns Party leader Riikka Purra said on Twitter.
According to her, the Finns Party does not believe in or promote conspiracy theories, which ”seem to be of interest to the left and part of the media”.
However, the debate is likely to continue and will haunt the new Finnish government as the Finns Party is the second largest party in parliament.
Following general elections in April, a new government was formed by the liberal-conservative National Coalition Party (NCP), the populist Finns Party, the Christian Democrats and the minority Swedish People’s Party.
(Pekka Vänttinen, Charles Szumski | EURACTIV.com)
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