The new Finnish Economy Minister, Vilhelm Junnila, a member of the far-right Finns Party formation, resigned this Friday after ten days in office, after a great controversy over pro-Nazi comments and links to neo-Nazi groups in the Nordic country. “Despite the confidence of the party and my parliamentary group, I see the matter as follows: considering the continuity of the Government and the reputation of Finland, it is impossible for me to continue as a minister satisfactorily,” Junnila said in a statement.
Finland’s new four-party government, led by conservative Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, came into operation on June 20, after two and a half months of complex negotiations since the April 2 elections. It is made up of Orpo’s conservative National Coalition Party (Kokoomus), the far-right Finns Party (previously called True Finns), and two small parties: the Christian Democrat and Swedish People’s Party (RKP), of the Swedish minority, cut liberalcentrist.
Junnila, 41, narrowly passed a motion of no confidence in Parliament on Wednesday for phrases of hers that have been emerging these days. The motion, presented by the Greens and supported by Alianza de Izquierdas and the social democrat SDP, was rejected by 95 votes to 86. The motion was also seconded by seven deputies from the government RKP, while three others abstained. Junnila denied several times having philo-Nazi sympathies and apologized for her comments.
Environmentalists accused Junnila of having contact with neo-Nazi groups such as the Nordic Resistance Movement (PVL), outlawed by the Supreme Court in 2020. At least once in 2019, Junnila backed a protest organized by the far-right group Nationalist Coalition, known for its relationship with the xenophobic anti-immigration group Soldados de Odín.
On the campaign trail for this election, he joked about his party’s candidate’s list number, 88, a neo-Nazi number symbol they use instead of the Heil Hitler salute. “First of all, congratulations on the excellent candidate number; I know it’s a winning card. Obviously, this 88 refers to two letters H of which we will not say more,” Junnila said at a campaign event on March 10, according to YLE public television. In 2015, during another electoral campaign, her slogan Gas! It also caused outrage, as a plausible reference to the gas chambers with which Nazi Germany murdered Jews.
