Finland’s conservative and far-right government survived a vote of no confidence in Parliament this Friday, called by opposition parties over racism scandals that have shaken the ruling coalition since it took power last June.
Strictly speaking, there were three motions: one against the Minister of Finance, Riikka Purra, leader of the far-right Finns Party (previously called True Finns); another against the Minister of Economy, Wille Rydman, of the same party; and another against the entire Government of the conservative Prime Minister, Petteri Orpo, for its approach to the problems of racism.
The four-party Finnish government, led by the new conservative Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, 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 Democrats. and Swedish Minority Swedish People’s Party (RKP).
The quadripartite has a slight majority in the Eduskunta (Finnish unicameral Parliament), so the Executive received the confidence of 106 deputies of the 200 that make up the chamber. The 65 parliamentarians from the Social Democratic Party (SDP), the Left Alliance and the Greens voted in favor of the motion, while the opposition Center Party (Keskusta) also abstained. The chamber also gave its trust to ministers Purra and Rydman, involved in scandals after old clearly racist comments of theirs published on the internet and in private messages came to light.
When all this was revealed, Prime Minister Orpo’s conservative Kokoomus party hurriedly agreed with its government partners on an action plan against racism and discrimination, a demand from the Swedish People’s Party. The Social Democrats considered this plan insufficient (and hence their motion of censure), while those directed against Riikka Purra and Wille Rydman were presented by the environmentalists and the leftists, respectively.
Since taking office on June 20 after the victory of the right-wing bloc in the April elections, the new four-party government has witnessed continuous revelations by the Finnish media about racist statements made in the past by current far-right ministers. In fact, the first Minister of Economy of the new cabinet, Vilhelm Junnila, resigned after only ten days in office, after a great controversy over pro-Nazi comments and links to neo-Nazi groups in the Nordic country.
