Finland’s right-wing coalition government has been under fire of harsh criticism over racism allegations on its members.
The Finnish government has come under heavy criticism over old racist letters sent by Economy Minister Wille Rydman to his ex-girlfriend.
The Finnish government, which came to power in less than a month, were under pressure over racist scandals.
In less than a month, a third incident according to the Finnish media report that revealed details of racist messages sent by the Minister of Economic Affairs.
The Current Minister of Economy, Wille Rydman who is a Finnish far-right party member used racial slurs during a private message exchange with his ex-girlfriend in 2016, according to the Helsinian Sanomat, one of the country’s best-selling newspapers.
“We Nazis don’t really like that kind of thing,” he told his then-partner when she suggested giving her future children traditional Hebrew names, according to the newspaper.
At the time Wille Rydman sent the letters, he was 30 years old and was a Member of Parliament for the National Coalition Party.
He joined the Finns Party earlier this year and appointed Minister of Economic Affairs in June.
On Friday morning, Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo discussed Rydman’s letters with heads of government parties, and confirmed his intention to send a clear message “to Finns and the outside world that racism won’t be tolerated in Finland”.
“Although they were private messages, we cannot accept this kind of language under any circumstances,” Orpo said, stressing that “no minister can tolerate racism in any form,” but he didn’t say whether Rydman would lose his position as Minister of Economy in the government.
The private and racist messages appear to have been sent by Wille Rydman’s ex-girlfriend to the Helsinian Sanomat newspaper, and in response, the minister on Twitter described the paper as “a platform for those who have repeatedly and clearly lied about me”.
In June 2022, the Finnish Helsinian Sanomat newspaper published a report accusing Rep. Wille Rydman of using his political position to date and meet young women.
The Finns party has been subjected to repeated scandals since joining the coalition government headed by conservative Petteri Orpo.
Vilhelm Junnila resigned as Minister of the Economy in June after he made comments about the Nazis, and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Rika Bora had to apologize for her comments, as she made racist comments in online blog posts in 2008; however, she didn’t resign from her position.
