Finland: Nationalist scandalFinland's Deputy Prime Minister Riikka Purra has sowed hatred on the web

All respect: She has developed from a propagandist at the virtual right-hand regulars' table to a real political figure. For around three weeks, Riikka Purra has been Deputy Prime Minister in the new government of the newly-formed NATO member, Finland. In the cabinet under Petteri Orpo of the conservative National Coalition Party, she is responsible for the important finance department. As party leader, Purra has been at the helm of Perussuomalaiset (PS), the extreme right-wing True Finns, for the past two years. In the parliamentary elections in April, the PS became the second strongest party.

The Finnish coalition partner in particular makes Prime Minister Orpo sweat a lot. First Economics Minister Vilhelm Junnila had to resign from the party, which is often belittled as right-wing populist, because of his sympathies for neo-Nazis and corresponding connections. And now some of the brown spots on Riikka Purra's vest have also been revealed. Entries from 2008 in the »Scripta« blog of her predecessor, who was convicted of incitement to hatred, as party leader, Jussi Halla-aho, could be associated with Purra. It's about racist hate tirades and violent fantasies under the username "riikka", which were later deleted. Among other things, the author of the posts insults migrants as “Turkish monkeys” and wants to “spit on beggars in Helsinki”. Offline, the cool-edged blonde, who was born in 1977 in Pirkkala, southwest Finland, and studied political science in Turku, became a member of the Finns eight years later, and in 2019 she moved into parliament for the nationalists.

The minister initially reacted to the scandal by trying to portray herself as the victim of a campaign directed against the Finns party. Long since convicted, Purra finally admitted to being the author and distanced herself from her "stupid posts" from the time. Premier Orpo is content with that. You need each other.