Finland’s right-wing coalition government has only been in office for a little over a month and has now been rocked by its third racism scandal, after a media report uncovered racist messages sent by the minister of economic affairs.
Wille Rydman — of the far-right Finns Party — used racial slurs in private messages with his then-girlfriend in 2016, according to Helsingin Sanomat. According to the report, Rydman said he would rather ban headscarf-wearers than headscarves, and told his then-partner when she suggested giving her future children traditional Hebrew names: “We Nazis don’t really like that kind of stuff.”
At the time Rydman sent the messages, he was a 30-year-old member of parliament for the National Coalition Party. He joined the Finns Party earlier this year and was appointed minister of economic affairs in June.
On Friday morning, Prime Minister Petteri Orpo discussed Rydman’s messages with the chairs of the government parties. He wants to send a clear message “to Finns and to the outside world that racism will not be tolerated in Finland.”
“Even though they were private messages, we cannot accept this kind of language under any circumstances. No minister can tolerate racism in any form,” Orpo said — but did not say whether Rydman would lose his government role.
The messages were given by Rydman’s ex to Helsingin Sanomat. In response, the minister on Twitter described the newspaper as “a platform for those who have already lied about me, repeatedly and demonstrably.”
In June 2022, the same publication ran a report accusing Rydman of taking advantage of his political status to meet young women.
The Finns Party has been hit by repeated scandals since it joined the coalition government of conservative Orpo.
Rydman’s predecessor as economy minister, Vilhelm Junnila, resigned in June after making comments about Nazis and Deputy Prime Minister Riikka Purra came under fire for making racist comments in online blog posts published in 2008. Purra did not resign.
This story has been updated.