Far-right leader and number two in the Finnish government, Riika Purra, is under increasing pressure over some old racist comments on blogs she is suspected of authoring, Agence France-Presse reported. reported on Tuesday, citing Agerpres.

Rikka PurraPhoto: Antti Aimo-Koivisto / Shutterstock Editorial / Profimedia

The accusations came two weeks after the resignation of one of his fellow ministers, also a member of the Finns Party, over pro-Nazi statements that overshadowed the start of a government led by right-wing Prime Minister Petteri Orpo.

Rikka Purra, leader of Finland’s nationalist anti-immigration party, a member of the ruling coalition, is accused of using numerous racial, violent or anti-Muslim expressions in comments published in 2008 on the blog of another far-right politician, Jussi. Halla-aho , already convicted of inciting racial hatred.

The 45-year-old parliamentarian did not officially admit to being a “riikka” user, but said she had no intention of “condemning or apologizing (for) things I might have said years or decades ago.”

“I have been feeling very disappointed and desperate about some aspects of immigration in Finland,” she wrote on Twitter.

The statements, which have been removed from social media, have instead drawn condemnation from the Finnish government.

“These kinds of writings are unacceptable for anyone, no matter what party they belong to,” said Anders Adlerkreutz, the foreign minister and a member of a small Swedish-speaking party in the government coalition.

At the NATO summit in Vilnius, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto asked the government to “take a clear position of zero tolerance for racism.”

An associate recently resigned for pro-Nazi statements

In late June, Finland’s new economy minister, Vilhelm Junnila, resigned after a wave of outrage over his former pro-Nazi statements.

Junnila made such statements at least once in 2019 at a demonstration organized by a far-right nationalist coalition known for its ties to the anti-immigrant group Soldiers of Odin.

During a recent legislative campaign, he also joked about the number of candidates, 88, a number used by neo-Nazi groups to denote their loyalty to Hitler.