Prime Minister Petteri Orpo apologises to Japan, China and South Korea after MPs posted offensive images, stressing the acts do not reflect Finland’s values.
HELSINKI: Finland’s prime minister has apologised to citizens of Japan, China and South Korea after MPs sparked outrage with racist social media posts.
Petteri Orpo offered “sincere apologies for the recent offensive social media posts done by individual MPs” in statements posted by Finnish embassies in the three countries on Wednesday.
The parliamentarians from the populist Finns Party posted images of themselves making derogatory squinting gestures.
They pulled back the corners of their eyes, a gesture widely seen as racist towards East Asian people.
The MPs claimed they shared the pictures in support of the 2025 Miss Finland, Sarah Dzafce.
She was stripped of her title last week for posting a similar picture in November.
“These posts do not reflect Finland’s values of equality and inclusion,” Orpo’s statement said.
It added that “racism and discrimination have no place in Finnish society”.
The prime minister’s office told AFP he wanted to stress the trio’s behaviour “does not represent Finland’s position”.
Public broadcaster Yle reported a Finnish TV production company had put collaborative projects in Japan on hold.
Finnish airline Finnair also said their brand had been negatively impacted.
The three politicians involved are MPs Kaisa Garedew and Juho Eerola and MEP Sebastian Tynkkynen.
Their reactions to the controversy have differed.
While Eerola apologised and Tynkkynen said the gesture was not meant to hurt anyone, Garedew told local media she did not believe she needed to say sorry.
The Finns Party’s parliamentary group is due to meet on Thursday to discuss potential sanctions against the MPs.
The right-wing party is part of Finland’s coalition government, which came into power in 2023.
The government has been rocked by several incidents where Finns Party members have made incendiary comments.
In August, another Finns Party MP said immigrants were turning Finland into “a pigsty”.
