Perussuomalaiset MP expelled for Twitting racist posts

The main opposition Perussuomalaiset (Finns Party) on Thursday expelled a lawmaker from its parliamentary group for making racist posts on Twitter.

The lawmaker, Ano Turtiainen, had made a series of posts on Twitter since Wednesday insulting George Floyd, who died in late May in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, after a police officer had knelt on his neck while the African American was in police custody.

A number of allegations of criminal acts have been lodged with the police against Turtiainen for making the racist posts on Twitter. Turtiainen, however, deleted the Twits later.

Perussuomalaiset Parliamentary Group Chair Ville Tavio said the expulsion of Turtiainen took place for making repeated inappropriate comments on the social media, reported the national broadcaster Yle.

“If he wants, Turtiainen can apply for re-admission to the group next year, if he has permanently mended his ways,” the Yle report quoted Tavio as saying after the group’s meeting.

Tavio said Turtiainen apologised to the parliamentary group for his acts, but it was not enough this time, and the decision to expel him was taken unanimously.

The Perussuomalaiset will be no more the single main opposition in parliament following the expulsion, as the number of its seats in parliament will be reduced to 38 from 39, which equals to that of another opposition party, the Kansallinen Kokoomus (National Coalition Party-NCP).

As both the parties now have 38 seats each, parliament will need to decide on new rules governing the parliamentary question time and group-speaking orders, as during the televised question time, the largest party is first to take the floor, said the Yle report.

Parliamentary Secretary-General Maija-Leena Paavola told Yle that as per the rules, in such a case where no single party has the largest number of seats, matters such as the order of speaking are decided by the Speakers’ Council by drawing of lots.

The Speaker of parliament could also allow the two largest parties to have the first question in alternating weeks, for instance, she added.

Meanwhile, Speaker of Parliament Matti Vanhanen, also a former Prime Minister termed the Twitter posts of Turtiainen “shocking and simply wrong from the standpoint from universal human values,” said the Yle report.

He also said that since the posts took place outside of Turtiainen’s parliamentary work, “it may fall under criminal jurisdiction…but, unfortunately, parliament or the Speaker as institutions cannot intervene in this,” the report quoted the Speaker as saying.

Earlier, before his election as a lawmaker, Turtiainen was fined for making a Facebook post appreciating an attempted arson attack on a refugee reception centre.

In 2011, the Perussuomalaiset parliamentary group suspended its present party chief, Jussi Halla-aho for two weeks for a comment he made on Facebook in which he wrote that Greece needs a military junta to bring strikers and rioters under control.

In 2012, Halla-aho was convicted of inciting ethnic hatred for remarks published on his blog in 2008.

He, however, was elected the chair of the populist Perussuomalaiset in 2017 and has since been holding that post to date.