Purra comes under fire for racial slurs in guise of ´riikka´

Controversy raised over various racial and anti-immigrants remarks reportedly made by the Chairperson of the radical rightist Perussuomalaiset (Finns Party), Riikka Purra in guise of an identity of ´riikka´.

Responding to reports published in several news media and strong criticism in the social media, Purra, also the Finance Minister of the newly formed four-party alliance government, neither admitted nor directly rejected the claims, local media reported.

She, however, rejected the possibility of submitting resignation following the discovery of the comments reportedly she wrote in 2008 on a blog hosted by former Chairperson of her party Jussi Halla-aho, also Speaker of the present parliament.

The controversial comments written on the Scripta blog reportedly by Purra using the username "riikka" included several uses of the Finnish equivalent of the n-word as well as other racial slurs, anti-immigrant rhetoric and apparent threats of violence, reported national broadcaster Yle, adding that the texts included racist expressions such as "mocha dicks" and "Turkish monkeys".

In August 2008, it was written by the ID “riikka” that there had not been seen alarming immigration problem in Barcelona and a leading Finnish language daily Helsingin Sanomat on Monday confirmed that Purra was in Barcelona that time.

Yle found some examples of the comments written on the blog where "riikka" in September 2008 wrote about a confrontation on a train with young people from an immigrant background, saying "If they gave me a gun, there'd be bodies on a commuter train, you see."

The Perussuomalaiset leader in her twitter on Monday termed her some texts as simply angry texts claiming that she never accepted any kind of violence.

“My angry text is just angry text, nothing else. I do not accept and never accepted any kind of violence,” Purra wrote in her twitter in Finnish.

She also said that she would not write anything like that from her present position at this stage of life and she no longer agrees on many of the remarks.

Earlier in February 2023, Finnish language evening tabloid Iltalehti focused the issue and asked Purra if she was the "riikka" who wrote the comments but she did not directly answer the question terming the issues as old.

The racial and anti-immigration remarks by the Perussuomalaiset leaders very often create controversy in the country.

Earlier on June 30, another Perussuomalaiset leader and Minister of Economic Affairs Vilhelm Junnila decided to resign following the controversy raised over his links to far-right groups.

Another leader and Interior Minister Mari Rantanen faced strong criticism for her social media post related to far-right ideology and immigration.

Speaker of the parliament and former Perussuomalaiset Chairperson Jussi Halla-aho, who hosted the Scripta blog was convicted of inciting hatred against an ethnic group in 2012.