A right-wing Finnish Politician has been given a final warning by fellow party members for suggesting that homosexuals and Somalis should be sent to live on an island.
Teuvo Hakkarainen of The Finns party (formally known as True Finns) has been reprimanded for inappropriate behaviour after he made the contentious comments in an interview.
Mr Hakkarainen said that lesbians, gays and Somalis should be sent to live on the small autonomous Aland Islands to see what kind of society would emerge. He was also reprimanded earlier in the year for making racist comments.
“We felt unanimously that a warning is the right punishment. He has been reprimanded before,” said the party’s group chair Pirkko Ruohonen-Lerner in a Helsingin Sanomat report. “A Member of Parliament must act in a stable and dignified manner here in Parliament, and in private life,” he added.
MP Maria Tolppanen added that, “even as a joke”, she felt the comments were inappropriate. “The House of Parliament is an old and dignified building, which requires dignified behaviour from those who are mandated by the people.”
“We need discipline in the group. These kinds of cases draw attention away from the serious politics that we promote,” fellow party member Tom Packalen said.
Just two months ago, another of The Finns’ MPs, Jussi Halla-aho, was suspended for two weeks for commenting on her Facebook profile that Greece would be better off with a military junta in power.