By Essi Lehto
HELSINKI, Dec 18 (Reuters) – Finland’s far-right Finns Party said on Thursday it had reprimanded two of its lawmakers who posted derogatory images widely seen as offensive to Asians.
The incident is the latest in a series of cases in which members of the Finns Party, a junior partner in the governing coalition, have been accused of posting or making racist remarks.
Earlier on Thursday, Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said Tokyo had conveyed its concern and expectation for appropriate action to the Finnish government through the embassy in Helsinki.
The controversy arose this month when the Miss Finland title holder was pictured pulling back her eyes in her friend’s social media post captioned “eating with a Chinese person”.
Sarah Dzafce, who is not of Asian origin, apologised and said she did not intend to offend anyone and had not distributed the image, but was nevertheless stripped of her crown.
Two members of Finland’s parliament and one European Parliament member, all from the Finns Party, responded by posting similar images of themselves.
“We have discussed the matter seriously within our parliamentary group and concluded that these photos should not have been published,” the chair of the Finns Party parliamentary group, Jani Makela, told reporters on Thursday.
The two MPs, Juho Eerola and Kaisa Garedew, both apologised for the posts, they separately said.
Prime Minister Petteri Orpo of the pro-business National Coalition Party, who leads a four-party coalition that includes the Finns, on Wednesday offered apologies to Asian nations in statements released by Finnish embassies in China, Japan and South Korea.
(Reporting by Essi Lehto in Helsinki and Kantaro Komiya in Tokyo; Editing by Terje Solsvik and Alison Williams)
