The messages were posted in 2008 on the blog that run by the former far-right leader and current speaker of the Eduskunta (Finnish Parliament), Jussi Halla-aho, who was convicted in 2012 of a crime against religious peace after publishing anti-Islamic opinions.

The Finnish press attributes the texts to Purra, who was not yet involved in politics at the time.

They refer to black people with the derogatory term ‘neekerit’ and to immigrants from Türkiye as ‘Turkish monkeys.’

The leader of the True Finns party acknowledged that at the time she wrote numerous comments on the Halla-aho blog that she “would not publish today,” but neither admitted nor denied signing them as riikka.

The development sparked a major scandal in the country, just ten days after the Minister of Economic Affairs, far-right Vilhelm Junnila, resigned over alleged links to Neo-Nazi groups after less than two weeks in office.

jg/ybc/mem/ehl