The Ministry of Education and Culture has rejected the Finns Party youth wing's appeal of its decision to claw back state subsidies. The group had demanded that the ministry reverse its decision last June to cancel this year's funding to the organisation.
That came in response to a post on the organization's Twitter feed ahead of the 26 May European Parliament election that featured a racist text below a picture of a dark-skinned family. The ministry determined that the message violated the Youth Act and the rules regulating state subsidies to political parties.
The ministry ordered the group to repay the 57,500 euros it had already received for this year. That was half of the total sum earmarked for the youth organisation this year, 115,000 euros.
The nationalist party's youth wing had claimed that the ministry's decision "was strongly reminiscent of political discrimination".
2020 funding to be set in January
The group has already applied for next year's state subsidies. Mikko Cortés Téllez, a senior adviser at the ministry, says that decisions on 2020 funding for political parties' youth factions will likely be made in January.
The youth group still has the right to appeal the latest rejection to the Helsinki Administrative Court. On Friday evening the organisation said it intended to seek reinstatement of its funding through the judicial system.
The opposition Finns Party came in fourth in Finland's European Parliament election, retaining its two seats in the legislature. It garnered 13.8 percent of the vote, one percentage point higher than in the previous EP election five years earlier.