The Minister for Economic Affairs, Vilhelm Junnila (Finns), has announced his intention to resign after a scandal over his far-right links that saw his own coalition partners vote for a no confidence motion in parliament.
"Despite the trust of the party and the parliamentary group, I see things like this: for the continuation of the government and Finland's reputation, I think it is impossible for me to continue as a minister in a satisfactory way," said Junnila in a statement sent by the party office.
The Finns Party had installed Junnila as the minister responsible for trade promotion abroad, a role that often involves visits to foreign countries to encourage businesses to strike deals with Finnish companies.
In the past week the spotlight has focused on Junnila's jokes about his election number (88) referencing "Heil Hitler", a far-right event in 2019 where he gave a speech, and his 2019 parliamentary question in which he urged the government to promote abortion in Africa which he claimed was a measure to stem population growth and fight climate change.
He voted against liberalising abortion laws in Finland.
This week he apologised for his past jokes referencing Nazism, but claimed his 2019 abortion question was in line with the 2023 government programme.
Seven out of ten Swedish People's Party MPs voted against Junnila in a confidence motion on Wednesday, with him surviving only because 12 opposition MPs did not turn up for the vote.
"This was the right decision from Junnila, I thank him for that," SPP chair Anna-Maja Henriksson told Yle of Junnila's resignation, adding that "now we can move on from here."
The same sentiment was echoed by the chair of coalition partner Christian Democrats. Sari Essayah told news agency STT that the decision was the only possible and correct solution to the situation.
PM Orpo: Resignation the only correct solution
"I am pleased with this solution. It was the correct and only possible solution," Prime Minister Petteri Orpo (NCP) said during a press briefing on Friday afternoon.
The PM said that former minister Junnila had himself made the decision to resign, adding he was not aware of any internal discussion within the Finns Party regarding the issue.
Orpo further promised that in light of the scandal, the coalition partners would revisit the government programme and rules of the game next week.
The country and the government's reputation have taken a hit, Orpo said, adding however that he remained confident that this coalition was united by its capability to "get Finland into shape."
Expert: Possible hard times ahead for Orpo's government
This scandal could mean dark clouds ahead in terms of the Orpo government's unity, according to populism expert Emilia Palonen.
The senior political science lecturer told Yle News that the fact that Wednesday's confidence vote was such a close call, with a whole government party voting against the minister (or abstaining), shows that there is clearly not as much trust as Prime Minister Orpo would like.
"So this is, of course, a problem for the internal coherence of the government and there might be a backlash by the Finns Party, for instance, on some policy issues that SPP have been arguing," Palonen said on Thursday afternoon, prior to the news of Junnila's resignation.
"It's already an indication that if the opposition had been there on site for this date they would be declaring distrust in Junnila so the majority of the government in parliament is so slim that if the opposition gets its act together and there were some decisions that the Swedish People's Party wants to veto, it would be possible to do," Palonen said.
Edited at 16:32 to add Palonen's comments, and edited earlier to add comments from Orpo.