The Finns Party has unanimously selected its MP Wille Rydman to serve as Finland's Minister of Economic Affairs, the party announced in a press release on Wednesday.
Rydman is to replace the outgoing economic affairs minister, Vilhelm Junnila (Finns), who last week announced his resignation ten days after taking the post, amid a scandal over his far-right links that saw his own coalition partners vote for a no confidence motion in parliament.
The 37-year-old Rydman, who is serving his third term in parliament, will serve as economic minister for the first two years of the government term, then he is to be succeeded by Sakari Puisto (Finns) for the next two years.
"I was not prepared for this," Rydman told Yle on Wednesday. "My feelings are divided. I accept the challenge with a slightly heavy heart, due to the fact that my good friend Vilhelm Junnila has just had to resign from the post. In my opinion [the resignation] was due to unsubstantiated and stigmatising claims."
The Finns Party chair, Riikka Purra, told newspaper Helsingin Sanomat that the other three government parties were not informed in advance about Rydman's being selected for the ministerial post. Rydman's ministerial appointment was announced one day ahead of schedule, right after the party made its selection.
Purra said that the party chose Rydman because of his competence in international settings as well as his language skills, the paper reported on Wednesday afternoon.
"The decision was made on the basis of competence, experience and especially the qualities suitable for the portfolio, we have no other criteria for choosing ministers," Purra told HS.
Rydman is scheduled to be formally appointed economic affairs minister on Thursday afternoon.
Rydman's party change
At the beginning of this year, Rydman announced that he was leaving the National Coalition Party to run in April's parliamentary elections as a Finns Party candidate in Helsinki.
Prior to that, Rydman resigned from the party's parliamentary group last summer after Helsingin Sanomat reported he had harassed young women.
The National Bureau of Investigation opened a preliminary investigation into the allegations, which found that the suspected offence took place in 2015 and that the alleged victim was not underage at the time.
In December of last year, Finland's National Prosecution Authority said the NBI's probe showed "that there are no probable grounds to support the suspect's guilt."
The economic ministry is responsible for matters of the Innovations and Enterprise Financing Department, according to the ministry. That department is responsible for "innovation policy, special public funding and export financing policy, mineral policy, internationalisation policy of business and industry, tourism coordination and promotion of foreign investments."
The department is also responsible for Finland's business subsidy system and space policy.