The reverberations from a scandal surrounding Finns Party leader Riikka Purra's past online comments have continued as she travelled to Brussels to attend her first EU-level meeting as Finance Minister.
The uproar over Purra's racist comments from 15 years ago have led opposition parties to demand an end to Parliament's summer recess in order to debate the government's handling of recent controversies.
The scandal has even prompted foreign minister Elina Valtonen (NCP) to apologise to the Turkish foreign minister for Purra's use of the term "Turkish monkey" in the guestbook of Jussi Halla-aho's (Finns) Scripta blog in 2008.
Halla-aho, now the Speaker of Parliament, refrained from reconvening Parliament earlier this week but said he would agree to it if a majority of MPs were in favour.
Purra took part in the Eurogroup finance ministers' meeting in Brussels on Thursday. Before the meeting began, the Finns Party leader was asked if the scandal had been raised during her time in Brussels.
Her answer was brief: "No, it has not been raised," she said, adding "if I am asked about it, of course, I will answer."
Yle also asked Purra if she thinks her past comments have affected Finland's international reputation.
"There is a lot of news, and of course, we do our best to respond to it. I have offered my apologies for these comments I made 15 years ago, eight years before I entered politics," Purra said.
She reiterated her belief that the Finnish media took her old comments out of context and made them appear "even worse" than they were.
The finance minister did not however respond to a follow-up question about what exactly she meant by that statment.
2.8.2023 at 12:33 Clarified that Purra referred to a singular "Turkish monkey", rather than the plural "Turkish monkeys".