Finland's opposition party MPs have sharply criticised the government's anti-racism statement during a plenary session in Parliament on Wednesday afternoon.
The plan, published last week, sets out the measures the government intends to implement in order to tackle racism and discrimination in Finnish society.
While the debate was ongoing in parliament, three of the main opposition parties released a statement saying they planned to table a motion of no confidence in the government over its anti-racism statement.
The Social Democratic Party (SDP), the Green Party and the Left Alliance submitted the motion to parliament.
The government is now expected to face a confidence vote on Friday.
The Green Party has also tabled a motion of no confidence in Finance Minister and Finns Party leader Riikka Purra, while the Left Alliance have submitted a similar motion in relation to Minister of Economic Affairs Wille Rydman, also of the Finns Party.
Summer of racism scandals
MPs have just returned to the chamber from their summer recess this week, and are being kept busy with the repercussions of a series of racism scandals that hit high-ranking members of Petteri Orpo's (NCP) right-wing government during the break.
In the wake of the scandals, the coalition government issued its joint statement last week about its plans to tackle racism and discrimination in the country.
Those measures include the criminalisation of Holocaust denial, and the possible outlawing of the political use of certain symbols, including the swastika as used by Nazi Germany as well as the hammer and sickle that appeared on the former Soviet Union flag.
In a lengthy opening statement on Wednesday, PM Orpo said Finland "has a long history of promoting equality, gender equality and non-discrimination. We are a global pioneer in this field."
"Nevertheless, racism remains a problem in Finnish society. For example, there are discriminatory attitudes and structures in the labour market and in education that must be changed. This change will require honest debate and actions arising from such debate. The Government is prepared to take on both of these tasks. There is no place for racism in Finnish society," Orpo said, according to the full translation of his speech published by the prime minister's office.
The government has said that between 1-1.5 million euros will be allocated for the programme, which includes more than 20 measures to combat racism.
The debate is expected to continue until 10pm on Wednesday at the latest, with dozens of MPs still waiting for their turn to address Parliament as of 3:45pm.
Confidence votes
The Finns Party's parliamentary group chair Jani Mäkelä defended the freedom of speech rights of MPs as well as of members of the public during his parliamentary address. He said that people should be able to discuss problems of immigration, for example, without those discussions being labelled as racist.
"It appears that the opposition failed to read the [statement], because they already announced in advance that they will vote against it," Mäkelä said.
Meanwhile, chair of the opposition Social Democrats, Nasima Razmyar, said she wondered why it took so long for members of the coalition government to issue its joint statement against racism. Razmyar also asked PM Orpo whether he can guarantee that all of the ministers in his government would now renounce the use of racist language.
Deputy PM Riikka Purra — who was herself caught up in one of the summer's racism scandals — said last week that the statement is intended to send a clear message about its stance on racism.
In late July there were revelations about racist language used in the past by Minister Rydman, after newspaper Helsingin Sanomat published a number of his old private messages from 2016 in which he repeatedly used racist language.