The Supreme Administrative Court has struck off the Blue and Black Movement from Finland's party register, in a preliminary decision announced on Tuesday.
The court ruled that the decision to register the party was erroneous, and rescinding that decision was in the public interest.
The party said later on Tuesday that it would try to re-register as a party, and also attempt to run candidates in the European elections in June.
Insufficient respect
The fascist Blue and Black Movement was founded by disaffected ethnonationalist former Finns Party members, and took its colours from the Lapua Movement, a far-right group active between 1929 and 1932.
Immediately after it was founded in January 2021, the group tried to join Finland's official party register.
The Ministry of Justice returned the application twice, declaring that the party's programme and rules did not sufficiently respect human rights and constitutional law.
Registered in summer 2022
The organisation changed their programme, and the ministry then granted permission for them to start collecting signatures to support their application.
In Finland, parties must be backed by at least 5,000 registered voters who sign cards of support to be submitted to the ministry before they can join the official register.
The Blue-Black Movement supplied those cards and was registered in June 2022.
The Justice Ministry sought to have the party struck off when it submitted an updated party programme, which reverted to the earlier versions rejected by the ministry and was regarded by officials as incompatible with constitutional and human rights law.
"The new party programme restored clauses that the ministry could not accept," said the Supreme Administrative Court in a press release. "The decision to register the party had been a mistake and the public interest demands that it be rescinded."
Ministry approval needed
"The court found that the party's goals are not compatible with constitutional and human rights, and democratic principles," continued the statement, which suggested that the party had intentionally misled ministerial officials by editing the original programme.
Parties on the register are allowed to stand candidates in any local or national election. Unregistered parties can also run candidates, but must comply with each election's rules around constituency associations to do so.
They must file their party programme, which sets out their ideas and goals, and their rules. Any changes to either must be checked and approved by the Ministry of Justice.
0.1 percent support
Parties are automatically removed from the register if they fail to get an MP elected, or secure the backing of at least two percent of the vote at an election, or if the party stops being a registered association.
In last year's parliamentary election, the party gained the backing of 0.1 percent of voters. In June 2023, the party's leader Tuukka Kuru was convicted of incitement to hatred over an antisemitic tweet.