Finland’s prime minister Petteri Orpo apologized to Asian nations on Wednesday in an try and stifle a growing controversy over racist images shared by members of his government’s four-party coalition in solidarity with a beauty pageant winner who was stripped of her title.
The scandal arose earlier this month when the previous Miss Finland winner, Sarah Dzafce, 22, was pictured pulling back her eyes in a picture shared on social media alongside the caption, “eating with a Chinese person.”
Two members of the Finnish parliament and one European parliament member, all from the Finns Party, the country’s right-wing populist movement, responded to Dzafce by posting similar images of themselves pulling back their eyes after it was announced that she could be stripped of her crown over the derogatory post.
In his apology, released by Finnish embassies in China, Japan and South Korea, Orpo wrote, “These posts don’t reflect Finland’s values of equality and inclusion.”
“Our message in Finland and to all our friends abroad is that the federal government takes racism seriously and is committed to combatting the difficulty,” he added.
Dzafce, who is just not of Asian heritage, also apologized, saying she didn’t intend to offend anyone.
“I take responsibility for my actions and learn from this,” she wrote in an Instagram post, days before the Miss Finland organization revoked her title.
In an announcement on Saturday, the organization wrote that the content she posted was “offensive, harmful, and completely against the values of the Miss Finland competition.”
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“We’re deeply sorry for the harm these events have caused. Especially to the Asian community, but additionally to everyone affected. Racism is rarely acceptable in any form,” it continued.
One in every of the MPs who mimicked Dzafce’s post, Juho Eerola, told Reuters he had apologized for his post and declined to offer further comment.
Kaisa Garedew, a Finnish MP, and Sebastian Tynkkynen, a member of the European Parliament, also shared derogatory photos and have been reprimanded by their party, the Finnish Broadcasting Company, the country’s national public news outlet reported.
“We discussed the matter seriously inside the parliamentary group and concluded that the photographs shouldn’t have been published. We’ve got agreed that this may not occur again. The MPs have received a serious warning from the group,” Finns Party leader Jani Mäkelä told the broadcaster.
Shortly after taking office in 2023, Orpo’s government faced a no-confidence vote over racist online posts and statements made by several cabinet members from the Finns Party.
The scandal is the most recent in a slew of setbacks linked to this yr’s broader Miss Universe contest in Thailand, where organizers have faced walkouts and allegations of rigging.
Miss Mexico, the competition’s eventual winner, and several other other contestants walked out of the pageant during a sashing ceremony in November, after certainly one of the pageant’s executives called her “dumb.”
Also in November, a Thai court issued an arrest warrant for the co-owner of the Miss Universe Organization in reference to a fraud case.
— With files from Reuters
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