Finland’s new economy minister, Vilhelm Junnila has resigned after just 10 days in office over remarks he made at a far-right event four years ago.
Junnila, of the nationalist Finns Party, has been accused of making repeated Nazi references.
He apologised and survived a no-confidence vote, but announced his resignation on Friday.
Junnila said he was stepping down so as not to harm the reputation of both the government and Finland.
“I see that it is impossible for me to continue as a minister in a satisfactory way,” he said in a statement.
His resignation follows the revelation that he spoke at a Nationalist Alliance gathering in Turku, Finland, in 2019.
He mentioned that the local party chairman’s election number was 88, the same number Junnila himself had in elections the same year, at the ceremony honoring the victims of a stabbing in the city two years prior.
The greeting “Heil Hitler” is associated with the number 88 among neo-Nazis since H is the eighth letter in the alphabet, making 88 stand for “HH”.
Then, in March, during a Finns campaign event, Junnila congratulated another candidate who had received the same number, according to Finnish state radio Yle.
“First of all, congratulations on an excellent election number. I know it is a winning card. This 88 refers, of course, to the two ‘H’s, but let’s not dwell on that,” the 41-year-old is said to have joked.
Writing on social media last week, Junnila said he had “done something wrong” and he was “sorry for my actions”.
“I hope everyone is clear that I condemn the Holocaust, anti-Semitism and all anti-Semitic acts strongly and definitely,” he added in a separate Facebook post.
Junnila survived a no-confidence vote in parliament earlier this week after being accused by opposition parties of repeatedly making statements linked to the Nazis.
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