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Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo apologized to Asian countries on Wednesday in an attempt to quell 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 former Miss Finland The winner, Sarah Dzafce, 22, was pictured rolling her eyes in an image shared on social media with the caption “eating with a Chinese”.
Two Finnish MPs and an MEP, all from the Finns Party, the country’s right-wing populist movement, responded to Dzafce by posting similar images of themselves looking down after the announcement that she would be stripped of her crown for the derogatory post.
In his apology, released by the Finnish embassies in China, Japan and South Korea, Orpo wrote: “These messages do not reflect Finland’s values of equality and inclusion. »
“Our message in Finland and to all our friends abroad is that the government takes racism seriously and is committed to combating this problem,” he added.
Dzafce, who is not of Asian descent, also apologized, saying she did not intend to offend anyone.
“I take responsibility for my actions and learn from them,” she wrote in a statement. Instagram posta few days before the Miss Finland organization revoked her title.
In a statement released on Saturday, the organization wrote that the content it posted was “offensive, harmful and completely contrary to the values of the Miss Finland pageant.”
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“We are deeply sorry for the harm these events have caused. Particularly to the Asian community, but also to everyone involved. Racism is never acceptable in any form,” he continues.
One of the MPs who imitated Dzafce’s message, Juho Eerola, told Reuters he apologized for his message and declined to make further comment.
Kaisa Garedew, a Finnish MP, and Sebastian Tynkkynen, a member of the European Parliament, also shared derogatory photos and were reprimanded by their party, the finnish broadcasting companythe country’s national public media reported.
“We seriously discussed the issue in the parliamentary group and concluded that the images should not have been published. We agreed that this would not happen again. MPs received a serious warning from the group,” Finland party leader Jani Mäkelä told the TV channel.
Shortly after taking office in 2023, Orpo’s government faced a vote of no confidence following racist online posts and statements made by several members of the Finns Party cabinet.
The scandal is the latest in a series of setbacks related to this year’s broader issues. Miss Universe competition in Thailandwhere organizers faced walkouts and allegations of fixing.
Miss Mexico, the eventual winner of the pageant, and several other candidates left the competition during a ribbon-cutting ceremony in November, after one of the pageant’s leaders called it “stupid.”
Also in November, a Thai court issued an arrest warrant for the co-owner of the Miss Universe Organization in the context of a fraud case.
— With files from Reuters
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