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Finns Party vice chair expelled over violation of privacy laws

Xinhua, October 27, 2015 Adjust font size:

The vice chairman of one of Finland's ruling parties has been officially expelled after he was deemed to have violated privacy laws, reported Finnish media on Monday.

Sebastian Tynkkynen, the third vice chair of the Finns Party, posted a video on his Facebook account late Sunday night, saying that he had been informed by an email about his expulsion from the Finns Party, the tabloid Ilta-Sanomat first reported.

Tynkkynen said that the decision was made by the party board on Friday evening, when he attended a meeting of Nordic political youth organizations in Iceland, adding that none of the party members informed him about the issue until he received the message after three days.

On October 5, Tynkkynen issued an initiative to call for an emergency meeting of the Finns Party leaders to deal with problems of widespread dissent and a drop in popularity. The meeting was also expected to decide whether the party should withdraw from the current coalition government over the issue of the immigration policy. However, his proposal was voted down by the Finns Party board on October 16.

Tynkkynen described his expulsion as a "political witch hunt", saying that it tries to eliminate the critical voice from inside of the party.

Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo, secretary of the Finns Party, told Ilta-Sanomat that Tynkkynen's party membership was discharged, solely because he published a list of party members online for supporting his call for an emergency meeting without those people's permission.

Slunga-Poutsalo said that Tynkkynen's behavior was a violation of privacy laws from the party's standpoint.

Timo Soini, chair of the Finns Party, repudiated that the Tynkkynen's dismissal is connected to his initiative to call for an emergency meeting. He also denied any type of political witch hunt.

According to Soini, the party has given Tynkkynen several opportunities to present the party leadership a written explanation for publishing the list, but did not answer the questions relating to the core issue. Endit