Lieksan Lehti: Finns Party wants Somali-free premises

Finns Party councillors in Lieksa have demanded a new meeting space to avoid using one where a Somali group meets once a month. The matter was reported first by Lieksan Lehti.

Lieksan Lehti reports that Esko Saastomoinen, the leader of the Finns Party group on Lieksa’s town council has demanded a “clean meeting room”, apparently because a Somali working group meets about once a month in the one they use now.

The municipal secretary Matti Taponen confirmed the incident to Yle, saying that the meeting space in question is used by many groups. Last week Lieksa’s health and social affairs committee gave the Somali working group permission to use the meeting space. On Monday, the Finns Party group chair made his displeasure clear.

“Saastomoinen brought the matter up before Monday’s council meeting,” said Taponen. “Around twenty councillors were present.”

The regional chair of the Finns Party in North Karelia, Eero Bogdanoff, suggested to Yle that Saastomoinen might not have thought his actions through before making his comments. Saastomoinen also serves as a regional deputy chair in the North Karelian party.