Minister who called Finnish PM ‘shop girl’ urged to quit

ESTONIA’S opposition called for interior minister Mart Helme to resign yesterday after he labelled Finland’s new prime minister a “shop girl”.

Mr Helme said on Sunday the new Finnish government was trying to destroy its own country, comments that opposition leader Kaja Kallas said were humiliating to Estonia.

Estonia’s president has already apologised to Finland, whose new leader, 34-year-old Sanna Marin, became the world’s youngest prime minister last week. Early in her career, she worked as a baker and a cashier.

Mr Helme is leader and founder of the far-right Conservative People’s Party, which joined the governing coalition after winning almost 18 per cent of the vote in an election earlier this year.

“Mart Helme has repeatedly injured the reputation of the Estonian state. If we let him go on as minister, he’ll be able to humiliate Estonia even further,” said Ms Kallas.

However, a parliamentary motion of no confidence in Mr Helme yesterday fell seven votes short of the number required to force him out of his post.

Mr Helme had told a radio interviewer that he doubted Ms Marin and her government were capable of running Finland, riffing on Lenin’s maxim that a cook should be able to run a country.

“Now we see that a shop girl has become a prime minister and some other street activists and uneducated people have also become members of the government,” said Mr Helme.

He added that the new centre-left government was “desperately trying to destroy the Finnish state, turn Finland into some sort of Euro-province”.