Member of Parliament Ano Turtiainen has been expelled from the Finns Party by the party’s board, according to tabloid newspaper Iltalehti.
The paper reported that the main reason for dismissing Turtiainen, who was expelled from the party’s parliamentary group last summer, was that he has not re-applied for membership.
Turtiainen confirmed the report on his own Facebook page on Saturday.
An incident earlier this month involving Turtiainen and Deputy Speaker of Parliament Juho Eerola (Finns) was also a factor in the decision, IL writes. Turtiainen had refused to comply with the Parliament's recommendation on the use of face masks, citing health reasons, which led to a verbal disagreement with Eerola.
Turtiainen was expelled from the party's parliamentary group after he published a tweet mocking George Floyd, who was choked to death by a police officer in Minneapolis in May last year.
After that, Turtiainen formed his own, one-man parliamentary group and has continually criticised the Finns Party.
Turtiainen was elected a Member of Parliament in 2019 on the Finns Party ticket with 3,264 votes.