Minister's textual relations get him sacked

Finland’s foreign minister was sacked today after being caught sending scores of text messages to an erotic dancer.

Ilkka Kanerva, 60, initially denied reports in a gossip magazine that he had sent about 200 messages by mobile phone to Johanna Tukiainen.

But then he changed his mind, apologised publicly, and insisted they were all work-related.

Last week Hymy magazine published some of the text messages allegedly sent by Kanerva to Tukiainen.

In them Kanerva proposes meetings and dinner with Tukiainen and her sister, asks whether he would be allowed to touch her at a nightclub and discusses women’s clothing.

Kanerva, who held three ministerial posts in various governments in the 1990s, was chosen to be foreign minister last year despite being involved in a similar text message scandal when he was a deputy speaker of parliament in 2005.

The latest affair had eroded trust in and respect for Kanerva, said Finance Minister Jyrki Katainen, chairman of the National Coalition Party.

“The minister does not enjoy trust,” Mr Katainen said. “It’s a heavy decision. He’s a friend and he’s done his work well.”

“He promised he would not repeat” such a scandal, Mr Katainen said: “but he did not keep that promise.”

Although Mr Kanerva apparently broke no laws and his partner accepted his apology, there have been widespread calls for his dismissal.

The Foreign Ministry said today that he was on sick leave and would not talk to the media.

Resignations or dismissals over personal matters are unusual in Finland, where politics and private lives have traditionally been kept well apart.