The controversial Finns Party MP James Hirvisaari announced his departure from Suomen Sisu in his blog Friday.
Hirvisaari wrote that the group is not flawed, illegal or racist. However he announced his resignation, pointing out that it is primarily a youth organisation.
"A middle-aged gentleman such as I am should look in the mirror in places other than the Parliament washroom, and realize that the criteria for "youth" are no longer completely applicable," he said.
In 2010 the openly anti-immigrant Hirvisaari was found guilty of inciting racial hatred by a Kouvola appeal court for a blog in which he claimed that an attack on a foreigner had not been racially motivated.
Hirvisaari was temporarily suspended from the party's parliamentary group last year, after his then-assistant Helena Eronen blogged that immigrants and other foreigners should wear Nazi-style arm bands so that police could identify them. She later resigned, although she had previously defended the piece as being tongue-in-cheek.
Suomen Sisu describes itself as nationalistic and patriotic, and opposes immigration and multiculturalism. Other Finns Party members include Jussi Halla-aho, Olli Immonen and Juho Eerola.
The group came under heavy criticism in 2006 for reproducing a controversial series of satirical cartoons of the prophet Mohammed on its website, following their publication in the Danish daily_ Jyllands-Posten_ back in 2005.
