Finns Party MP Timo Vornanen has lost the backing of party leader Riikka Purra following suspicions he fired a gun outside a Helsinki nightclub in the early hours of Friday morning.
Purra told the tabloid newspaper Ilta-Sanomat that her party colleague "does not enjoy my trust".
Vornanen, a first-term parliamentarian and former police officer, is suspected of firing the weapon outside the Ihku karaoke bar, near the parliament building, at about 4am on Friday morning.
Investigating officers believe Vornanen and other members of his group got into an argument at the bar, and the MP produced a small-calibre firearm before firing a shot into the ground.
Vornanen was held in custody overnight on Friday and released on Saturday.
"No comment"
Yle reached Vornanen at his home in Joensuu on Monday morning after several attempts to contact him had failed, but he was unwilling to answer any questions.
"No comment, thank you," he said before closing his door.
Vornanen worked as a police officer for more than two decades before being elected to parliament in 2023.
He is on leave from his job as a senior constable with the Eastern Finland Police Department for the duration of his parliamentary term.
Police investigation continues
In a statement released on Monday evening, police said the incident is now being investigated under the suspected charges of causing serious danger to the life or health of another person, illegally threatening another person, as well as a firearms offence.
Police believe the gun Vornanen was carrying was pointed at two people, but it is not clear at this stage who was holding it at the time.
The MP is not named by police in the statement, but the details of the case and the description of the suspect match the publicly-known information about Friday morning's incident.
"Police were able to interview the suspect late on Friday afternoon. Over the weekend, the police conducted interviews and reviewed CCTV footage, which contributed to shedding more light on the events in and outside of the restaurant," Detective Inspector Jukka Larkio said in the police's statement.
The press release further noted that the preliminary investigation will likely be completed in May or June.
According to Yle's source, Vornanen himself made the call to emergency services in the immediate aftermath of the incident early on Friday morning.
During his interview with police, the source added, Vornanen said he fired the shot because he felt threatened as the situation unfolded outside the bar.
He also told investigating officers that the reason he carries a gun is that he has been the target of threats in the past, although the nature of these alleged threats is unclear at this stage of the investigation.
A "breakdown in communication"
The fallout from the incident continued to ripple across Finnish politics, and especially within the Finns Party, over the weekend and into Monday.
The party's secretary, Harri Vuorenpää, announced via social media platform X on Sunday evening that Vornanen would begin two weeks' sick leave from Monday.
Separately, the party revealed that its parliamentary group will meet on Thursday to discuss the incident.
The Speaker of the Finnish Parliament Jussi Halla-aho, a former leader of the Finns Party, has also been dragged into the furore.
Halla-aho told Yle on Monday that he should have informed the Speaker's Council of the Parliament immediately of Vornanen's arrest on Friday, but did not.
The Secretary-General of Parliament, Antti Pelttari, informed Halla-aho of the incident on Friday morning, but he did not bring the issue to the Speaker's Council meeting on Friday.
"There was some kind of breakdown in communication between me and the Secretary-General. He received information about the matter from the police and informed me. I guess I assumed that the Secretary-General would have then informed all the parties that needed to be informed of the situation," Halla-aho said.
He added that neither he nor Secretary-General Pelttari had any specific intention not to mention the matter.
No convictions but a warning
Finnish news agency STT reported on Monday morning that Vornanen has no criminal record, based on an email it received from Finland's Legal Register Centre.
However, a document received by Yle later in the day on Monday revealed that Vornanen had previously received a warning for inappropriately touching a colleague.
According to the document, Vornanen touched and hugged the person in a way that they did not approve of, and he received a written reprimand in 2016 for what was deemed a breach of his duty.
