"Je suis Sarah!" Miss Finland loses crown after racism scandal - right-wing politicians back her

A racist photo cost Miss Finland Sarah Dzafce her crown and title - and has now plunged Finland into a heated debate about racism, freedom of expression and political responsibility.

The reigning Miss Finland, Sarah Dzafce, has lost her title and her crown. This was triggered by a photo that went viral on the internet at the end of November. It shows Dzafce pulling her eyes into slits with her fingers - with the caption: "Let's go out for Chinese food."

The picture sparked fierce criticism on social media. Many users accused Dzafce of using racist stereotypes. However, the 24-year-old initially responded with ridicule rather than an apology.

In a video on an airplane, she made fun of her critics: "The gang hurls hate at me while I'm sitting in Finnair business class."

At the same time, she tried to explain the incident. At the time of the photo, she was suffering from a severe headache and was simply massaging her temples, she said.

As the outrage online continued to grow, the organizers of the beauty pageant took action: They announced at a press conference that Dzafce would lose her title.

They would not tolerate racist or discriminatory remarks, they said in a statement, and Tara Lehtonen, who had originally been runner-up, eventually took over the Miss Finland title.

Dzafce finally apologized publicly "deeply to everyone I have hurt, especially the Asian community".

Scandal over? Not at all.

"Je suis Sarah!"

Three politicians - Juho Eerola, Kaisa Garedew and Sebastian Tynkkynen - published photos of themselves at the end of last week in which they also narrow their eyes and make faces. In solidarity with Dzafce.

Eerola and Garedew sit in parliament for the right-wing populist True Finns party, while Tynkkynen is a Member of the European Parliament. Eerola wrote "Je suis Sarah!" to accompany his grimace photo.

Party leader, Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Riikka Purra backed the controversial action. She explained that her three party colleagues had merely wanted to highlight the absurdity of the ongoing debate.

Prime Minister Petteri Orpo (National Rally Party), on the other hand, described the action as "stupid and harmful to the fatherland". The government responded with a joint statement in which all four coalition parties pledged to treat each other with respect.

Juho Eerola later apologized for the picture being interpreted as racist: "In this context, I would like to apologize to all people of Asian origin, it was never my intention to offend them," he told broadcaster Yle.

"International crisis"

The racism scandal also caused a stir in the Asian media. The managing director of the Miss Finland organization spoke of an "international crisis" and announced that the training of candidates would focus more on topics such as equality and social sensitivity in future in order to prevent similar incidents in the future.

Particularly explosive: In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Western European racial theorists assigned Finns to a supposedly "Mongolian" race and differentiated them from "actual" Europeans due to supposedly "Asian" physical characteristics such as high cheekbones.