Erkki Tuomioja (soc dem)

Erkki Tuomioja (soc dem), chair of the Finnish Parliament's grand committee tasked with EU affairs, launched a stinging rebuke of Silvio Berlusconi in a blog entry on Sunday following the Italian prime minister's latest Finland gaffe.

"The inappropriate puns at the expense of things like other countries' culinary and other culture may still be put down to bad taste, but his chauvinistic behaviour and remarks would hardly enable him to carry on as prime minister in any other civilised country," Mr Tuomioja wrote.

Mr Berlusconi had been quoted as saying by Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata (Ansa), an Italian news agency, last week that he liked Finland and Finnish women "so long as they are of age" and that he had been shown an 18th-century wooden church in Finland that would have been demolished in Italy.

In 2005, Mr Berlusconi said he had been forced to "endure" Finnish food and claimed to have used "playboy tactics" on Tarja Halonen, the Finnish president, to persuade her to let Italy have the EU food agency.

"Berlusconi is a disgrace not just to Italy but to all of Europe too," Mr Tuomioja added.
The former foreign minister had called Mr Berlusconi a disgrace to Italy in November last year.

STT
Lehtikuva - Heikki Saukkomaa