Vantaa plans anti-racism training after councillors walk out

Vantaa plans to provide anti-racism training for city council members early next year, Yle reports, following repeated concerns about racist and inappropriate language in council discussions.

The issue came to a head in late January, when several councillors walked out of a council meeting in protest after terms such as “harmful immigration” and “population replacement” were repeated in the chamber.

In February, a group of councillors submitted an initiative calling for training on equality and anti-racism for all council members. The initiative will be considered by Vantaa City Board next Monday.

According to the officials’ response, the training would be organised as a short internal online session at the beginning of 2027. Participation would be voluntary, and councillors would not receive a fee for attending.

Vantaa Administrative Director Leena Rusanen said the proposed lighter format was mainly due to timing and cost. Training for councillors is normally arranged at the beginning of a new council term, allowing broader programmes to be planned. If attendance were mandatory, councillors would also have to receive the basic fee paid for a council meeting, which could make the training relatively expensive, Rusanen said.

She acknowledged that voluntary participation meant that those most affected by the issue could skip the training without consequences. Rusanen said this was possible but not unusual, as the city did not otherwise target training at specific individuals or monitor who ultimately took part.

Tia Seppänen, chair of Vantaa’s Green council group, described the proposed training as too limited. The initiative was signed by the Greens, the Left Alliance council group and three Social Democratic councillors.

Seppänen said anti-racism and equality were important enough to require participation. She said elected officials in prominent democratic positions should be obliged to attend such training.

Seppänen said she had not yet decided whether the initiative’s authors would accept the officials’ response.