At this stage the police suspects Rautiainen of incitement of hatred against a segment of the population.

Although Rautiainen removed the inflammatory Facebook posts on Monday, the texts have since spread in the internet.

In his posts, the Finns Party candidate standing for election in the southeastern municipality of Kotka criticised Islam as well as Finland’s political leadership in a coarse and threatening manner.

Rautiainen defended himself saying that his remarks were not public comments, as his Facebook profile was not public.

Freddy Van Wonterghem, the chair of the Finns Party local association in Kotka, said he continued to support Rautiainen.

“He is a candidate, and voters can make up their minds who they want to vote for”, Wonterghem commented.

However, the chair disassociated himself from Rautiainen’s controversial posts, saying that each person must take responsibility for their own writings, and that he himself would never write something similar.