After being seen spray-painting graffiti, Helsinki, Finland’s deputy mayor is perhaps facing legal proceedings and calls for his resignation.
In the Greater Helsinki city of Vantaa, Länsimäki, Paavo Arhinmäki and a friend were finishing off their graffiti when police caught them last Friday at about 9:50 p.m.
According to a picture shared by Helsingin Sanomat, Finland’s biggest newspaper, one of the graffiti’s lines said, “World dominance and great career moves.”
The tunnel Arhinmäki and his friend illegally painted in, used by cargo trains running to and from the Vuosaari Harbour, had to be closed for 10 minutes, regional police said.
Arhinmäki, 46, one of Helsinki’s four mayors who is in charge of culture and leisure affairs, is now under investigation for vandalism and interference with rail traffic.
The ex-MP apologised a day later on Facebook, saying that he grew up with the art form when he lived in a central-northern neighbourhood in Helsinki.
‘I got excited about graffiti as a kid like almost all my boys in Pasila,’ said Arhinmäki, the former chairman of the socialist political party, the Left Alliance.
Arhinmäki, long a keen supporter of street art, said that since city officials began sanctioning some graffiti displays in 2009, he has been ‘randomly painting with my old childhood friends’.
They have been grabbing their spray cans and heading to far-flung parts of Helsinki, such as by train tracks used by freight trains, to capture the spirit of the city.
The former culture and sport minister and a friend sprayed the wall in Helsinki last week while enjoying the night before Midsummer Day, which sees people celebrate the Summer.
‘What a silly thing it was done by me and us,’ Arhinmäki added.
‘Somehow I’ve puzzled myself to the idea that you can make paintings on such grey already-painted concrete walls away from people’s eyes.
‘It was stupid of us to think that no one would be interested in us painting in a place like that. We were just thinking that there was a fine Pasila spirit in the train tunnel and clearly nobody is bothered.’
‘I’m so sorry for this stupid foolishness of mine,’ he added. ‘I’m asking for forgiveness.’
The graffiti was scrubbed clean on Monday at a reported cost of €3,500 (£3,000), the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency said, according to Finland’s public broadcaster Yleisradio Oy (Yle).
Arhinmäki has refused to step down both as deputy mayor and from the city council, which he has been a member of since 2001, in the face of public uproar but has agreed to pay any fines.
Itä-Uusimaa police officials confirmed to Yle that the investigation is ongoing and the suspects will likely be fined if criminal charges are brought.
Whether he will face legal action is unclear.