Finland's first Somali MP warned against public transport after threats

Left Alliance Member of Parliament Suldaan Said Ahmed has promised to reimburse Parliament for the price of taxi journeys that aren’t straight associated to his duties as an MP.

The situation got here to gentle when tabloid Iltalehti in contrast the taxi journeys of MPs on the parliamentary taxi card throughout the interval from September 2021 to March this yr, and located that Said Ahmed’s invoice was the best. The newspaper additional famous that Parliament had instructed Said Ahmed to take taxis due to issues for his security.

Parliament’s Director of Administration Pertti Rauhio confirmed to Yle that Said Ahmed had been informed to make use of taxis as a substitute of public transport, including that the instruction was primarily based on a safety report by authorities. Rauhio additional famous that this was the first occasion of its type when an MP was suggested to not take public transportation due to safety issues.

Said Ahmed’s taxi invoice for the interval from September 2021 to March 2022 was round 6,500 euros, totalling 212 journeys, a few of which he admitted may have been labeled as leisure journeys.

“Moving forward, I will pay for my leisure taxi trips myself,” Said Ahmed wrote in a tweet responding to the Iltalehti article.

The subsequent highest taxi invoice after Said Ahmed was Olli Immonen (Finns), whose 86 journeys amounted to a complete of roughly 6,400 euros.

“During the Covid period, Parliament instructed MPs to avoid using public transport. All my taxi trips have been business trips. My taxi bill consists of a long commute in the Helsinki metropolitan area and a trip home from Oulu Airport,” Immonen informed Yle News.

Immonen and Said Ahmed spent over 1,500 euros extra on taxi journeys than the third MP on the listing, Markus Lohi of the Centre Party.

MPs are entitled to make use of a taxi to hold out their duties—in concept with out limits— so long as the journey takes place within the Helsinki metropolitan space and the journey prices lower than 70 euros. Outside this space, MPs are in a position to make use of taxi journeys between their house and the closest airport, prepare, or bus station if transport connections are poor or using a taxi is justified for scheduling causes.

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