[13] In December 2021, Junnila joined to make a statement together with eight other parliament members who condemned Veronika Honkasalo's initiative to boycott Israel's import products.

[14] After his ministerial position was announced, Junnila's alleged connections to neo-Nazi networks were widely discussed in social media.

[15] In 2019, Junnila was the featured speaker[16] at a memorial to the victims of the 2017 Turku terrorist attack, 188 Kukkavirta, organized by the far-right umbrella organization[16] Coalition of Nationalists (Finnish: Kansallismielisten liittouma) consisting of[17] the vigilante Soldiers of Odin and Nordic Resistance Movement militias[18] since banned in Finland.

[20] In the run-up to the 2023 election, Junnila spoke at an event where he congratulated another candidate of his party for receiving the number 88, called it a "winning card" and added: "The 88 of course refers to two letters H, about which we'll say no more."

(Finnish: ”Tämä 88 viittaa tietenkin kahteen H-kirjaimeen, josta ei sen enempää puhuta.”)[22] Using the number "88" to mean "HH" as shorthand for "Heil Hitler" is a common white supremacist symbol.

")[22] Junnila commented[24] on a photo circulating on social media, allegedly a Facebook photo posted by Junnila to his aide in 2014, that depicts a snowman holding a hangman's noose and with a head resembling a Ku Klux Klan hood, with a caption wishing for a white Christmas as being part of a parodied clip from the 2004 film Downfall ridiculing the person responsible for the snowman.

[26][27] On 27 June, the Green League, Left Alliance, and Social Democratic Party proposed a motion of no confidence against Junnila.

Green Party MP Hanna Holopainen presented the motion, stating that Junnila's communication with far-right movements "appears to be continuous and close" and that "Minister Junnila's connections to far-right movements are not an isolated incident, a misunderstanding, or simply bad humor, but rather repeated, systematic, and comradely communication".