Members of Finland’s parliament (Eduskunta) this Tuesday elected conservative leader Petteri Orpo as the country’s prime minister, who will rule with the support of a coalition of parties that includes the far right.
Orpo, who won parliamentary elections on April 2, received 107 votes in favor and 81 against in parliament this Tuesday. Another eleven delegates did not attend the vote.
The new prime minister, from the conservative National Coalition Party, will lead a government still formed by the Finnish Party. [de extrema-direita]by the Swedish People’s Party [SFP – representante da minoria finlandesa de língua sueca] – and the Christian Democrats, in a coalition that has an absolute majority with 108 deputies out of a total of 200 in parliament.
The new executive — the most conservative in the country’s recent history, according to local media — is made up of 12 women and seven men, with a larger female presence compared to the outgoing executive of Social Democrat Sanna Marin.
In addition to the head of government, the National Coalition Party – which won 48 deputies in the last election – will take on seven ministries: Foreign Affairs, Defence, Environment, Labor and Culture.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will be taken over by Vice President of the National Coalition Party, Elina Valtonen, while the Defense Ministry will be headed by Antti Häkkänen, also the party’s Vice President, who will be responsible for integrating Finland’s defense systems into NATO . , following its recent entry into the Atlantic Alliance.
The Finnish party, the second most voted party in the last election with 46 deputies, will also have seven ministries, including Finance – which will be occupied by its leader, Riikka Purra -, Home Affairs, Justice, Foreign Trade and Health.
In this way, this far-right and Eurosceptic party is taking control of several key positions in the Finnish government and will wield great weight when it comes to dictating economic and immigration policies.
In addition, the presidency of parliament will be held by the former leader of the far-right party, Jussi Halla-aho, Purra’s mentor and representative of the formation’s most xenophobic wing, convicted in 2012 of publishing anti-Islamic opinions on his personal page on the internet.
The SFP, a small party that has been in nearly every Finnish executive but one for the past half century, will take over the ministries of Education, European Affairs and Sport, though the latter for only half a legislature.
The other half of the legislature, the Ministry of Sports, will be led by the smallest partner in the coalition, the Christian Democratic Party, which will also take over the Ministry of Agriculture.
Source: DN
