The center-right National Coalition won the Finnish elections, according to local media projections.
Public broadcaster Yle projects the coalition will have 48 terms, out of 200 for the Finnish parliament, against 46 for the far-right Party of Finns and 43 for the Social Democratic Party of incumbent Prime Minister Sanna Marin.
The largest party in parliament traditionally gets the first chance to build a government, and since the 1990s that party has consistently claimed the role of prime minister.
With 97% of the votes counted, the National Coalition leads with 20.7% of the votes, compared to 20.1% for the Finnish Party. The Social Democrats are far behind with 19.9%.
Petteri Orpo, leader of the National Coalition, has already claimed “the great victory”: “Based on this electoral result, we are going to start negotiating a government in Finland.”
Before, when the first projections came out, Orpo had already made statements.
“If this is correct, then this is a very strong victory,” the National Coalition leader told public broadcaster Yle.
However, Riikka Purra, the leader of the Finnish Party, whose support has surged since last summer with the cost-of-living crisis following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, was cautious.
“This is a prediction, so let’s look at it that way, but it’s an excellent result,” he said.
Sanna Marin, on the other hand, was still holding out hope for a change. “There’s still one election night to go, we’re going to see it through to the end,” she said, adding: “I’m very grateful that people voted massively for the Social Democrats.”
Source: TSF
