The centre-right leader won the general elections in Finland on Sunday and is expected to replace the outgoing prime minister, Sanna Marin, after a very close vote where the nationalists, who could enter the Government, reached a record.
“It’s a great victory,” said Petteri Orpo, a 53-year-old former minister, to applause from his supporters.
“We are going to start negotiations for a government in Finland,” said the man who now has the possibility of forming a left-wing alliance with Sanna Marin or with Riikka Purra’s anti-immigration and Eurosceptic Finnish party.
very tight ballot
According to almost final results with more than 98% of the votes, the National Coalition party ranks first with 48 of the 200 seats in Parliament, ahead of the Finnish party (46) and the Social Democrats (43).
Despite the progress of the 2019 election, Sanna Marin conceded defeat. “Congratulations to the winner of the elections, congratulations to the National Coalition, congratulations to the Finns party, democracy has spoken,” she said.
The party’s candidate who arrives first traditionally inherits the position of Prime Minister in Finland, provided he can muster a majority in Parliament.
The differences in the votes are just as slight: 20.8% for the center-right, 20.1% for the extreme right and 19.9% for Sanna Marin’s SDP. The three formations advance from the last elections of 2019, in a three-way battle that has eclipsed the results of the rest of the formations.
Installed for more than 20 years in Finnish political life, the extreme right has broken its record of 19.05% dating from 2011, as a result of the populist wave that has crossed Europe in recent years.
“Rock Star Prime Minister”
These legislative elections in the country of 5.5 million inhabitants coincide with the official entry of the country bordering Russia into NATO, scheduled for the next few days.
Popular abroad as in Finland, Sanna Marin has established herself as a “rock star prime minister” but is more divided at home, where she has been criticized over public finances and inflation.
The world’s youngest head of government when she came to power at the end of 2019, she was hailed for her good handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and the NATO membership process, and for her positions on neighboring Russia.
The economy has been the main angle of attack for the opposition, which denounces in particular the increase in public debt. The extreme right has campaigned on juvenile delinquency, which it says is linked to immigration.
Source: BFM TV
