Finland’s two main opposition parties, Kokoomus (conservative) and True Finns (far right), won parliamentary elections on Sunday, defeating Social Democratic Prime Minister Sanna Marin.
The conservative party led by Petteri Orpo, until now the third political force in the Nordic country, obtained 20.8% of the votes and 48 of the 200 seats in the Eduskunta (parliament), ten more than in previous elections.
A breakthrough that, once again, makes the Conservatives the largest party in Finland 12 years later, and will allow the Orpo to lead the negotiations to form the next coalition executive.
“The Finnish people want a change and now I will open negotiations with all parties to form a government,” Orpo told reporters even before the count was completed.
The conservative leader indicated that he wanted to negotiate with all parties, regardless of their ideology, to form “a government with a solid majority.”
“There is a crucial issue and it is the economy. We have to fix our economy, we have to make reforms to push it towards sustainable growth,” Orpo stressed.
The True Finns, led by Riikka Purra, won 20.1% of the vote and 46 seats, seven more than in the last election.
Until then, the majority party, the Social Democrats (SDP) of Marín, was in third place, with 43 deputies, that is, three more seats and 2.2% more votes, which allow it to be considered as a possible partner. in the next coalition government
“My party has gained support and we have more representatives in parliament, so as party leader I am very happy,” said Marin, who is running in the parliamentary elections for the first time as party leader.
Marín predicted difficult negotiations to form a government, although he expressed confidence in an agreement that guarantees a coalition with a parliamentary majority.
The Marin SDP was, along with the minority Swedish People’s Party, the only one of the five partners in the current coalition government not to lose popular support.
During the campaign, the prime minister framed the election as a battle of values between the left and the right, implying that the only way to avoid a far-right victory was to vote for the SDP.
This appeal, directed mainly at the undecided, led traditional Green and Left Alliance voters to vote for the Social Democrats to rein in the right.
As a result, the Greens lost seven of their 20 seats in parliament, and the Left Alliance, five of 16, making it difficult for them to be considered for the next coalition government.
The Center Party, one of the political forces with the longest tradition in the country, lost eight of the 31 deputies, with 11.3% of the votes, the worst result in the history of the political party.
Source: TSF
