The outgoing Prime Minister of Finland, Sanna Marin, announced this Wednesday that she will step down as leader of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in September, after the defeat in the parliamentary elections on Sunday.
The SDP elected three more deputies than in 2019, but came third with 19.9% of the vote, behind the conservative National Coalition (20.8%) and the Finnish Party (20.1%, far right ).
“I have come to the conclusion that I will not run for another term as SDP leader at the next congress in September,” Marin told a news conference at the Helsinki Parliament, quoted by the French news agency AFP.
Marin, 37, said she would remain as a deputy but another leader would be chosen at the next party congress.
“Now is the time to rejoin the ranks and step down as party chairman,” Marin was quoted as saying by the Finnish daily Yle.
Marin also said he would resign from the government on Thursday, leaving conservative leader Petteri Orpo to form a new executive.
Orpo announced on Tuesday that he wants to start talks with all parties on the formation of a governing coalition.
Marín has said that he intends to represent the SDP in these talks and that his party “is prepared for the government.”
“We are tough negotiators, but as a party we can collaborate and we have taken responsibility for the government many times in Finnish history,” he said, according to Yle.
He warned, however, that the SDP is not available to integrate an executive that intends to make budget cuts of six billion euros in the next four years, as the Orpo announced during the electoral campaign.
“This would in no way be compatible with our electoral program,” he justified.
Marín ruled out the possibility of becoming a minister in the event that the SDP participates in the conservative government and that they do not offer her an international position, with the intention of continuing as a deputy.
He also admitted that Finland’s next government could be right-wing, claiming that the National Coalition and the Finnish Party got closer even before the election debates, according to Yle.
Referring to the “great honor” of leading the Government in the last three and a half years, the woman who became an internationally recognized figure during her tenure also confided that she lived through “exceptionally difficult times.”
“I must frankly admit that my own resistance has been tested during these years,” he told a news conference at parliament in Helsinki.
The elections that led to the removal of Sanna Marin took place two years before Finland became the 31st member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Abandoning a decades-old position of not joining military alliances, Finland and Sweden applied to join NATO in May 2022, some three years after Russia invaded Ukraine.
Sweden’s accession is still pending ratification by Türkiye and Hungary.
Source: TSF
