General elections in Finland: the centre-right brings down outgoing Prime Minister Sanna Marin

National Coalition party leader Petteri Orpo celebrating his party's victory in the general elections in Finland, April 2, 2023. © Lehtikuva/Antti Aimo-Koivisto via REUTERS

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3 min

The National Coalition party (centre-right) won the general elections in Finland on Sunday 2nd April after a very close election in which the nationalists, who could enter government, reached a record.

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It's a great victory Petteri Orpo, a 53-year-old former minister, said to cheers from supporters. "We are going to start negotiations for a government in Finland," said the man who now has the opportunity to forge an alliance to the left with outgoing Prime Minister Sanna Marin or with Riikka Purra's anti-immigration and eurosceptic Finns party. Petteri Orpo had led the polls during the campaign before seeing his lead melt away in the final sprint.

The candidate of the party that came first traditionally inherits the post of Prime Minister in Finland, provided that he can win a majority in Parliament. The formation of a government usually takes several weeks or even months. Sanna Marin is expected to take over as interim next week when Finland officially joins NATO.

According to almost final results of more than 98% of the vote, the National Coalition party came out ahead with 48 of the 200 seats in Parliament, ahead of the Finns Party (46) and the Social Democrats (43). The differences in votes are small: 20.8% for the centre-right, 20.1% for the far right, and 19.9% for Sanna Marin's SDP. The three parties are making progress compared to the last elections in 2019, in a three-way battle that overshadowed the results of the other parties.

Despite a progression compared to the 2019 elections, 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. Popular abroad as in Finland, she has established herself as a "rock star prime minister" but she is more divisive in her country, where she has been criticised over public finances and inflation. The youngest head of government in the world when she came to power at the end of 2019, she was praised for her good management of the Covid-19 pandemic and the NATO accession process, and for her stance against neighboring Russia.

Best score of the far right in Finland

Greeted with cries of "Finland! Finland! Riikka Purra congratulated herself in front of her supporters on the "best electoral result" in the history of the nationalist party. The 45-year-old nationalist leader even had the luxury of rallying the most votes on her name, with about 38,000 against 35,000 for the popular Sanna Marin. Installed for more than 20 years in Finnish political life, the far right has beaten its record of 19.05% dating back to 2011, in the wake of the populist wave that has swept through Europe in recent years. "We don't have a far-right party in Finland," Orpo told the foreign press, while an alliance with the nationalists is considered likely.

These parliamentary elections in the country of 5.5 million inhabitants coincide with the official entry of the country bordering Russia into NATO, expected in the coming days. The election does not change anything from the point of view of the military alliance: all the major parties, including the Finns party, are now in favour of it since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.

(

With AFP)

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