Petteri Orpo, leader of the National Coalition Party, has won a close three-way election race in Finland, defeating Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s centre-left Social Democrats. Mr Orpo declared victory after a projection from public broadcaster YLE gave his party the most seats in parliament. Ms Marin conceded the election, despite her party increasing its share of seats.
The election was fought largely on Finland’s public debt and all the mainstream parties backed NATO membership. Ms Marin, 37, became the world’s youngest leader when she took office in 2019 and has been praised for her country’s response to Russia’s full-scale invasion. Despite her high poll ratings, a video of her singing, dancing and drinking at a party caused controversy last year. Supporters argued that the criticism was steeped in sexism, leading to women across Finland and the world sharing videos of themselves dancing in solidarity.
Riikka Purra, leader of the right-wing populist Finns Party, congratulated Mr Orpo on his victory and celebrated her party’s best result in history with 20% of the vote. The National Coalition Party is set to have the first opportunity in forming a government, as Finland’s system of proportional representation requires a coalition to have more than 100 seats in the 200-seat parliament.
Petteri Orpo has emerged victorious in a nail-biting three-way election race in Finland, defeating Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s centre-left Social Democrats. The leader of the National Coalition Party declared victory after a projection from public broadcaster YLE gave his party the most seats in parliament. Ms Marin conceded the election despite her party increasing its share of seats.
The election was largely fought on Finland’s public debt and all the mainstream parties backed NATO membership. Ms Marin became the world’s youngest leader when she took office in 2019 and has been praised for her country’s response to Russia’s full-scale invasion. However, a video of her singing, dancing and drinking at a party caused controversy last year, with supporters arguing that the criticism was steeped in sexism. This led to women across Finland and the world sharing videos of themselves dancing in solidarity.
Riikka Purra, leader of the right-wing populist Finns Party, congratulated Mr Orpo on his victory and celebrated her party’s best result in history with 20% of the vote. The National Coalition Party is set to have the first opportunity in forming a government, as Finland’s system of proportional representation requires a coalition to have more than 100 seats in the 200-seat parliament.
Mr Orpo’s victory marks a significant shift in Finnish politics and will bring about new changes for the country. It remains to be seen how his leadership will affect Finland’s relationship with its neighbours and its response to global issues.