The center-right won Sunday’s legislative elections in Finland, narrowly ahead of the nationalist party and then the social democrats of Sanna Marin, who thus lost his post as Prime Minister, according to an estimate by radio and television Yle. According to the projection of the public broadcaster, usually close to the final result, the National Coalition party of Petteri Orpo would obtain the most seats, with 48 deputies, ahead of the anti-immigration party of the Finns with a new record of 46 seats. and the Social Democratic SDP (43).
The party candidate who arrives first traditionally inherits the post of Prime Minister in Finland, provided that he can muster a majority in Parliament. Center-right National Coalition party leader Petteri Orpo claimed victory. “It’s a big victory,” the 53-year-old former minister said to cheers from his supporters. “We are going to start negotiations for a government in Finland,” said the man who now has the possibility of forging a left-wing alliance with Sanna Marin or with the anti-immigration and eurosceptic Finns party of Riikka Purra.
According to almost final results with more than 98% of the vote, the National Coalition party comes first with 48 of the 200 seats in Parliament, ahead of the Finns party (46) and the Social Democrats (43). The differences in votes are just as tenuous: 20.8% for the center-right, 20.1% for the far-right, and 19.9% ??for Ms. Marin’s SDP.
The outgoing Prime Minister has admitted defeat. “Congratulations to the winner of the elections, congratulations to the National Coalition, congratulations to the Party of Finns, democracy has spoken,” said the 37-year-old leader.
The three parties are indeed progressing compared to the last elections in 2019, with a record promised to the nationalists of the Finns party. 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 offered herself the luxury of winning the most votes for her name, with around 38,000 against 35,000 for the popular Sanna Marin.