In Finland, conservatives must choose between the far-right and social democrats after the opposition narrowly won parliamentary elections on Sunday.

Finland held elections on Sunday and talks to form a coalition government began on Monday. Kokomas, leader of the Conservative Party, Petteri OrboAspiring to be the next Prime Minister, he said that after winning the election, he would make all the parties sound to form a strong alliance that would get an absolute majority in Parliament.

To do this, because of the familiar fragmentation of the word, Agreements should be reached with at least two parties Decide whether to associate with the far right or join the Prime Minister’s Social Democratic Party. Sanna Marin. A third government partner could be the country’s fourth-largest political force, the Liberal Center Party, although on Sunday it had its worst election result in its history. Its leader and finance minister, Annika Sariko, confirmed that after this heavy defeat, her party will go into opposition because that is what the people want.

Conservative Kokomas led in Sunday’s elections, winning 48 of the 200 seats in parliament, ahead of the Finns party, which won 46. The Social Democratic Party got 43. Despite having better results than in 2019 and being Finland’s most popular prime minister of the century according to opinion polls, the victory did not give Marin enough representatives in parliament.

The far-right broke its record of 19.05 percent in these elections, established in more than 20 years of Finnish political life. FinlandA country of 5.5 million people, This causes a wave of nationalism to sweep across EuropeAfter conservatives came to power in neighboring Sweden and after the victory of the far right in Italy.

Economic reforms and cuts

Analysts agree that the Nordic country’s weak economic situation and its citizens’ loss of purchasing power due to inflation are key to explaining the success of the right-wing opposition. In a slight recession in the economy, the Inflation rose to eight percent And one Public debt equals 73 percent of GDPThe Conservatives’ priority is to carry out economic reforms and use aggressive austerity.

“We have a major issue and all parties in the next government are committed to reforming and fixing our economy,” said Petteri Orbo. To achieve this, the conservatives are in favor of reducing the tax burden and adjusting the budget by six billion euros over the next four years.

On this issue, the Kokoomus party is closer to the far-right than Sanna Marin’s Social Democrats, who have insisted they will not be part of a coalition that cuts education, health or social programs for the most disadvantaged. Some analysts point out that it may be difficult to find more partners among the smaller parties, as their popularity will suffer if they support the upcoming cuts.

The extreme-right sheds on point

The far-right party True Finns Led by Rika Burra There isin the beginning, A leading candidate to form an executive committee with the Conservatives, with whom they already reigned twice. Both organizations share a similar view on economic issues and are in favor of tackling the debt through the use of austerity.

Further Almost unanimously supported Finland’s NATO membership after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a graft that conservatives have been advocating for years. In addition, he would have no problem working with Conservative leader Drew Finns, because despite his racism and his ties to other European parties of this trend, such as the Italian League and the Alternative for Germany, he does not consider them to be far-right. .

According to Orpo, there are no far-right parties in Finland, although he, as finance minister, agreed with then-prime minister Juha Sybila in 2017 to expel True Finns from the government coalition. The formation’s turn to the extreme right was due to the election of Jussi Halla-Aho, a representative of the most radical faction and Burra’s main political adviser, as leader.

In any case, Negotiations between the two great powers of the right will not be easyAs they maintain great differences in matters such as Immigration And this European and environmental policies. The Conservatives are pro-European and want to attract workers from outside the EU to fill labor shortages, while the True Finns are Eurosceptic and their top priority is tightening immigration and asylum policies.