Helsinki, April 14
Finns voted on Sunday in a general election where anti-austerity sentiment looked set to propel the Social Democratic Party to the head of the government after 16 years.
The left-wing party leads Finland’s two main opinion polls with about 19 per cent of the vote, having campaigned against the steep cost-cutting of Prime Minister Juha Sipila of the Centre Party and Finance Minister Petteri Orpo — leader of the conservative National Coalition Party.
But the far-right Finns Party, led by Member of European Parliament for Finalnd, Jussi Halla-aho, has seen a surge in support in the recent months during an anti-immigration dominated campaign, urging people to “vote for some borders”.
The polls show the Finns Party ending up at the second or third place, meaning it could hold significant influence in the talks to form the next government, which in Finland is typically a coalition of three or four parties.
The current government’s cuts to Finland’s prized education system and a tightening of unemployment benefit criteria provoked public opposition. Outside a polling station in central Helsinki on Sunday morning, a resident said, “There have been a lot of cuts in areas they promised they wouldn’t.”
Petteri Orpo, leader of the conservative National Coalition Party, has denounced the Social Democratic Party’s anti-austerity plans as “irresponsible”. However, in a tacit acknowledgement that the public mood is against further belt-tightening, Orpo has insisted the economy is now strong enough to allow for some more generous public spending. The heated debate in the run-up to the vote led some analysts to predict that turnout will be high. A record 1.5 million Finns — over a third of the electorate — had already cast their vote. On Sunday, queues were reported at some polling stations in the capital.
Around lunchtime, leaders of the main parties were seen casting their ballots in their constituencies — Halla-aho in Helsinki, Rinne in the town of Mantsala in the south, and Petteri Orpo in the southwest city of Turku.
Opinion polls suggest the Social Democrats’ lead has narrowed in recent weeks to as little as two points, ahead of the National Coalition and Finns Party which are battling it out for second place.
The Finns Party, which is anti-immigration, decries the “climate hysteria” of other parties seeking action against global warming.
The major parties have all expressed strong reservations about joining a government with the Finns Party, whose policies lurched to the right after Halla-aho became leader in 2017.
However, the Social Democratic Party may face tough economic conditions in which to implement its anti-austerity promises: many economic forecasts suggest Finland’s GDP growth will slow in the coming years. Immigration became a hot election topic following outrage in January over highly publicised reports of an alleged string of sexual assaults by immigrant men. — AFP
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