With a post-pandemic recession looming and their enormous neighbour to the east, Russia, conducting a brutal war in Ukraine, the Finns have played it safe. The centre-right leader Petteri Orpo has the support of the Finnish voters because of his decades-long track record of integrity in party politics.
Petteri Won The Election
Orpo persuaded voters that the Finnish economy was in danger and that Finland needed a steady hand, not his free-spirited and extravagant rival Sanna Marin.The move will signal a significant shift in the political climate in Finland and throughout the rest of Europe. Last year, a video of Marin, a well-known figure on the left of EU politics, dancing boisterously at a party with friends, landed her in hot trouble. However, it was the government’s standing on fiscal matters that ultimately cost her.
The get-it-done image of Orpo prevailed in the race on Sunday. He tapped into deeply ingrained (if banal) concerns about the growing national debt in Finland and offered real (if ordinary) remedies like cuts to public services.
As the vote count came to a close, Orpo declared, “We are starting government negotiations with the economy as the core issue.”
Orpo, 53, has spent most of his tenure working in the background of more prominent figures, such as President Sauli Niinistö of the National Coalition Party and former Prime Minister Alexander Stubb. Not to mention Marin, the departing premier.
Who Is Petteri Orpo?
The leader of the major opposition party, Orpo, is a centre-right NCP who has steadily risen through the ranks after serving in important supporting ministerial positions.
The alliance talks will present Orpo with a crucial early chance to demonstrate his ability to handle high-stakes politics. It would be a significant early accomplishment, say observers, if he is able to reach a compromise that appeases both the conservative and liberal factions of the NCP.
University of Helsinki political scientist Teivo Teivainen predicts that Orpo will face internal pressure to first attempt to reach an agreement with the Social Democrats rather than the Finns Party, which is anti-immigration.If he ends up forming a government with the Social Democrats, Teivainen said it will be beneficial for him to be able to demonstrate that he made a concerted effort to first create a right-wing alliance.
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