The Social Democrats have won the elections in Finland, narrowly beating the far right. It had been since 1999 that the centre-left last triumphed.
The Social Democrats won Sunday 14 April the legislative elections in Finland. It is the first time in twenty years that this has happened. The centre-left party – led by former Finance Minister Antti Rinne – narrowly edged out the far-right Finns Party. This left voters in the Scandinavian nation on tenterhooks for much of the evening of Sunday 14 April.
Between the two parties there was indeed a genuine neck-and-neck race. It ended with 40 seats – out of 200 – awarded to the Social Democrats (on the basis of 17.7 per cent of the vote), against the 39 that went to the far right. In percentage terms, the gap was just 0.2 percentage points.
It had been since 1999 that the centre-left had not won the legislative elections in Finland (at the time it was Paavo Lipponen who obtained the majority, and then led a coalition with the centre-right until 2003). This does not mean, however, that the party has not governed since then. On the contrary, the Social Democrats have taken part in numerous governments, without holding the position of prime minister.
The election campaign focused above all on the issues of climate change and the austerity policies imposed by the outgoing centre-right coalition. The latter was made up of the Centre Party of former prime minister Juha Sipilä, the National Coalition Party (right) and the Blue Reform party (Eurosceptics). The centrists are those who paid the heaviest price for their choices: their movement came in fourth place, losing a total of 18 seats.
As for the Finns Party, they had entered government in 2015, forming a coalition with the centre-right. This was on the basis of a "moderate" shift (in particular on the issue of Europe) that many activists had experienced as a betrayal. The party consequently experienced severe internal tensions and left the government in 2017. A split ensued, leading to the creation of New Alternative (later renamed Blue Reform), a movement that remained in government.
Jussi Halla-aho then took the helm of the Finns Party, staking everything on radical policies and anti-migrant proclamations. "I really wasn't expecting a result like this. Nobody was," the far-right leader commented after Sunday's elections.
The left (8.2 per cent) and the Greens (11.5 per cent) also achieved a strong result. But it is the first time in a century that no party has exceeded 20 per cent. This paints the picture of a politically highly fragmented country.
