PHOTO: Emmi Korhonen/Lehtikuva. The election has been framed as a climate vote, an immigration ballot and as a referendum on Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s austerity politics
On April 14, 2019, Finnish citizens went to the polls for their parliamentary elections.
The center-left Social Democratic Party (SDP) took 17.7%, while the center-right Finns Party took 17.5%. The SDP won 40 seats in the 200-seat parliament, with Finns Party taking 39 seats.
In the last election in 2015, the Finns Party won 38 seats, but MPs split after a leadership election in 2017 and some were expelled from the party.
Last month, Prime Minister Sipila's government resigned over its failure to achieve a key policy goal on social welfare and healthcare reform. His Centre Party had been in a center-right coalition government since the last parliamentary elections in 2015.
Concerned about Finland's expensive welfare system in the face of an aging population, PM Sipila made tackling the nation's debt one of his government's main aims, introducing reforms he hoped would save up to €3bn (£2.6bn; $3.4bn) over a decade.
But while the introduction of austerity measures – such as benefits cuts and pension freezes – resulted in Finland reducing its government debt for the first time in a decade that year, the reforms proved politically controversial.
Meanwhile, the Social Democratic Party, a center-left party with strong links to Finland’s trade unions, saw its popularity grow. SDP leader Antti Rinne has previously described PM Sipila’s policies as unfair and that taxes needed to be raised to combat inequality.
Apart from taxes, immigration has become an important topic following reports of alleged sexual assaults by foreign men. As a result, support has risen for the Finns Party, which has promised to cut immigration and enforce stricter asylum rules. Other parties have also pledged to crack down on migrants who commit crime.
Another key issue was climate change. Following the release of an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), almost all parties have vowed to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees.
Finland is set to take presidency of the European Union in July, and the Finns Party’s success could affect EU policy-making. The Finns Party has already announced an alliance with Germany’s far-right AfD, Italy’s League party and Danish People’s Party for the European elections in May. They plan to form a parliamentary group, the European Alliance of People and Nations, to challenge the power of centrist parties.
BY MSEAP Cyber Secretariat (mseap@assembly.go.kr) |
