Finland Nears Conservative Cabinet That Includes Far Right

Kati Pohjanpalo and Leo Laikola
·4 min read
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(Bloomberg) -- Finland is closer to replacing a left-leaning cabinet with a coalition government that would bring together parties from the fiscally conservative end of the political spectrum, including a far-right force.

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In a move mirroring a shift that took place last year in neighboring Sweden, the negotiations in Finland target a cabinet deal between election winner National Coalition Party, the anti-immigration Finns Party and two junior partners following a general election on April 2.

The move was announced by National Coalition leader Petteri Orpo, the likely next prime minister, on Thursday in Helsinki. Formal negotiations will begin May 2, he said.

“Building the whole package of austerity measures will be the biggest challenge,” Orpo told reporters. “Doing so in a way that won’t hamper economic growth or create an unreasonable burden for anyone, that’s going to be hard.”

A right-of-center government would probably cut spending with the goal of reducing or ending a continued shortfall in budgets since 2009. The inability to generate surpluses has pushed up public debt to more than 70% of gross domestic product and inflamed anxiety over finances in the Nordic nation with a relatively elderly population. Taxes would more likely be reduced than increased should the four parties join forces.

“Longer out, if the next government manages to put Finnish public finances on a sustainable footing, as seems to be the priority among the parties participating in the formation talks, that should have positive consequences for the outlook for Finnish credit ratings and bonds,” said Jan von Gerich, chief strategist at Nordea Bank Abp.

Bringing the populist Finns Party into the government would align with countries such as Italy, where Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni heads the most right-wing government since World War II, and closely resemble last year’s outcome in Sweden, where the far-right Sweden Democrats agreed to prop up a center-right minority government of Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson in parliament without actually taking part.

A staple of the Finnish politics since 2011, a predecessor of the Finns Party had joined a coalition government in 2015. Yet that setup had only its more moderate elements holding cabinet seats, with the extremists corralled off from power. When the party splintered in 2017, the more far-right faction was delegated into the opposition.

In Finland, there are no set political blocs and cabinets can even be formed by parties from opposite sides of the political spectrum if they manage to agree on a joint policy program. Shaping that program is the next step for Orpo, through formal talks with the Finns Party, led by Riikka Purra, and other potential coalition members, the Swedish People’s Party and the Christian Democrats.

“We are committed to forging a majority coalition with a program that we can all stand behind,” Purra said. “We have not yet found differences so big that they could not be overcome.”

With the Finns, the election winner is broadly in agreement on economic policy, but strongly at loggerheads on immigration and climate policies. The National Coalition wants to lure more workers into Finland, a policy rejected by the anti-immigration party.

On climate, the Finns Party has channeled the vote of those who think too much fuss is being made of reducing emissions, but Orpo’s group is unlikely to easily give into demands to reduce the ambition level on net zero targets. The outgoing Social Democrat-led government had set the aim of carbon neutrality by 2035, which would make it “the world’s first fossil-free welfare society.”

There’s a risk that the talks to form a government may still face a dead-end or even fail altogether, which means, political uncertainty in Finland remains “slightly elevated,” Nordea’s von Gerich said.

The biggest question mark concerns tightening rules on immigration, where the Finns Party seeks to make major inroads. Such an agreement can be tough for Orpo’s party that’s instead sought to boost immigration faced with the prospect of the population starting to shrink.

“This is an extremely important matter for us — immigration that threatens security and the economy,” Purra said. “Yet, we don’t oppose all immigration. There’s bound to be some scope for seeking agreement on some work-based immigration as well.”

(Adds analyst comments from sixth paragraph.)

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