Finnish Far-Right Party Nominates Leader as Finance Minister

(Bloomberg) -- Finland’s anti-immigrant Finns Party put forth its leader Riikka Purra as the Nordic country’s next finance minister in the new cabinet that pledges to fix the Nordic nation’s ballooning debt.

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The nationalist force also decided to nominate its previous leader Jussi Halla-aho as the next speaker of the parliament, alongside the seven candidates for government roles, it said in a statement on Sunday. The election-winning National Coalition Party had named its own ministerial candidates earlier in the day, including Petteri Orpo for prime minister’s position, which has been widely expected.

Purra, a 45-year-old lawmaker and the leader of the euroskeptic party since 2021, was the biggest single vote-winner in the April general election where her populist Finns Party emerged as the parliament’s second-biggest group, replicating the success of its peers in neighboring Sweden and in Italy. The vote on confirming Orpo as the premier is due on Tuesday.

The new cabinet is facing its first challenge already before its being sworn in, as the country’s central bank said in a letter to Orpo on Saturday that the incoming goverment program violates national and European legislation by threatening central bank independence.

On Friday, Finland’s new ruling coalition announced a string of measures to strengthen the Nordic nation’s deteriorating public finances and boost growth, including through sales of state-owned assets.

Read More: Finland New Ruling Bloc Unveils Program Focused on Austerity

Among the other portfolios, the National Coalition nominated its deputy leader and lawmaker Elina Valtonen for foreign minister’s job, while another deputy and former justice minister Antti Hakkanen was put forward as defense minister.

(Updates with finance minister nomination.)

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