(Helsinki) After nearly two months of tumultuous negotiations, the far right is back in Finland: the conservative leader has announced that he will govern the country alongside the Party of Finns, creating a new anti-immigration party in power in Europe.
Petteri Orpo, at the head of the National Coalition (centre right) has formed a government coalition with the Party of the Finns, the far-right formation that came second in the legislative elections, as well as two other small right-wing parties.
The four parties have 108 of the 200 seats in Parliament.
“I am proud of the good program and the result of the negotiations. All questions have been answered,” he told the press in Helsinki on Thursday, in the presence of the leaders of the three other parties with which he will form a government.
The coalition talks, which began on May 2 and usually last on average a month, have been longer due to differences especially on climate policy and immigration, but also on development aid.
“We had disagreements on some points and I’m sure we still have some, but what unites us is that we want to put Finland in order,” said the prime minister-designate.
This is not the first time that such an alliance has been set up between these political parties.
The right has already governed with the Party of Finns (ex-True Finns) between 2015 and 2017, the date of a split within the eurosceptic formation which had resulted in a harder line.
Members of coalitions in the Finnish Parliament traditionally inherit ministerial positions, and the second party in power usually takes the position of finance minister.
“Unpredictable”
Mr. Orpo, whose main electoral promise was a savings plan of six billion euros, said he would unveil his program on Friday.
“Finland is in a very difficult situation. We had to look for savings everywhere,” he insisted.
But governing with the far right could prove “unpredictable”, said Mikko Majander, political scientist at the Magma think tank, to AFP.
Especially since their electoral base does not look favorably on the austerity promised by Prime Minister-designate Petteri Orpo.
According to Mr Majander, the other difficulties will concern European affairs.
“Especially when it comes to joint debt. Finland in general doesn’t want it, but the Party of Finns has a harder line than the pro-EU National Coalition,” he told AFP.
Indeed, hitherto allied with the European Parliament of the French National Rally (RN) or even the Italian League within the Identity and Democracy group, the Party of Finns announced at the beginning of April that it would join the eurosceptic group of European conservatives and reformists, which include in particular the Polish nationalist formation “Law and Justice” and the “Brothers of Italy” of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
Established for more than twenty years in Finnish political life, the party is classified between the sovereignist right and the extreme right by political scientists. He is also a climate skeptic and wants to push back Finland’s goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2035.
A long-term campaigner for a “Fixit” – Finland’s exit from the European Union – the group has shifted in recent years from a mainly Eurosceptic discourse to an anti-immigration priority.
The far-right party reached a record score of 20.1% of the vote in the April 2 legislative elections.