This Sunday, the center-right won a race General elections in Finland He will replace the Social Democrats led by the outgoing Prime Minister, Sana Marinafter a very close poll where the ultra-nationalists achieved a record result and could enter the next government.

Celebrate “It’s a great victory” Petrie Orbo53, former minister and leader of the National Coalition, winner of the elections, to cheers from his supporters.

“We will start negotiations to form a government in Finlandadded Orpo, who He has the option of forming a left-wing alliance with the Social Democratic Party in Marin (SDP) or the anti-immigrant, Eurosceptic Finnish Party..

According to roughly the final results after 98% of the votes were counted, the centre-right party came out on top 48 out of 200 seats in parliamentahead of the Finns’ party, which won 46 Of the seats the Social Democrats held 43.

Despite excelling in 2019 and being, according to opinion polls, Finland’s most popular prime minister of the century, this success did not secure Marín enough seats in parliament.

The outgoing Prime Minister, who in her days became the youngest head of government in the world at the age of 34, He admitted defeat on SundayHe said: “Congratulations to the winner of the elections, congratulations to the National Coalition, congratulations to the Finnish party, democracy has spoken,” he said.

“It made us proud. Before people made fun of us, we were considered an old school party,” said Mo Scheimer, a 26-year-old Social Democratic party activist.

The turnout in Sunday’s elections was 71.9%, similar to the previous 2019 elections.

traditionally, The formation with the most support among the eight major parties in parliament usually claims the post of prime minister and tries to form a government. Since the 1990s, this party has always held the position of prime minister.

The difference between the three parties was negligible: 20.8% for the center right, 20.1% for the far right, and 19.9% ​​for the Marin SDP.

In the welcome shouts of “Finland! Finland!” Ultranationalist leader Rica Pura In front of his followers, he congratulated himself on “the best electoral result” in the history of the Nationalist Party.

In more than 20 years in Finnish politics, the far right has broken its own record of 19.05% since 2011.

Thus, Finland, with a population of 5.5 million, is leading the nationalist wave sweeping across Europe, following the rise of conservatives to power in neighboring Sweden and the triumph of the far right in Italy.

Set to become the new prime minister after his election victory on Sunday, Petteri Urbu is a staunch advocate of budget toughness, which has become his number one priority.

In a Finland that is already an unofficial member of the club of “thrifty” or “stingers,” EU countries concerned about budgetary strictness, his arrival may spark some sparks with other partners in Brussels in a moment of paradigm shift. spending.

“The most important thing (…) is to stop increasing debt,” he told AFP on the sidelines of his election campaign.

Forming a government usually takes several weeks or even months, so Marin will have to serve as a caretaker next week when Finland officially joins NATO.

The election changes nothing from the point of view of the military alliance: all major parties, including the Finns, now support it since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

(With information from AFP/By Marc Brill and Elias Hotanen)

Read on: