The leader of the Finnish Conservative Party and Prime Minister-designate, Petteri Orpo, announced on Thursday June 15 that he had reached a government coalition agreement with three other parties, including the far-right party, after the April legislative elections. “I am proud of the good program and the result of the negotiations. All questions answered »he told the press in Helsinki, in the presence of the leaders of the three other formations.
Petteri Orpo, at the head of the National Coalition (center right), has formed a government coalition with the Finns Party, 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. Mr. Orpo, whose main electoral promise was a savings plan of 6 billion euros, said he would unveil his program on Friday.
The coalition talks, which usually last on average a month, have been longer due to differences especially on climate policy and immigration. “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”underlined the prime minister-designate.
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. The party reached a record score of 20.1% of the vote in the April 2 legislative elections.