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Sanna Marin suffers defeat in Finland election as SDP beaten into third place

The centre-left Social Democratic party (SDP), which Sanna Marin, the prime minister of Finland, led, was barely defeated into third place in a cliffhanger election by its conservative and far-right rivals.

When all of the ballots were tallied on Sunday, the populist, nation-first Finns party received 20.1% of the vote to the right-wing National Coalition party’s 20.8%. SDP in Marin received 19.9% of the vote. A 71.9% participation was recorded.

During her concession address, Marin congratulated the election winners while also praising an increase in her party’s vote share and expected number of MPs. She told her supporters in Helsinki, “It’s a really good achievement, even though I didn’t come first today.

The Finnish people have spoken through democracy, and the celebration of democracy is always a beautiful thing, she continued. We have excellent reason to be pleased with the outcome.

Petteri Orpo, the head of the NCP, said the outcome was a “big victory… a strong mandate for our policies,” adding that his party would be in charge of coalition negotiations. Riikka Purra, the leader of the Finns, hailed it as “an excellent result.

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“Since the largest party typically has the first opportunity to put together an alliance to win a majority, Marin’s four years as prime minister of Finland are now over, even though the SDP may still join the new government.

The NCP gained 48 seats in the 200-seat parliament of the Nordic nation, 10 more than in the previous assembly. The Finns received 46 seats, an increase of seven MPs, and the SDP received 43 seats, an improvement of three.

When Marin, 37, took over the SDP and the Finnish premiership in 2019, she broke the record for the world’s youngest prime minister. Marin has effectively guided Finland through the Covid pandemic and to the verge of joining NATO.

Fans hailed Marin as a rising star of the center-left and a role model for a new crop of young female leaders, and her resolve to enjoy a social life also made headlines. Her behavior has occasionally been criticized as being unsuitable for her position.

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Last year, after pictures and a video of her drinking and dancing with friends surfaced, she was compelled to apologize and submit to a drug test. However, she also defended her right to party.

Her personal popularity remained high, but with a predicted recession and rising inflation, the opposition leaders’ charges of excessive government borrowing and inflated public spending—as well as their promises to enact tough cutbacks, especially on welfare budgets—hit home.

While Purra, whose Finns party was a member of a coalition government from 2015 to 2017, said its priority was to cut non-EU immigration, it also pledged to focus on climate, crime, and energy policies if it were to join the new coalition. Orpo has pledged to reduce spending on unemployment and housing benefits.

The NCP leader, who previously stated that the party had not ruled out working with anyone, is now anticipated to begin reaching out to other leaders on Monday in an effort to start forming a new coalition government, a procedure that is anticipated to take several weeks.He could attempt to put together a right-leaning “blue-black” coalition with the Finns and one or more minor parties, but he could also decide to pursue a cross-spectrum “blue-red” alliance with the SDP and its supporters. Analysts believe that this result is most likely, despite the fact that the two parties have significant policy differences.

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The SDP and two of its current five-party coalition, the Greens and the Left Alliance, have already ruled out any alliance with the Finns, whom Marin referred to as being “openly racist” during the campaign, complicating his job.

The Swedish People’s Party, one of the two other parties, has also said it is “very unlikely” to collaborate with the far-right party. The Swedish People’s Party is a moderate party that represents Swedish-speaking Finns and is unconnected to the Swedish far-right party of the same name.

Agblor Courage

I am Courage Agblor, a writer, web designer, and publisher with a passion for education, culture, and truth. As a graduate with a bachelor's degree in education, I am dedicated to sharing knowledge that informs, inspires, and preserves the rich heritage of the Ewe people.

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