Europe | Reversion to form

Sanna Marin concedes defeat in Finland

The centre-right and hard right may now team up

IT BECAME THE defining image of the Finnish election campaign: Sanna Marin, the Social Democratic prime minister, and Riikka Purra, leader of the hard-right Finns Party, wagging their fingers furiously at each other during a televised debate. Yet in the end the winner was neither Ms Marin nor Ms Purra, but the third candidate in the debate. Petteri Orpo’s centre-right National Coalition party narrowly won Finland’s general election on April 2nd, taking 20.8% of the vote to the Finns’ 20.1% and the Social Democrats’ 19.9%. Mr Orpo now faces the tricky task of forming a governing coalition.

This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “Back to grey”

From the April 8th 2023 edition

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