news Sanna Marin concedes defeat in Finland election

[midnightdawn]

Finland’s prime minister, Sanna Marin, has lost her battle to stay in power after her centre-left Social Democratic party (SDP) was narrowly beaten into third place in a cliffhanger election by its conservative and far-right rivals.

With 99.4% of votes counted on Sunday, the right-wing National Coalition party was on course to secure 20.7% of the vote, with the populist, nation-first Finns party predicted to score 20.1%. Marin’s SDP was forecast to collect 19.9%.

Marin congratulated the election winners during her concession speech, but hailed an improvement in both her party’s vote share and its projected number of MPs. “It’s a really good achievement, even though I didn’t finish first today,” she told supporters in Helsinki.

“Democracy has spoken, the Finnish people have cast their vote, and the celebration of democracy is always a wonderful thing,” she added. “We have good reason to be happy about this result.”

The NCP’s leader, Petteri Orpo, told the public broadcaster, Yle, that the result was a “big victory … a strong mandate for our policies”, adding that his party would be leading the coalition talks. Finns leader Riikka Purra called it an “an excellent result”.

The largest party traditionally gets the first shot at forming a coalition to obtain a majority, meaning Marin’s four-year term as Finland’s prime minister has come to a close – even if the SDP could yet form part of the new coalition.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/02/sanna-marin-finland-election-sdp-social-democratic-national-coalition

[Leppie]

Finland is not governed by a rightwing/conservative party? 

[Peroxide]

The rise of nationalism across Europe - even in progressive nations like Finland, Denmark etc is absolutely mortifying.

[Communion]

Wasn't she the latest example of liberals trying to argue social democracy is better and more effective than socialism? And now she's fallen into 3rd behind a far-right party with the conservatives being the one to now build a coalition of their choice? 

[ClashAndBurn]

Huh. I wonder if this means the far right might scuttle Finland's accession to NATO.

[AMIT]

"Social Democracy" taking yet another big fat L? Who could have seen this coming?! 

 

[Bears01]

34 minutes ago, ClashAndBurn said:

Huh. I wonder if this means the far right might scuttle Finland's accession to NATO.

Nothing at all. They Conservative party in Finland is extremely pro NATO

[ClashAndBurn]

3 minutes ago, Bears01 said:

Nothing at all. They Conservative party in Finland is extremely pro NATO

They may be forming a coalition government with the far-right Finns Party, though. So I wouldn't consider it a guarantee one way or the other.  

[Bears01]

22 minutes ago, ClashAndBurn said:

They may be forming a coalition government with the far-right Finns Party, though. So I wouldn't consider it a guarantee one way or the other.  

I don’t think it’ll have any effect whatsoever in regards to NATO. The leader of the Conservative party was one of the biggest leaders in trying to push Finland to joining in the first place, and with turkey already approving them, that ship has sailed. They’ll be in with no problems. 
 

Now as far as supporting Ukraine with $$ and weapons? That’s a good question 

[Harrier]

1 hour ago, Communion said:

Wasn't she the latest example of liberals trying to argue social democracy is better and more effective than socialism? And now she's fallen into 3rd behind a far-right party with the conservatives being the one to now build a coalition of their choice? 

Uhuh because socialist parties have never lost elections  

[Communion]

12 minutes ago, Harrier said:

Uhuh because socialist parties have never lost elections  

Folding into making the argument of "Electoral politics are shaped to consolidate power to the right and ALL opposing parties thus lose often" is not exactly a ringing endorsement of electoralism as a strategy!

[anti-bitch]

2 hours ago, ClashAndBurn said:

Huh. I wonder if this means the far right might scuttle Finland's accession to NATO.

No. I mean, I live in Finland. The Finns party is totally behind NATO accession as well. They like NATO more than EU, I think. Immigration is a much bigger topic/issue for them. And it's a similar situation in Sweden with the conservatives. But otherwise, I'm just shocked to see Finnish elections making headlines abroad. Definitely Sanna Marin's impact there. I think the left here lost mainly because of the government spending over the last few years. Now the National Coalition Party wants to end the spending and increasing debt. But for example, many of them voted in favor of the new transgender law recently, so they are quite liberal in social issues. The Finns are more conservative in almost every topic.

 

And to @Bears01 too, I wanna say that the Finns are more critical of the EU funding system (Finland always being one of the net payers) than the funding of Ukraine and sending arms there. The National Coalition support EU very much. People gotta be careful when talking about the Finnish conservatives because there's two parties that are very different. NCP supports immigration and refugee entry. Dare I say that the NCP is closer to Democrats and the Finns are more like Republicans. Sanna Marin's SDP is like Bernie Sanders left. Idk what Sanna's future is but I'd like to see her stay in politics. The Finnish left needs her.

[anti-bitch]

And it's not over for SDP. They could still be in the government. They gained 3 seats in the parliament (43 total). NCP 48 seats. Finns 46 seats. So it's very close between the big three. And the rest are far behind. Sanna has already said that SDP can't be in the same government as the Finns, because their values are so different, so that leaves the Nation Coalition Party as their only partner option. Petteri Orpo from NCP will be the new prime minister and he will lead the negotiations for forming the new government. The Finnish parliament has 200 seats, so the government should have at least 101 seats to achieve majority. They will most likely need to include some smaller parties to achieve this, because I don't think the big three can get along.

Edited April 3, 2023 by anti-bitch

[anti-bitch]

3 hours ago, AMIT said:

"Social Democracy" taking yet another big fat L? Who could have seen this coming?! 

 

Literally everyone on both sides in Finland support tax paid schools, healthcare and social security though. So it's not an L at Social Democracy at all. The SDP party actually gained 3 seats from compared to 2019. It was the Moderates/Center, the Greens and Left Alliance that lost big time. Government spending and immigration were the biggest topics here this time. Everyone here wants to maintain the welfare state, that's not the issue.

 

 

Edited April 3, 2023 by anti-bitch

[AMIT]

45 minutes ago, anti-***** said:

Literally everyone on both sides in Finland support tax paid schools, healthcare and social security though. So it's not an L at Social Democracy at all. The SDP party actually gained 3 seats from compared to 2019. It was the Moderates/Center, the Greens and Left Alliance that lost big time. Government spending and immigration were the biggest topics here this time. Everyone here wants to maintain the welfare state, that's not the issue.

 

 

That picture shows they are no longer in the majority though and actually are #3 right now. They might not have lost as much as some others, but that still doesn't mean this isn't a loss in general. 

 

Also who do you mean by "everyone"? Surely if a welfare state was everyone's priority the results would have been stronger for the party that represents it the most? 

 

Making people scared of immigration is a right-wing tactic not confined to Finland. This outcome shows they were successful with that rethoric and are increasingly getting closer to dismantling this flimsy ''welfare state'' (which btw is based on the ruling class putting more pressure on underdeveloping countries anyway. This is hardly a net positive overall, much less an ideal end point for the working class to set its focus on).

[anti-bitch]

33 minutes ago, AMIT said:

 

 

Also who do you mean by "everyone"? Surely if a welfare state was everyone's priority the results would have been stronger for the party that represents it the most? 

 

Making people scared of immigration is a right-wing tactic not confined to Finland. This outcome shows they were successful with that rethoric and are increasingly getting closer to dismantling this flimsy ''welfare state'' (which btw is based on the ruling class putting more pressure on underdeveloping countries anyway. This is hardly a net positive overall, much less an ideal end point for the working class to set its focus on).

The issue was the funding of the welfare state, not the idea of one itself. The election winner, the National Coalition, wants to cut spending, but also lower taxes for people. They think the dynamic effect of lower taxes will help people's consuming power and the economy at large. They've always been the businessmen's party of choice really.  But they still support tax paid school and healthcare etc. So there's nothing "flimsy" about the welfare state here, especially when it comes largely from our own raw materials and tech sales and exports. I don't think Finland has been exploiting the global South anywhere near to the extent of other western nations. Ofc we could always be more fair.
 

And one fact to mention here is that although SDP ended up as third overall, this is only the third time in Finland's history that the incumbent prime minister's party gains seats in an election. They usually always lose seats because people like to blame everything on the current prime minister in any given election.

 

The Finns party is relatively new to power in Finland. They've been popular since 2011. It follows the trend of anti-immigration movements rising around Europe over the past decade. It's almost like the protest party. If people don't know who to vote they vote for them. They are the blue collar worker's choice. And that's how they can use the anti-immigration rethoric. Like, "these people are coming here and take your jobs. And also living off our welfare and benefits." That's what they say. And unfortunately many people buy it.

 

[AMIT]

18 minutes ago, anti-***** said:

The issue was the funding of the welfare state, not the idea of one itself. The election winner, the National Coalition, wants to cut spending, but also lower taxes for people. They think the dynamic effect of lower taxes will help people's consuming power and the economy at large. They've always been the businessmen's party of choice really.  But they still support tax paid school and healthcare etc. So there's nothing "flimsy" about the welfare state here, especially when it comes largely from our own raw materials and tech sales and exports. I don't think Finland has been exploiting the global South anywhere near to the extent of other western nations. Ofc we could always be more fair.
 

And one fact to mention here is that although SDP ended up as third overall, this is only the third time in Finland's history that the incumbent prime minister's party gains seats in an election. They usually always lose seats because people like to blame everything on the current prime minister in any given election.

 

The Finns party is relatively new to power in Finland. They've been popular since 2011. It follows the trend of anti-immigration movements rising around Europe over the past decade. It's almost like the protest party. If people don't know who to vote they vote for them. They are the blue collar worker's choice. And that's how they can use the anti-immigration rethoric. Like, "these people are coming here and take your jobs. And also living off our welfare and benefits." That's what they say. And unfortunately many people buy it.

 

Welfare states are always flimsy. They are at odds with what the ruling class desires and they are granted for the working class by means of concessions, but the social benefits are always at the mercy of being cut when things get rough, or just whenever really, meanwhile when they don't it is the countries of the global south taking the brunt of it by means of unequal exchange and exploitation of their work force and natural resources. 

 

I don't know much about Finland in particular, I just have a disdain for Social Democracy in general, and as far as I'm aware it hasn't ever been the success story its supporters want us to believe it is. In my opinion it is unsustainable because giving people free stuff just completely undermines capitalism's profit motive that keeps its engines running. 

 

I appreciate your insight on the political sphere of the country and am always hoping for the best. But unfortunately there's no way things will improve at large for the workers anywhere until we get rid of capitalism. Social democracy and the welfare states are just trying to circumvent an issue that is caused by the very premises of the system itself. There's no way around it that doesn't directly or indirectly negatively impact others from the same class.