COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — The head of Finland’s center-right National Coalition Party announced an agreement Friday with three other parties for a governing coalition that includes an anti-immigration party, saying that the new NATO member country needs budget cuts and curbs on immigration.
NCP leader Petteri Orpo is expected to become the Nordic nation’s next prime minister under the accord with the Finns Party, which came in second in April elections vowing to curb immigration, and with the Christian Democrats and the Swedish People’s Party of Finland.
The four parties hold 108 seats out of 200 in the Finnish parliament, Eduskunta.
“Our goal is a strong and caring Finland,” Orpo said. “Russia is still at war with Ukraine. We have high interest rates, we have inflation, a debt crisis and the government’s debt situation, we have big challenges.”
The future government should make “significant reforms” to social security and the labor market, and should cut the government budget by 6 billion euros ($6.5 billion) by the end of its four-year term, he said.
At the same time, Finland should opt for a tougher immigration line, said the leader of the Finns, Riikka Purra, which ran largely on an anti-European Union and anti-immigration agenda.
She called for stricter asylum policy, time-limited protection of asylum-seekers, mandatory integration and plans to reduce the number of quota refugees, saying those policies would amount to “a paradigm shift.”
The 140-page agreement reached among the four parties over seven weeks of negotiation is called “A strong and committed Finland,” Orpo said.
The four parties must approve the program, which they were expected to do over the weekend, before appointing a government comprised of a prime minister and 18 other ministers.
The new government is expected to take office next week. No positions were announced, but Orpo’s party would take the prime minister, foreign affairs and defense slots, while the Finns will have the finance portfolio.
The future government would continue the Nordic country’s tough stance toward its eastern neighbor Russia with which it has a 1,340-kilometer (832-mile) border.
After weeks of sounding out all parties, Orpo said late Thursday that “we all realize that Finland is in a difficult situation, the economy and health care are in crisis, Russia’s war is ongoing, inflation and interest rates have increased.”
Political analyst Juho Rahkonen said it seems that “we have a more right-wing government than perhaps ever before,” a contrast to outgoing Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s five-party center-left coalition.
Rahkonen noted that talks to form a government usually take less than a month, but this time lasted longer. The negotiations proved challenging on the topics of immigration, development aid and the climate, where the Finns clashed in particular with the smaller Swedish People’s Party.
Rahkonen said coalition parties often have opposite views. “I’m not sure if I can predict (a) very long lifespan. Already during the negotiations, we saw serious clashes.”
NCP, Finland’s main conservative party, claimed victory in the parliamentary elections with 20.8% of the vote, in a tight three-way race that saw the Finns take second place. Marin’s Social Democratic Party came in third, dashing her hopes for reelection.
The nationalist Finns received 20.1% of the vote.
The election to renew the Eduskunta was largely fought over economic issues, with voters in the nation of 5.5 million- which became NATO’s 31st member on April 4 - shifting their allegiances to parties on the political right as they seek solutions to rising state debt, inflation and other economic problems.
At the end of March, Finland’s government debt stood at around 146 billion euros ($159 billion), or some 55% of GDP, compared to around 106 billion euros at the end of 2019 when Marin’s center-left government took office.
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