Finnish Ruling Coalition at Risk as Soini Faces Confidence Vote
Finnish Ruling Coalition at Risk as Soini Faces Confidence Vote
(Bloomberg) -- Finland’s Foreign Minister Timo Soini faces a no-confidence vote on Friday that could break apart the ruling coalition, the leader of his party said.
Should the parliament vote to oust Soini, the government’s junior member, Blue Reform, would quit the coalition, party leader Sampo Terho said to state-owned broadcaster YLE. That would reduce the government to two parties with less than half the seats in the 200-member legislature.
Soini, former leader of The Finns party that split in June 2017, took part in an anti-abortion rally in Canada in May while on an official trip, prompting an outcry in Finland. While Soini was chastised by the Chancellor of Justice Tuomas Poysti on Tuesday, he didn’t breach the law, Poysti said.
The last Finnish government to collapse in a confidence vote was in 1958, when Prime Minister Rainer von Fieandt’s cabinet was overturned, according to the parliament.
To contact the reporter on this story: Kati Pohjanpalo in Helsinki at kpohjanpalo@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tasneem Hanfi Brögger at tbrogger@bloomberg.net, Jonas Bergman
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