Finland Poised for Rare Turn Left as Election Race Tightens
Finland Poised for Rare Turn Left as Election Race Tightens
(Bloomberg) -- Finland is about to take a step to the left, a rare occurrence in Europe’s recent political history, with the Social Democratic Party favored to emerge as the biggest after Sunday’s election.
Latest polls show the SDP holding on to a narrowing lead, with two center-right parties and the anti-immigrant Finns party in a neck-and-neck race for second place.
A Social Democratic win would give leader Antti Rinne the first attempt to form a government and become the party’s first prime minister in 16 years. Public support for the current opposition has been fueled by discontent with the Center Party of Prime Minister Juha Sipila, a millionaire who has pushed through painful reforms in a successful attempt to restore the country’s economic fortunes.
Many voters are also frustrated with a failure to pass a health-care reform that’s been more than a decade in the making. A recent uproar over neglect at private elderly care homes has also hurt the National Coalition Party, a champion of privatization.
Taisto Oksanen, a 55-year-old well-known actor from Helsinki, said he considered voting for the left to protest against a lost “sense of fairness” and a “business first” mentality.
“Spending is being cut while Finland is richer than it’s ever been before,” Oksanen said on the street near parliament in the Finnish capital. “Where’s all the money going?”
An increasingly fragmented political landscape means coalition building may prove tricky. The populist Finns Party has seen its support surge during the campaign, but most parties don’t want to cooperate with the group, which has become more stridently anti-immigrant under the leadership of Jussi Halla-aho.
About a third of the country’s just under 4.3 million eligible voters have already cast their ballots, but many are still trying to decide.
“Many are still looking for a party” to vote for, said Kimmo Gronlund, professor of political science at Abo Akademi University. “So a lot can still happen.”
The most likely outcome is a Social Democrat-led coalition supported by the center-right National Coalition of Finance Minister Petteri Orpo, the Greens and the Swedish People’s Party, a group representing Finland’s linguistic minority.
The Social Democrats are pushing for spending increases, especially in education, and higher taxes. The party will need to square that with slowing economic growth and the need to create at least 100,000 new jobs over the next four years to balance the impact of an aging population on public finances. Their potential coalition partners, the National Coalition, want to cut taxes instead.
Among those opposing the Social Democrats is Tommi Hintikka, a 32-year-old who accuses them of being too close to the unions. The party is “too focused on taking something away from people instead of creating new opportunities,” the sales representative from Helsinki said.
Voting closes at 8 p.m. on Sunday. While no exit polls are released, the advance vote results will be revealed as the voting booths close, which give a good indication of where things are heading.
To contact the reporters on this story: Kati Pohjanpalo in Helsinki at kpohjanpalo@bloomberg.net;Leo Laikola in Helsinki at llaikola@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jonas Bergman at jbergman@bloomberg.net, Nick Rigillo
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