Finnish pm battles to stay in power in election

139
3
Finnish pm battles to stay in power in election

On March 24, 2023, Finland's prime minister Sanna Marin arrives at the EU's headquarters in Brussels for a summit. PHOTO AFP HELSINKI Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin, who became the world's youngest premier at 34 in 2019, is battling to stay in power in an election on Sunday as the country faces a recession and her challengers accuse her government of bloated public spending.

At home, she has been the subject of mundane political scrutiny, criticized by the opposition for her centre-left coalition's debt-fuelled spending and the media for her partying at a time when Europe's energy crisis hit Finland hard.

Marin believes that education and health services are the key to securing economic growth. Their rivals, Petteri Orpo of the right-wing National Coalition Party and Riikka Purra of the nationalist Finns Party, are calling for fiscal austerity to restore government finances.

The three parties are running neck-and-neck in opinion polls, with the most recent survey showing that the National Coalition leads with 19.8 percent of the support, ahead of Marin's Social Democrats and the Finns Party at 19.2 percent each.

While personally popular, it is not clear if her popularity will translate into victory for her party in the parliamentary election. In the year 2019 the Social Democrats won very little, with 17.7 percent of the vote.

In response to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Marin's government overturned decades of military non-alignment and led Finland to apply for membership of NATO, a move supported by almost all members of its parliament.

Both challengers say that Marin's five-party coalition didn't rein in public finances and promised to put an end to a cycle of borrowing if they win.

With public debt at 71 percent of GDP as of the third quarter of 2022, up from 65 percent when Marin took office in late 2019, mainly due to the spending to support businesses and households through the coronaviruses and the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Finland's indebtedness ranked 10th among the 20 euro zone nations, according to Eurostat.

Marin's Social Democrats believe that economic growth will help Finland get rid of debt and, if need be, raise taxes over spending cuts.

Finland's economy survived the COVID pandemic better than those in most European countries, but growth slowed down to 1.9 percent last year, and the country is expected to tip into a mild recession this year, while inflation peaked at 9.1 percent in December.

Orpo told Reuters that his priority was to put debt back on a healthy track, even if that meant painful cuts to welfare spending, such as unemployment benefits.

Any winner will need to form a coalition of several parties to get a majority in parliament, but there are no ties that have been confirmed before the vote.

ALSO READ: Finland urges diplomacy to achieve peace in Ukraine

Marin has rejected the idea of forming a government with the Finns Party, calling it openly racist during a debate in January - an accusation Purra sternly rejected.

There is nothing to hide, to be ashamed of or obscure in our values. Purra wrote on Twitter at the time that we are a nationalist and patriotic party.

Purra said in an interview with Reuters that her priority was to reduce immigration from developing countries outside the EU, making it harmful for the country.

Her party would push back Finland's carbon neutrality target, which Marin's ruling coalition set for 2035.

The results from advance voting will be released on Sunday at 0600 GMT, with early results from advance voting due to end on Tuesday, when the vote closes at 1700 GMT.