Finland’s ‘most rightwing government ever’ to cut spending and immigration
Finland will slash spending, cut immigration and tighten up citizenship rules under a new four-party coalition government including the farright Finns party and headed by the conservative leader Petteri Orpo.
The coalition of Orpo’s National Coalition party (NCP), the Finns, the Swedish People’s party (RKP) and the Christian Democrats has a majority of 108 MPs in the 200-seat parliament and was unveiled on Friday after 11 weeks of sometimes stormy negotiations.
Analysts have described it as arguably the most rightwing administration in Finland’s history. A radical austerity programme has already been promised, and the Finns party is taking a hard line on development aid, the climate crisis and immigration.
“This is the result of hard work,” Orpo, the prime minister designate, told reporters in Helsinki. “A common line had to be found; trust and faith that these four parties can form a functioning government. But Finland needs change.”
The centre-right leader said the country’s “wellbeing is at stake, and therefore the government must be able to change pace. If Finland is strong and its economy is in order, we can take care of basic services and care for the weaker in society”.
Orpo, whose party – along with the RKP – favours work-based immigration as a way to boost the economy, appeared to have agreed to a crackdown on immigration to secure support for his projected €6bn in welfare and other savings.
“We’ve had to make cuts and savings even where we felt bad. But at the same time, we are making sure that tomorrow will be better,” he said.
The nationalist Finns party, which was previously in government from 2015 to 2017, will control seven of 19 ministries, public broadcaster YLE reported, including finance, foreign trade and development, social affairs, justice and the interior.
Its leader, Riikka Purra, said the incoming coalition had agreed to cut refugee quotas, raise the bar for workbased immigration, and make it more difficult for foreigners to obtain citizenship.
“I am delighted that together with our negotiating partners we have agreed on an immigration package that can rightly be called a paradigm shift in immigration policy,” Purra told reporters.
“Finland has been the only Nordic country with a looser immigration policy. This changes now.”
The government aims to halve the number of refugees it receives through the UN refugee agency from 1,050 a year to 500. It also plans to establish separate social security benefit systems for immigrants and permanent residents, which experts have said could violate the constitution.
The NCP won 48 seats in April’s
elections, with the Finns finishing on 46 and outgoing prime minister Sanna Marin’s centre-left SDP on 43, after a campaign marked by her rivals’ accusations of excessive state borrowing and public spending.