Finns Party Wins Big In Parliamentary Elections
The Nationalist Finns Party managed
to grab the second highest number of seats in the Parliamentary elections. The
chairman of the populist Finns Party, Jussi Halla-aho, says that the
performance of his party surprised him. He called it a “day of joy” one which
he did not expect:
“I certainly could never have expected a
result like this. Honestly speaking, none of us expected this kind of result.”
The Finnish media now considers him
as a shoo-in for kingmaker of the next government because he received the most
votes by far of any candidate who ran for the Eduskunta legislature.
The race between the Finns Party and
the Social Democrats for first place was very tight. With 40 seats, a gain of
six, the Social Democrats and its leader Antti Rinne won to get their first
attempt to form a government. While, the
Finns Party won 39 seats, just one seat shy of the Social Democrats.
“Of course I wanted a better result,
I would have liked our result to be at least 20% or more. But with this result
we can lead the Finnish people towards a better future,” Rinne said.
Finns Party leader Jussi Halla-aho
said, “We are open to cooperation but not at any cost.”
Finns party was popular with rural
voters and young residents who were not impressed with the other parties’ platforms
on climate change.
Their campaign for immigration to be
reduced to near zero while decrying “climate hysteria” led to a surge of
support prior to elections. The Finns Party relayed to voters that aggressive
climate change policies are an elitist hoax that hurts the working class.
“We want a more moderate and sensible
climate policy that does not chase industries away from Finland to countries
like China,” party chairman Halla-aho said Sunday.
Finns also voted in the
most female lawmakers in their history with women now holding 92 out of
Parliament’s 200 seats, up from 83 in the last election.