The administrative map of Finland changes cycle. The Social Democratic Party (SDP) has won this Sunday the municipal and regional elections, in a victory that ends with two decades of conservative domain in Finnish municipalities. With more than 91% of the completed count, the party led by Antti Lindtman has achieved 23.2% of the votes in the municipal and 22.6% in the regional ones, thus surpassing the Kokoomus of the Prime Minister, Petteri Orpo, whose party has stayed with 21.3% and 19.7% of the ballots, respectively.
The municipal and regional victory of the SDP has been more comfortable than the last polls had planned, in which a more adjusted result was predicted. The SPD leader, Antti Lindtman, has not only celebrated the results of the training he directs but points out that with that achievement, the electorate sends a silence: “The Finns want to convey a message of change towards a more just society and want to send it, mainly, through the SDP,” he said before the press.
In addition to the social democratic ascent, the counting of local elections in Finland has also confirmed the collapse of the extreme right. True Finlands, which leads the Minister of Finance, Riikka Purra, and is also the main governing partner of the conservatives, has collapsed to the sixth position in both municipal and regional ones, with only 7.6% and 7.8% of the votes. A failure if compared to the legislative of 2023, where they had achieved 20.1% and were the second force of the country.
The collapse has left the true Finns from behind even their ideological rivals. The leftist alliance, which has obtained 9.5% in local elections and 9.2% in regional. The greens, meanwhile, have added 10.2 % and 8.5 %.
“If we look at the results, there is a clear red wave. In particular, leftist parties have gained strength, they have taken advantage of discontent with the economic policies and austerity of the government,” Purra has admitted. Even so, he has defended the Executive’s agenda: “The government line is correct,” he said, and added that his party needs to explain the reasons for his cuts better to his voters.
Another of the great movements of the day has starred in the center of Centro, a historic of Finnish politics. This liberal agricultural root formation has traced positions thanks to the thrust in rural areas, being third in the premises (16.8%) and surpassing conservatives in the regional ones, where it has reached 20.2%.
Elections in Finland: The keys
Analysts point to two keys to understand the electoral batacazo of the extreme right in Finland: on the one hand the demobilization of their voters in this type of election and, on the other, the discomfort that the cuts driven by the right -wing coalition have caused to reduce public debt and that has applied in public services such as health, education or social benefits.
Although it was local elections, the result has made clear its consequences at the national level. A few months after arriving at the Ecuador of the Legislature, the Finns have taken its toll on the two parties that support the right -wing coalition government. The conservatives have lost leadership in the municipalities and have given land in the regions. The ultra -right, directly, has collapsed.
The message of the polls is high and clear: there is a latent rejection of social cuts and the economic management of the Executive. In a country with a strong welfare state -as well as highly valued -, the cuts applied in health, education and unemployment aids have made a dent, and many voters have decided to change course.
Participation has been low, as usual in this type of voting. In the municipal ones he has voted 54.2 % of the census and in the regional ones, 51.7 %.
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