Helsinki (EFE).- The Eduskunta (Finnish Parliament) elected this Tuesday as the new Prime Minister of Finland Petteri Orpo, the leader of the conservative Kokoomus party, winner of the legislative elections on April 2, who will govern alongside the far-right and two other small right-wing parties.
Orpo, 53, received the support of 107 of the 200 deputies that make up the Eduskunta, while 81 opposition parliamentarians voted against and the rest were absent from the investiture session.
The new prime minister will lead a government made up of conservatives, the far-right True Finns, the Swedish People’s Party (SFP) – representative of Finland’s Swedish-speaking minority – and the Christian Democrats, a coalition that has an absolute majority of 108 deputies.
The most conservative government in recent history
The new Executive – the most conservative in the country’s recent history, according to local media – is made up of twelve women and seven men, an even larger female majority than that of the outgoing center-left government led by the Social Democrat Sanna Marin.
In addition to the Head of Government, the Kokoomus party, which won 48 deputies in the recent elections, will take charge of seven ministries, including Foreign Affairs, Defense, Environment, Labor and Culture.
The Foreign Ministry will be held by the Vice President of the Conservative Party, Elina Valtonen, while the Defense Ministry will fall to Antti Häkkänen, also Vice President, who will be in charge of integrating Finland’s defensive systems into NATO after its recent entry into the Alliance.
Seven portfolios for the extreme right
The far-right party True Finns, the country’s second largest with 46 seats, will also have seven portfolios, including Finance -which will be occupied by its leader, Riikka Purra-, Interior, Justice, Foreign Trade and Health.
In this way, this national-populist and eurosceptic party takes control of several key positions in the Finnish Government and will have great weight when it comes to dictating economic and immigration policies.
In addition, the presidency of the Eduskunta will fall to the former leader of the party, Jussi Halla-aho, Purra’s mentor and representative of the most xenophobic wing of the formation, who was sentenced in 2012 for publishing anti-Islamic opinions on his personal blog.
The SFP, a small party that has been in all the Finnish Executives of the last half century, except one, will correspond to the Ministries of Education, European Affairs and Sport, although the latter only for half a legislature.
The other half will be in the hands of the smallest partner in the coalition, the Christian Democratic Party, which will also take charge of the Agriculture portfolio.