FINLAND’S parliament today elected conservative Petteri Orpo as prime minister to head a four-party coalition that included the far-right Finns Party which plans a major crackdown on immigration.  

Parliament voted in favour of Orpo, who won the April elections and has been in thorny negotiations to build a coalition since then, by 107 in favour, 81 opposed and 11 absent.  

Orpo was to be formally appointed as prime minister later today by President Sauli Niinisto, taking over from Sanna Marin, whose Social Democrats finished third in the election behind Orpo’s National Coalition Party (NCP) and the Finns Party.  

In addition to the NCP and the Finns Party, the new coalition is made up of the smaller Swedish People’s Party (RKP) and the Christian Democrats.  

Orpo campaigned on an austerity ticket, vowing to cut spending by €6 billion over four years.  

The new coalition presented last week also announced a “paradigm shift” on immigration.  

It said it aimed to halve the number of refugees the Nordic country receives through the UN refugee agency from 1,050 a year to 500.  

It also aims to establish separate social security benefit systems for immigrants and permanent residents, which experts say could violate the constitution.  

Conditions for obtaining permanent residency and citizenship will also be tightened, Finns Party leader Riikka Purra added. – AFP, June 20, 2023.