With the three major parties polling neck and neck, Finland’s general election was expected to come to a ‘close Finnish’; alas, leading ahead with 0.7% of the vote and securing 48 seats in the 200 strong Parliament, it was a victory for the centre-right Kokoomus and its leader Petteri Orpo. The populist anti-immigration Finns picked up 46 seats, leaving Sanna Marin and her Social Democratic Party in third place with 43 seats in Parliament.
That’s not all: The rest of the parties in Sanna Marin’s government coalition were clear losers. The Centre lost 8 MPs, the Greens lost 7 and the Left Alliance lost 5 seats; a clear rejection by the voters of the outgoing Left government coalition.
But how did one of the European Left’s political superstars in terms of social and media following come to conceding defeat?
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