BRUSSELS – Prime Minister Sanna Marin and her Social Democratic Party lost a tight election in Finland on Sunday to a center-right party that focused on economic interests.
The National Coalition Party, led by 53-year-old Petteri Orpo, won the most votes in parliamentary elections, followed by the right-wing Finnish Party and the Social Democrats. But no party has a majority in the 200-seat body, and Mr Orpo will have a complicated task of assembling a governing coalition.
With almost 100 percent of the votes counted, Late Sunday night, the party of Mr. Orpo 48 seats with 20.8 percent of the vote, just ahead of the populist Finns, led by Riikka Purra, with 46 seats and 20.0 percent.
While Ms Marin Finland has come closest to a political rock star, her centre-left Social Democrats came in third, taking 43 seats and 19.9 percent of the vote.
The agriculture-based Center Party, which is shrinking, could be a crucial part of a new centre-right coalition, winning 11.3 percent of the vote and 23 seats.
It was a narrow defeat for Ms Marin, 37. Despite her popularity, the election revolved around the economy, and Mr Orpo managed to argue that Finland’s debt is too high and government spending needs to be cut.
Mr Orpo has the choice of joining the Finns or the Social Democrats, but he still needs the support of other smaller parties to form a government. During the campaign he was careful not to offend any of the major parties; Ms Marin denounced the Finns as racist.
Mr Orpo is expected to have his first chance to form a new government and presumably become prime minister. But given the tightness of the race, forming a new coalition government is expected to take many weeks of negotiations between the parties, some of whom have ruled out being in a coalition with the Finnish Party.
Ms. Marin has been a new face to a new generation and has made a big impact outside Finland, although she has been more controversial inside. She has received good marks for her performance as prime minister, especially on issues such as the war in Ukraine and NATO membership, and is more popular in the polls than her party.
Of Finland is about to join NATOhowever, the elections revolved mainly around economic issues: the size of the country’s debt, the future viability of its social security system and its migration policy. There, Ms. Marin and her Social Democrats came under more criticism and proved vulnerable.
“Democracy has spoken,” Ms Marin said after the results came in.
She said: “I believe the social democrats’ message was heard, and it was a values-based message. It was a great campaign and this is a great day because we did a good job. My congratulations to the National Coalition Party and the Finnish Party.”
Government spending was a major campaign theme.
With the economy contracting and inflation high, Ms. Marin’s detractors accused her of over-borrowing and failing to rein in government spending. Miss Marin, who became prime minister declined to specify austerity in 2019, instead highlighting economic growth, education, more employment and higher taxes as better answers.
The Finns Party pushed for an anti-elitist agenda, focused on limiting migration from outside the European Union, criticized Finland’s contributions to the European Union and pushed for a slower path to carbon neutrality. But it has tried to soften its image under 45-year-old Riikka Purra, who assumed the party leadership in 2021, and has used social media cleverly, making it more popular among young voters.
In general, as in recent elections in Italy and Sweden, the vote showed a shift to the right. Ms Marin’s party and two other members of her current five-party coalition, the Greens and the Left Alliance, had ruled out joining the government with the Finns. The Center Party joins a coalition similar to the current one.
Mrs. Marin’s private life, including videos of her drinking and dancing with friends, brought her fame abroad, but caused some controversy in socially conservative Finland. She even felt compelled to take a drug test to avoid criticism. But she remained unusually popular for a prime minister at the end of a parliamentary term, said Jenni Karimaki, a political scientist at the University of Helsinki.
Steven Erlanger reported from Brussels, and Johanna Lemola from Helsinki, Finland.