Finish Prime Minister Sanna Marin was ousted in Sunday’s parliamentary election.
The left-leaning 37-year-old Helsinki native’s Social Democratic party received 19.9% of the vote in an election where the center-right National Coalition Party (NCP) collected 20.8% of all votes.
The Finns —a right-wing populist party — finished second, winning 20.1% of the parliamentary electorate. The race included 2,400 candidates from 22 parties. The NCP will control 48 seats in Finland’s 200-member parliament.
NCP leader Petteri Orpo, 53, is expected to become Finland’s next prime minister. He told the Associated Press Ukraine can expect continues support for Ukraine.
“Go away from Ukraine because you will lose,” Orpo warned Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Finland, Russia’s northern European neighbor, intends to join NATO. Russian state media reportedly said in June that “military infrastructure” established in Finland would compel Russia to “raise the same threats for those territories where threats have arisen for us.”
Marin came to power in 2019. She conceded defeat Sunday, noting Social Democrats won 43 seats in parliament, which still makes it a significant voice in Finnish government. The NCP’s successful campaign against Marin focused on economics and job creation. Orpo now faces the challenge of trying to work with Marin’s party and The Finns, whom Marin called “openly racist” in a January debate, according to CNN.
Marin is the youngest prime minister to have governed Finland’s 5.5 million people. She was criticized by political rivals in August after video of her partying vigorously with friends went viral. One member of parliament called for the P.M. to take a drug test, which she passed.
“I have danced, sung, celebrated, done legal things,” Marin defended.