Samlingspartiet (The National Coalition Party, the equivalent of the Tories) became the largest party in the Finnish election with 20.8 percent of the vote, an increase of 3.8 percentage points compared to the previous election, and is thus tasked with trying to form a government. As party leader Petteri Orpo told Finnish public service Yle on election night, they will “negotiate a government with the economy as the core issue”. This is classic right-wing politics: cuts, privatization, tax breaks for the rich, etc.
This is also what Samlingspartiet has campaigned on: big cuts of public sector expenses. Ten percent of the state budget is in deficit, the national debt is 60 percent of GDP and therefore cuts are “needed”. Now that Finland is joining NATO and even more money is to be pumped into the machinery of militarism, it becomes “necessary” from the right-wing perspective to make cuts. There is a urgent need for resistance from below.
Increasing wealth gaps
As in the rest of the world, class divisions are growing, with the wealth produced by society increasingly concentrated in a few hands. The richest ten percent in Finland own 50 percent of the wealth, while the poorest 50 percent own only five percent, Yle reported on February 13, aptly stating that “the rich are only getting richer”. Between 1987 and 2019, the total wealth increased in Finland threefold, but almost all the increase went to the very richest.
Finland’s different coalition governments in the 2000s, led by different parties, have all have pursued policies that widen class and wealth gaps. For example, when the social democratic SPD came to power in 2005, the inheritance tax was abolished.
And just like in Sweden, banks, pharmaceutical companies, electricity companies and other large corporations have made huge, soaring profits. Last year, for example, the Nordic bank Nordea increased its profits by 26% in Finland, and dividends to shareholders are increasing significantly from Nordea, UPM, Nokia and Cargotec, among others. The Finnish paper Hufvudstadsbladet aptly wrote on February 2 that “Companies pour dividends on shareholders — ‘2023 could be a good year’”. This is at a time when Finnish workers and low-paid workers are also suffering from a cost of living crisis.
Thus, the talk of “we have to make cuts” is pure nonsense — there is plenty of money, but in the wrong pockets. The problem is the capitalist system that all politicians and parties represent, whose task is to concentrate more and more of the surplus value in the pockets of the capitalists and the establishment at the expense of workers and low wage earners.
A racist right-wing government?
The most likely outcome is a ”blue-brown” government being formed with the racist Sannfinnländarna (”True Finns”, which is the equivalent of the Swedish racist far-right party Sverigedemokraterna), who became the second largest party in the election with 20.1 percent. They gained 2.5 percentage points compared to the previous election and campaigned on a “tightened immigration policy”.
As Swedish public service SVT’s Finland correspondent Liselott Lindström commented on the election results, “Finland is taking a real right turn in terms of values”, and continued:
– It is becoming a little more closed in, a little more conservative. At least if you look at the policies of Sannfinnländarna, which are mainly about stopping immigration.
Sannfinnländarna, like Sverigedemokraterna, blame all problems on immigration and refugees. However, Finland accepts extremely few refugees; in 2021, only 1,050 quota refugees were accepted. This only further demonstrates that no matter how strict a country’s immigration policy is, it does not stop cuts and worsening conditions for all workers. Racism is a tool to split, divide and rule, where “the others” are scapegoats for all of society’s problems — which are deliberately created by right-wing policies.
Where were the left?
The Finnish Social Democrats in the SPD, which before the election governed the country in a five-party government, came third with 19.9 percent. They also increased by 2.2 percentage points compared to the last election. And it is a trend that there are now three parties that are the major parties in Finland, all of which have made progress and where the other parties are significantly smaller. The fourth largest party was the Center Party with 11.3 percent, which fell by 2.5 percentage points.
For socialists, as in Sweden, there was no anti-militarist, anti-capitalist alternative in the Finnish election. Vänsterförbundet (The Left Alliance) supported joining NATO and increased military spending. The Swedish Vänsterpartiet (Left Party) has also done the latter, in a violation of everything socialists are supposed to stand for.
Vänsterförbundet received only 7.1 percent and fell by 1.1 percentage points. In a similar trend to Sweden, Vänsterförbundet maintained its share of the vote in the big cities while losing heavily in the northern part of the country, for example. Sannfinnländarna also made strong gains there.
The biggest loss was for the Greens, which fell by 4.5 percentage points to 7.0 percent.
Svenska Folkpartiet (The Swedish People’s Party) gained 4.3 percent, as did the Christian Democrats. The new right-wing party Rörelse Nu received 2.4 percent.
Which way forward?
Many are now talking about a sharp turn to the right, which is likely. With a Finnish version of a Swedish blue-brown government, the already right-wing policy will be turned up to eleven. But it’s not like the SPD and the five-party government were left-wing. Whoever had won the election, militarism, increasing class divisions and right-wing policies would have been on the agenda. In this way, the situation remains very similar to Sweden.
Finland, like Sweden, needs a movement of movements linked to the traditions of the socialist struggle, which can create a real party for the working class that fights against militarism, class divisions and right-wing politics.
